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Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The "book" was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It introduced such songs as "You're the Top", "I Get A Kick Out Of You" and "Anything Goes".

Anything Goes was based on an idea by a producer, Vinton Freedley, who was living on a boat in Panama, having left the USA to avoid his debts. He selected the writing team, and the star, Ethel Merman. As the show was in preparation, a passenger ship, the SS Morro Castle, burned and over 125 passengers perished. The plot, which concerned a shipwreck, was deemed insensitive, and the show was almost entirely rewritten.

According to theatre legend, the show's new title, along with the title number, was born from the haste with which show was revamped: at a late night production meeting, an exasperated and over-worked member of the production team cried out "And just how in the hell are we going to end the first act?!"

"At this point," responded one of the producers, being more helpful than he realized, "anything goes!!"

The resulting story concerned the shenanigans below decks on a cruise ship bound for London from New York. On board: an evangelizing nightclub singer, Reno Sweeney (played by Merman); a love-sick stowaway, Billy Crocker (played by William Gaxton); and a second-rate gangster on the lam, Moonface Martin (played by Victor Moore). The show opened at the Alvin Theatre, New York City, on 21 November, 1934 and became the fourth longest-running musical of the 1930s.

In 1962, the script was revised to incorporate several of the changes from the movie versions. Most changes revolved around the previously minor character Erma, whose name was changed to Bonnie. This revision was also the first stage version of Anything Goes to incorporate "It's De-Lovely".

For the 1987 Broadway Revival, which starred Patti Lupone in the role of Reno Sweeney, John Weidman and Timothy Crouse (Russel's son) updated the book and re-ordered the musical numbers, borrowing Cole Porter pieces from other Porter shows, a practice which the composer often engaged in.

The musical enjoyed a West End revival in 2003 with the National Theatre's production starring Sally Ann Triplett and John Barrowman.

Synopsis

Billy Crocker, a young Wall Street broker, stows away on the S.S. American, in hopes of winning the heart of his beloved Hope Harcourt. His boss, Yale graduate Elisha J. Whitney, is also on board. He plans to relax before the tremendous sale of his own company's stock (or, in the 1962 version, to make an important business deal in England). Hope is on her way to England to be married to Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, a stuffy, hapless British nobleman. Stowing away with Billy are "Moonface" Martin, a gangster labeled "Public Enemy 13," and his friend Erma (originally named Bonnie); the two have disguised themselves as a reverend and a missionary, respectively, after stranding the ship's real reverend back at the port. On board, Crocker runs into his friend, nightclub singer Reno Sweeney, who resolves to help Billy win over Hope. Billy simultaneously learns the true identities of Moonface and Erma, and in exchange for his silence, they join the plot to break up Hope and Evelyn; as the show progresses, Hope, Evelyn, Billy, Reno, Elisha, Erma, and Moonface all end up in a variety of compromising positions with members of the opposite sex.

Songs and singers

The songlist for the Original 1934 Edition:
Act I
"I Get a Kick Out of You" (Reno Sweeney & Billy Crocker)
"There's No Cure Like Travel/Bon Voyage" (Company)
"All Through the Night" (Billy Crocker & Hope Harcourt)
"There'll Always Be a Lady Fair" (Sailor Quartet)
"Where Are the Men?" (Bonnie Letour, Chief Officer & the Girls)
"You're the Top" (Reno Sweeney & Billy Crocker)
"Anything Goes" (Reno Sweeney, Sailor Quartet & Company)
Act II
"Public Enemy Number One" (Company)
"Blow, Gabriel, Blow" (Reno Sweeney & Company)
"Be Like The Bluebird" (Moonface Martin)
"All Through The Night (Reprise)" (Billy Crocker & Hope Harcourt)
"Buddie, Beware" (Reno Sweeney)
"The Gypsy In Me" (Hope Harcourt & the Girls)

The songlist for the 1962 Revised Edition:

Act I
"You're the Top" (Reno Sweeney & Billy Crocker)
"Bon Voyage" (Company)
"It's De-Lovely" (Billy Crocker & Hope Harcourt)
"Heaven Hop" (Bonnie Letour)
"I Get A Kick Out Of You" (Reno Sweeney)
"Friendship" (Billy Crocker, Reno Sweeney & Moonface Martin)
"Anything Goes" (Reno Sweeney & Company)
Act II
"Public Enemy Number One" (Company)
"Let's Step Out" (Bonnie LeTour)
"Let's Misbehave" (Reno Sweeney & Sir Evelyn Oakleigh)
"Blow, Gabriel, Blow" (Reno Sweeney & Company)
"Be Like the Bluebird" (Moonface Martin)
"All Through the Night" (Billy Crocker & Hope Harcourt)
"Take Me Back to Manhattan" (Reno Sweeney & Her Angels)

