[NEohioPAL] Review of national tour of "Anything Goes" at PlayhouseSquare

[Bob Abelman]

Everything goes right in touring production of 'Anything Goes'

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the Times on 10/11/12

 

 

Something rare and wonderful is playing at PlayhouseSquare.  

 

On the Palace Theatre stage is the revival of a 1930s musical that was the epitome of escapist entertainment so necessary in its Great Depression day.  When desperate times called for diversionary measures, "Anything Goes" offered silly scenarios easily resolved, smart conversation between attractive people, and a stage full of willful nonsense and wonderful music.  

 

Desperate times are here again and this 2011 Tony Award-winning musical is, once more, a welcome and necessary digression.

 

It is, of course, more than that.  

 

This play, this production of it, and the performances within it are of such high caliber that they embody all that is so great about the Great White Way.  This poster child for musical theater, in the first city on the first leg of its year-long national tour, will leave you breathless.

 

A romantic comedy with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, "Anything Goes" takes place on the deck of a cruise ship sailing from New York to England.  Billy Crocker is a stowaway, hoping to break up an engagement and win the heart of Hope Harcourt. She is sailing with her flamboyant English fiancé, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh.  Billy is aided and abetted by a second-rate gangster named Moonface Martin who is posing as a minister, his sailor-chasing moll Erma, and his old friend and featured nightclub singer Reno Sweeney.

 

This is delightfully lightweight stuff.  In fact, the play behaves like a classic farce with its group of outlandish characters, who find themselves in an awkward but fundamentally nonthreatening situation that transpires in one place over a short period of time, and simmers until done.

 

Much of the simmering comes courtesy of the score-a composite of brilliantly constructed musical numbers such as "You're the Top," ''I Get a Kick Out of You," ''Blow, Gabriel, Blow" and "Anything Goes" that have been extracted from other Cole Porter musicals and films.  Although the songs are often round pegs being fitted for square holes in the storyline, each is a masterpiece of music and verse that is as interesting and easy on the ear as it was 80 years ago.  

 

The production of this revival is directed and choreographed with astute attention to detail and with the obvious intention to delight by Kathleen Marshall.  So rigorously and finely polished is this show that you have to shield your eyes from the glare.  Squinting is highly recommended for the spectacular production numbers in the second act.

 

What really sells this show is that the performers are having a grand time performing it and their enthusiasm is contagious.  Lost in their revere, you find yourself grinning like an idiot throughout the production and noticing that those around you are squinting, grinning idiots as well. 

 

Also noticeable is that no one can take their eyes off of Broadway veteran Rachel York as Reno.  The role, and the playful period costuming by Martin Pakledinaz, fit like a velvet glove.  York's Reno is less brash and brassy than Sutton Foster, who originated the role in the Broadway revival.  Instead, everything she does is simple, subtle and impeccably timed, which makes you stare all the more for fear of missing something small and wonderful.

 

"Impeccably timed" also defines the comedy delivered by Fred Applegate as Moonface Martin as well as the superb performances by Erich Bergen as a very charming Billy Crocker, the adorable Alex Finke as Hope Harcourt, and original Broadway cast member Joyce Chittick as Erma.  The stage is lousy with top-notch talent who know how to work a room.  

 

Even the supporting cast is outstanding, including Dennis Kelly as a nearsighted and lusty Wall Street tycoon (and Crocker's boss) and Edward Staudenmayer as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, who is more in love with American slang than his American fiancé.  His hilarious "The Gypsy in Me" song and dance is an unexpected delight.  

 

These players are supported by a talented core of ensemble performers who execute the show's jaw dropping, Tony Award-winning choreography with incredible freshness and vitality.  Add to this the eye-popping Deco set design by Derek McLane and the outstanding musical direction by Jay Alger, and everything is right about this production of "Anything Goes."

 

Something rare and wonderful is playing at PlayhouseSquare.  Musical theater does not get any better than this.

 

"Anything Goes" continues through October 14 at PlayhouseSquare in downtown Cleveland.  For tickets, which range from $10 to $75, visit www.playhousesquare.com.
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