This weekend I saw the revival one of of my favorite Broadway musicals: Anything Goes. My high school put on the show during my senior year, so if I was the kind of person to say that something “holds a special place in my heart” I would say it about this show. I played Reno Sweeney: sassy broad, which was a pretty big departure from Megan Roppolo: shy high schooler. However, the directors did a good job of getting me to channel my inner Ethel Merman and Patti LuPone, and in the end it went pretty well. These days I mostly just remember how much I loved the songs and how fun it was to hang around with my musical friends every day after school for those months.
Even though I’m extremely familiar with the plot and the songs from watching hours upon hours of high school rehearsals, I had never actually seen the whole show before. Sutton Foster is starring as Reno Sweeney in this revival, sharing top billing with Joel Grey as Moonface Martin. In case you don’t know (I didn’t) Joel Grey is most famous for winning a Tony and an Oscar for playing the MC in Cabaret. Personally, I thought he was just okay as Moonface. For me, the most interesting part of his being in the show was my aunt telling me a story about how my great-aunt was friends with Joel Grey and would visit him backstage whenever he was in a show in New York. This new information means I am only four degrees removed from Kevin Bacon!
Also of note from the cast was Kelly Bishop from Gilmore Girls and Adam Godley, who is that-guy-you’ve-seen-in-a-bunch-of-stuff-but-whose-name-you-never-knew. Adam Godley was second only to Sutton Foster in hilariousness for me. I almost cried from laughing during their scene together!
There are three previous versions of Anything Goes: the original 1934 version starring Ethel Merman, a 1962 version that I only just learned about today when I read the Anything Goes wikipedia article, and the revamped version from 1987 when Patti Lupone was in it. Each version is actually quite different in terms of which songs are performed and in which order. The wiki has a really helpful table that outlines all the differences.
This 2011 version was the same as the 80s one, though it seemed like they may have added more dancing (which was a good thing, because the dancing was incredible). I also loved how Sutton Foster brought a little bit of nerdiness to Reno that I hadn’t seen before. It suits her well since [spoiler alert for a show that is over 70 years old] Reno does get together with the nerdiest guy on the boat! I guess I wasn’t the only one who liked it, seeing as she won a Tony.
Hopefully the show will come to Boston eventually. I really want to see it again!
For Science! 