The songlist for the 1987 Beaumont Revival Edition:

Act I
"I Get A Kick Out Of You" (Reno Sweeney)
"There's No Cure Like Travel" (Sailor & Girl)
"You're The Top" (Reno Sweeney & Billy Crocker)
"Bon Voyage" (Crew/Company)
"Easy To Love" (Billy Crocker)
"I Want To Row On The Crew"(Sailor Quartet)
"There'll Always Be A Lady Fair"(Elisha J. Whitney)
"Friendship" (Reno Sweeney & Moonface Martin)
"It's De-Lovely" (Billy Crocker & Hope Harcourt)
"Anything Goes" (Reno Sweeney & Company)
Act II
"Public Enemy Number One" (Company)
"Blow, Gabriel, Blow" (Reno Sweeney & Company)
"Goodbye, Little Dream, Goodbye" (Hope Harcourt)
"Be Like The Bluebird" (Moonface Martin)
"All Through The Night" (Billy Crocker, Hope Harcourt, & Sailor Quartet)
"The Gypsy In Me" (Lord Evelyn Oakleigh)
"Buddie, Beware" (Erma & Sailor Quartet)
"Finale - I Get A Kick Out Of You (Reprise)" (Company)
"Curtain Call - Anything Goes (Reprise)" (Company)

Both the 1962 revised edition and the 1987 Beaumont revival's performance rights are available through Tams-Witmark. The performance rights for the original 1932 edition are not available, but the 1987 Beaumont Revival is considered closer to the original script.

Movie versions

In 1936, Paramount Pictures turned Anything Goes into a movie musical. It starred Ethel Merman (again as Reno), with Bing Crosby in the (newly renamed) role of Billy Crockett. This movie version was most notable because it required some lyrical revisions to get Cole Porter's infamously saucy lyrics past the censor boards (only four of Porter's songs were kept in the movie: "Anything Goes, "I Get a Kick Out of You," "There'll Always Be a Lady Fair," and "You're the Top" — and all of them underwent substantial lyrical revision). Bing Crosby also threw his weight around behind the scenes, and wrestled four new songs from three new songwriters. Aside from "Moonburn," which sold records well for Bing, most of the replacement score was forgettable. When Paramount reissued the film, they retitled the movie Tops is the Limit.

The book was radically rewritten for another film version released in 1956. Though this movie again starred Bing Crosby, (whose character was once more renamed) Donald O'Connor, and comedian Phil Harris in a cameo, the new movie almost completely excised the rest of the characters, in favor of a totally new plot: showbiz partners Bill Benson (Crosby) and Ted Adams (O'Connor) some 20 years Crosby's junior, each travel to Paris to sign a dancer to star in their new show. The problem? There is only one role, and the men have unknowingly cast two dancers Patsy Blair (Mitzi Gaynor), Gaby Duval (Zizi Jeanmaire) It is up to the men to sort out their mess on the cruise back to America. The primary musical numbers ("Anything Goes", "You're the Top", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "It's De-Lovely" and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow") with updated arrangements appear in the film, while the lesser-known Porter songs were cut completely, and new songs, written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn, were substituted. These substitutions ranged from the lively tap number by Donald O'Connor with bouncy children and as many bouncy balls ("You Can Bounce Right Back") to the crazy kitsch ("Second-hand Turban"). This version of Anything Goes was released on DVD in the fall of 2005. For full credited cast and crew see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048954/fullcredits

Popular culture

  • The song "Anything Goes" achieved a minor revival when it was used in the famous Monty Python's Flying Circus "Courtroom sketch". The Pythons also introduced a completely different song called "Anything Goes" by "the other Cole Porter". ("Anything goes in, anything goes out, fish, bananas, old pyjamas, mutton, beef and trout...")
  • One of the most widely-seen versions of the song Anything Goes is the opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, where Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) sings the title song in Cantonese at a Shanghai club Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is visiting. The first part of the Cantonese lyrics is: Kahn, James (1984) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Ballantine Books. ISBN 0345314573 (Cantonese lyrics excerpt from book)
Yi wang si-i wa ye kan dao
Xin li bian yao la jing bao jin tian zhi Dao
Anything goes.
  • In the play "Dancing at Lughnasa" by Brian Friel the song "Anything Goes" plays on the radio in act 2 and is then sung by Gerry Evans while dancing about in the back yard and lane.

External links

References

Anything Goes! is also a retail chain of discount stores operating in North West London, United Kingdom.

Broadway musicals | Ella Fitzgerald songs | American musicals | Works of P. G. Wodehouse | Compositions by Cole Porter

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Anything Goes".

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