You're the Top!

Hello everyone! By the time you're reading this, it will probably be super late in my terms as I saw the UK tour of Cole Porter's Anything Goes nearly a week ago now - I have just had no time until now since then to sit down and write my review up properly - but now I have had an amazing weekend of singing (and a bit of a tired voice) out of the way, here we go....

I saw Anything Goes at Manchester's Opera House last week - the opening night in Manchester to be exact. As I said, it was written by Cole Porter (music and lyrics), and is one of his most well known works. Premièring on Broadway way back in 1934 (!), starring a young Ethel Merman as nightclub singer Reno Sweeney (click here to remind yourself what she sounds like). It has been revived many times over the years, starring the likes of Patti LuPone and good old EP (Elaine Paige if you're new to this). This particular production was originally done in Sheffield over Christmas and directed by Daniel Evans (watch the Sondheim prom, he's the bald one).

So, without any more delay, let's get into it properly!

The outside of
Manchester's Opera House

Like Oklahoma! did, Anything Goes has a very simple story. Young Billy Crocker likes Hope Harcourt, who happens to be engaged to a rich English aristocrat. So he decides to sneak himself on the SS America on its way to England with the help of his friends Reno Sweeney and Public Enemy No.13 Moonface Martin to break off the engagement and win Hope back. And as I seem to say on a lot of these things, hilarity ensues.... Unlike Oklahoma! though, the execution didn't quite come through for me as well as it could have been, and the slow pace didn't help it too much either in that area, though there are some pretty good jokes and slapstick comedy - don't get me wrong, I did laugh out loud a few times.

The stage set ready for Act II and the
Blow Gabriel Blow number

If you love jazz and big band sounds then Anything Goes is great for you - you probably guessed that anyway, with it being a '30s show and all, but it's absolutely stuffed full with those kinds of sounds. A lot of the songs are pretty well known already. I did find myself realising I had heard of a few of them before, such as I Get A Kick Out Of You, Friendship and You're The Top. I have to say now while I remember that Blow Gabriel Blow is a weird number - it really could be taken as a religious song, but with an added burlesque dance sequence thrown in for good measure..... read the lyrics, find a video of it and figure it out for yourself. There were a couple of songs that made me pull a few faces.

Firstly, the tap number on the title song was INSANE, so well done everyone for pulling that off as it did NOT look easy. Secondly, Buddy Beware for me was really unnecessary - it really didn't add anything to it, and was just an excuse for Erma to shine - hec, she even said it herself! "This is MY number! I only get one!!!" The last one I have to mention in this area is De-Lovely. Don't get me wrong, the song itself was great, in fact, I really liked it. It was just... well..... what was with the dancing swimmers in the middle of it?! Were Billy and Hope standing on a stage in the middle of a pool? Is it normal for the SS America to have random people come and dance around in their swimming cossies? Or were they just in Billy and Hope's heads? I couldn't possibly answer that, and that's the problem with it really. It just felt really out of place and didn't add anything to the song, so in a way, the performance fell a bit flat.

Now, to finish, I would like to mention the performances that stood out for me. A quick mention goes to Stephen Matthews, who played Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, Hope's fiancé. This is really for his Gypsy In Me alone (as it was both funny and disturbing at the same time), but all throughout, he was pretty darn funny, especially when he was trying to learn American phrases and kept getting them wrong.

And the other two I have to mention are the leads. Firstly, Matt Rawle as Billy Crocker. I didn't know this until my family and I left the theatre and were in the car on the way home, that already had him on my iPod as Che in Evita - I digress. He sounded just like Malcolm and Tommy Merlyn (sorry, I'm a big Arrow fan), otherwise known as John Barrowman and Colin Donnell, who have both played the part before (so check them out on YouTube). Billy is a very cheeky character, and Mr. Rawle played it perfectly.
Finally, is the de-lovely *groan* Debbie Kurup as Reno Sweeney (see the picture to the right, she is the lady in red ->). She was fantastic; a great singer and dancer, she brought Reno to life. To be honest, I think Reno is a bit of a hard character to play. She's a bit of an oddball and doesn't feel like the main character, even if she's the one who the big names play. Despite that though, she got through to me, and so she deserves a mention. Well done Ms Kurup

Now it seems like I've given Anything Goes a fair bit of criticism in certain areas, and there's nothing wrong with that. For me, it just wasn't as good as other Golden Oldies I've seen recently such as Oklahoma! and Calamity Jane, mostly due to the slower pace of the story and some moments sticking up like a sore thumb as they're THAT out of place. Nevertheless, I am glad I have seen it. To me, watching Anything Goes is like picking a new rom-com to rent. Not exactly the best in the world, but you know that you're going to have a good time and you will be slightly happier by the end than you were before.

And I have decided to get some of the songs from it - not a full album, but just the well known songs. Who's playing Reno you asked? Maybe Patti, Elaine, Ethel Merman herself? Nope. None of them. I have had a good listen around and I'm going to go with the most recent Broadway revival in 2011 which had starred Sutton Foster as Reno. Just my personal opinion, that's all =)