2002 : Anything Goes
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2002 : Anything Goes |
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Anything GoesMusic and lyrics by Cole Porter. Original book by PG Woodhouse and Guy Bolton. New book by Timothy Crouse, John Weidman, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Tuesday 29 November - Saturday 3 December 1994. Curtain up 7:30pm. |
| Come aboard with us on the transatlantic liner SS American as she sets sail from 1930's New York bound for Europe. Meet fellow passengers Reno Sweeney, a gospel singer with a hot line in nightclub routines; her boyfriend Billy Crocker, who still carries a torch for debutante Hope Harcourt; and Moonface Martin, a bumbling second rate gangster with dreams of the big time. Swept along on one of Cole Porter's most glorious musical scores - songs include 'I Get A Kick Out Of You', 'You're The Top', 'Easy To Love', and the storming title number - when we ask you to join the party, you're bound to answer ... 'Anything Goes!' |
About The Show
Producer Vinton Freedley originally wanted George and Ira Gershwin to write a show called 'Hard To Get'. At that time they were too busy writing 'Porgy and Bess', so it was time for a change of name for the show to 'Bon Voyage' and a change in the writing team. The original concept of 'Anything Goes' started to take shape in Le Touquet, France, in June 1934. Cole Porter, P.G. Wodehouse, and Guy Bolton gathered to write a musical about a cruise ship which gets wrecked on a desert island. By August the final draft was finished. Then, in September, fate took a hand. A cruise ship - the Morro Castle - had a disastrous fire while at sea, with great loss of life. Naturally, the producer decided that perhaps the time wasn't right for a musical about a shipwreck, so in the best Broadway tradition, he ordered a rewrite and a name change. Wodehouse and Bolton were no longer available, so Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse were brought in to carry out the work, and 'Anything Goes', starring Ethel Merman, opened on Broadway in November 1934, and in London in June 1935. The modern version, still full of the style and wit of the original, was brought up to date in the 1980s by John Weidman and Russel Crouse's son Tim. It opened in America in October 1987 starring Patti Lupone, and in England in July 1989 starring Elaine Paige.
Director, Chris Brooke.
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