May 18 - June 4, 2011
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| Music & Lyrics by COLE PORTER Book by HOWARD LINDSAY & RUSSELL CROUSE All those wonderful Cole Porter songs – “I Get a Kick Out of You”, “You’re the Top”, “Blow, Gabriel, Blow!”, “Anything Goes” – and a hilarious script by Lindsay & Crouse (writers of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, CALL ME MADAM, LIFE WITH FATHER) all set in a charming LOVE BOAT-style plot! Revised and retooled many times over the decades, we bring you the very first production of the original 1934 Broadway version in over 50 years! |
| Reno Sweeney Billy Crocker Moonface Martin Hope Harcourt Elisha J. Whitney Lord Evelyn Oakleigh Mrs. Wadsworth T. Harcourt Bonnie LaTour Captain Purser Louie / FBI Agent / Sailor FBI Agent/Sailor Rev. Henry T. Dobson Luke John The Angels: Faith Charity Virtue Purity Honor Chastity |
| Costumes by Lighting by Choreography by Production Stage Manager Directed by |
| CAST |
FINNIE JESSON
SEAN CATHEROY
DAVID HAINES
ELIZABETH ROSE MORRISS
ERIC BOTOSAN
KEVIN MALCOLM
PATRICIA BYRNE
SUSAN SANDERS
LARRY GIBBS
KERRY WILKINS
DEAN ADEMA
ANDREW BYRNE
JIM CANALE
ANTHONY CHOW
RORY MOY
ANDREA STRAYER
HOLLY BURTON
STEPHANIE DOUGLAS
SARAH-LIIS JONES
LAUREN MAYKUT
KATIE RICHARDSON
SEAN CATHEROY
DAVID HAINES
ELIZABETH ROSE MORRISS
ERIC BOTOSAN
KEVIN MALCOLM
PATRICIA BYRNE
SUSAN SANDERS
LARRY GIBBS
KERRY WILKINS
DEAN ADEMA
ANDREW BYRNE
JIM CANALE
ANTHONY CHOW
RORY MOY
ANDREA STRAYER
HOLLY BURTON
STEPHANIE DOUGLAS
SARAH-LIIS JONES
LAUREN MAYKUT
KATIE RICHARDSON
| Production Team |
| Pictured (Left to right): Sean Catheroy, Finnie Jesson and David Haines |
May 24, 2011
Theatre review by Mark Andrew Lawrence
of the 1934 Cole Porter musical comedy Anything Goes. Joe Cascone searched out the 1934 script and score and
offers us a chance to see what Broadway audiences saw in the 1930’s.
Far from being dated, the original script plays as a delightful farce enlivened by some colorful characters. Cascone’s
direction keeps it brisk and amusing with the help of a fine cast who bring spark and vigor to the proceedings.
Boarding the SS. American, headed from New York to London are Reno Sweeney, an ex-nightclub singer turned
evangelist and her chorus girls (now called Angels); “Moonface “ Martin, Public Enemy #13 and his moll, Bonnie,
Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, two Chinese Christian converts, plus a group of celebrity seeking photographers and
reporters. The script by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse is tighter and funnier than most musicals of the era,
and Porter’s score still has plenty of zest.
Finnie Jesson plays Reno with a playful sense of irreverence. Porter wrote these songs for the show’s original
leading lady, Ethel Merman. Jesson has more warmth in her voice than Merman but still brings vitality to the show’s
title song and rouses everyone with “Blow Gabriel, Blow.”
As the ambitious gangster, Moonface Martin, David Haines gives another in a series of crowd-pleasing performances,
generating many laughs and delighting us with his cheer-up song “Be like the Bluebird.” His assistant Bonnie is
portrayed by Susan Sanders using a New Yawk kind of voice that drips with funny. Also very funny are the two
Chinese mischief-makers played by Anthony Chow and Rory Moy.
Eric Botosan brings comic bluster to his portrayal of stockbroker Elisha Whitney. Whitney’s assistant, Billy Crocker
is brash and self assured, but he reveals his deep infatuation with Hope Harcourt in the Porter ballad “All Through the
Night.” Sean Catheroy who plays Billy has a fine singing voice that accentuates Porter’s lovely melody. He also
smoothly delivers Porter’s laundry list of compliments in “You’re the Top” sung with Reno. Unfortunately, he gives
a rather undisciplined performance with a disconcerting habit of playing his scenes to the audience rather than to the
other players. This prevents him from developing any chemistry with Elizabeth Rose Morris who is delightfully
charming as Hope. She is being married off by her fortune-seeking mother (played with haughty dignity by Patricia
Byrne) to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, (Kevin Malcolm, who just for fun plays up the character’s foppishness.)
The musical accompaniment is provided by an intimate 6-piece ensemble conducted by Etienne Levesque that
recreates the musical style of the 1930s.
It would be easy to avoid Anything Goes thinking you have already seen the show, but this original version has rarely
been performed over the past 50 years and it’s a joyous treat from start to finish.
Theatre review by Mark Andrew Lawrence
of the 1934 Cole Porter musical comedy Anything Goes. Joe Cascone searched out the 1934 script and score and
offers us a chance to see what Broadway audiences saw in the 1930’s.
Far from being dated, the original script plays as a delightful farce enlivened by some colorful characters. Cascone’s
direction keeps it brisk and amusing with the help of a fine cast who bring spark and vigor to the proceedings.
Boarding the SS. American, headed from New York to London are Reno Sweeney, an ex-nightclub singer turned
evangelist and her chorus girls (now called Angels); “Moonface “ Martin, Public Enemy #13 and his moll, Bonnie,
Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, two Chinese Christian converts, plus a group of celebrity seeking photographers and
reporters. The script by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse is tighter and funnier than most musicals of the era,
and Porter’s score still has plenty of zest.
Finnie Jesson plays Reno with a playful sense of irreverence. Porter wrote these songs for the show’s original
leading lady, Ethel Merman. Jesson has more warmth in her voice than Merman but still brings vitality to the show’s
title song and rouses everyone with “Blow Gabriel, Blow.”
As the ambitious gangster, Moonface Martin, David Haines gives another in a series of crowd-pleasing performances,
generating many laughs and delighting us with his cheer-up song “Be like the Bluebird.” His assistant Bonnie is
portrayed by Susan Sanders using a New Yawk kind of voice that drips with funny. Also very funny are the two
Chinese mischief-makers played by Anthony Chow and Rory Moy.
Eric Botosan brings comic bluster to his portrayal of stockbroker Elisha Whitney. Whitney’s assistant, Billy Crocker
is brash and self assured, but he reveals his deep infatuation with Hope Harcourt in the Porter ballad “All Through the
Night.” Sean Catheroy who plays Billy has a fine singing voice that accentuates Porter’s lovely melody. He also
smoothly delivers Porter’s laundry list of compliments in “You’re the Top” sung with Reno. Unfortunately, he gives
a rather undisciplined performance with a disconcerting habit of playing his scenes to the audience rather than to the
other players. This prevents him from developing any chemistry with Elizabeth Rose Morris who is delightfully
charming as Hope. She is being married off by her fortune-seeking mother (played with haughty dignity by Patricia
Byrne) to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, (Kevin Malcolm, who just for fun plays up the character’s foppishness.)
The musical accompaniment is provided by an intimate 6-piece ensemble conducted by Etienne Levesque that
recreates the musical style of the 1930s.
It would be easy to avoid Anything Goes thinking you have already seen the show, but this original version has rarely
been performed over the past 50 years and it’s a joyous treat from start to finish.