ANYTHING GOES: A MUSICAL COMEDY BY COLE PORTER

Coming to WCCT  July 11,12,13 & 18,19,20, 2008

 

Background notes, Plot synopsis, musical numbers and scenes, cast list

 

 COLE PORTER (1891-1964) His first songs and musicals were presented at Yale where he was an undergraduate.  His yearbook entry read: “Porter expects to enter the Harvard Law School.”  He did go to Harvard, but shortly transferred to the music department where he stayed, so to speak, permanently.  He wrote the music and lyrics for more than 50 musicals and movies during his illustrious career.  At age 46 both legs were injured in a riding accident, which, in spite of the pain he would suffer the rest of his life, did not interfere with his work. He actually wrote more musicals and movie scores after the accident than before.  In addition to ANYTHING GOES, a few of his better know works include: The New Yorkers; Gay Divorcee; Jubilee; Born to Dance; Red, Hot and Blue; DuBarry was a Lady; Panama Hattie; Around the World in Eighty Days; the Pirate; Kiss Me, Kate; Can-Can; Out of This World; Silk Stockings; High Society.

 

  Cole Porter’s score for his 1934 Broadway musical ANYTHING GOES is one of the most glorious in the history of the American Musical theater.  The story that goes with it was originally written by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse (then famous for their work with Jerome Kern on the Princess Theater musicals.)

  The plot revolved around an explosion on board a luxury liner, a comic event that became decidedly unfunny when 134 people were killed in a fire on the steamship Morro Castle.  A rewrite was necessary, but the show was scheduled to begin rehearsals immediately, and Bolton and Wodehouse had sailed for Europe.  So Howard Lindsay, the show’s director, enlisted the help of press agent Russel Crouse.  Together they reworked the script at breakneck speed, finishing the last scene on the train up to Boston, where the show was to open for its out-of-town tryout.  ANYTHING GOES was a smash hit, and Lindsay and Crouse went on to write a string of classic shows, including Life With Father, State of the Union, and The Sound of Music.  But, because of the time constraints they had been working under, they were never quite satisfied with their first collaboration.

 

   More than 50 years later, the book for ANYTHING GOES was rewritten by Timothy Crouse,

( Russel’s son) and John Weidman, (son of another noted book writer, Jerome Weidman) for Lincoln Center Theater’s 1988 revival production.  While adhering to the general shape of the Linsay/Crouse version of 1934, Crouse and Weidman rethought the script, tightening the plot and placing new emphasis on character development.  This is the version we’ll be presenting in summer of 2008.

  A number of songs from the original score of ANYTHING GOES were restored for the revival:  There’s no Cure Like Travel; The Gypsy in Me; Buddy, Beware; the introduction of Public Enemy Number One and Easy to Love.  (Easy to Love was written for the actor who originally played Billy, William Gaxton, who wouldn’t sing it.  Two years later Jimmy Stewart introduced it in the film Born to Dance.)

  Four Porter songs were added to the production: It’s De-Lovely; Friendship; I want to Row on the Crew; and Goodbye, Little Dream, Goodbye.  It’s De-Lovely was introduced by Ethel Merman and Bob Hope in the l936 musical Red, Hot, and Blue–a musical also written by the team of Porter, Lindsay and Crouse.  And Merman and Bert Lahr sang Friendship in DuBarry Was a Lady, the last musical to open to open on Broadway in the 1930s. 

  Porter composed I Want to Row With the Crew for the 1914 Yale show Paranoia.. Goodbye, Little Dream, Goodbye, according to Porter’s diary, was written March 11, 1936, for Frances Langford to sing in Born to Dance.  The song was not used in the film.  Instead, Ethel Merman sang it during the Boston tryout of Red, Hot and Blue, but it was deleted before the show opened in New York in Ocotber.  Two months later, Yvonne Printemps introduced it in the London production of O Mistress Mine.

                                                             THE STORY

   ANYTHING GOES begins late at night in a smoky Manhattan bar.  Billy Crocker, a handsome stockbroker’s assistant, has forgotten his date with Reno Sweeney, the sexy evangelist-turned-nightclub singer.  He explains that he’s been running errands for his boss, Elisha  J. Whitney, who is sailing to London in the morning.  Reno, who is sailing on the same ship as Whitney, forgives Billy, and invites him to sail with her (I GET A KICK OUT OF YOU.))  Billy declines–he’s in love with another woman and must remain in New York to pursue her.

  The next morning the luxury liner SS American is preparing to sail.  Reporters complain to the chagrined Captain about the lack of celebrities among the arriving passengers: no noteworthies, except the notorious Reno Sweeney.  They brighten at the entrance of the famed debutante Hope Harcourt.  Hope is accompanied by her widowed mother, Evangeline, and by a wealthy Englishman Lord Evelyn Oakley, whom she announces she will marry aboard ship.

  Billy arrives to see Mr. Whitney off–but then he spots Hope, the woman he loves.  He decides to stow away, so he can convince Hope to marry him instead of Lord Evelyn. There are two other stowaways aboard: Moonface Martin, a second-rate gangster, disguised as a minister, and Erma, the girlfriend of his partner-in-crime, “Snake Eyes Johnson”–Public Enemy No. 1.  The “all ashore” is called; “Snake Eyes” has missed the boat.  Erma gives Billy his phony passport and ticket.  The ship pulls out to sea with the passengers and crew singing THERE’S NO CURE LIKE TRAVEL/ BON VOYAGE. 

  That evening Reno discovers Billy on deck and learns that the woman Billy loves is on the ship too.  But she doesn’t hold that against him. In fact, when Billy admits that a debutante like Hope may be out of his league, Reno gives him a pep talk (YOU’RE THE TOP).  Feeling braver, Billy seeks out Hope, who is both thrilled and horrified to find him on board.  She insists she has to marry Lord Evelyn; Billy insists she has to marry him (EASY TO LOVE).  Meanwhile, Mr. Whitney has developed and amorous interest in Hope’s mother.  In his cabin he prepares for what he hopes will be a romantic tryst (I WANT TO ROW WITH THE CREW). 

  The next morning four crew members entertain the passengers on deck (SAILORS’ CHANTEY).  The Captain, having learned that Public Enemy No. 1 is hiding on board, instructs his sailors to ferret out this “master of disguise”.  Billy,  however, is wearing an ill-fitting sailor suit that fools no one.  Reno recognizes him immediately and also sees through Moonface’s minister get up.  Old friends,  Reno and Moonface work out a plan to help Billy get Hope: Reno will vamp Lord Evelyn and Moonface will blackmail him into breaking his engagement with Hope.  Moonface tells Reno they should have teamed up years ago.  She agrees–after all they’re two of a kind (FRIENDSHIP).

  The plan to blackmail Lord Evelyn backfires.  Reno decides that “Evie” is “ kinda cute” and can’t go through with the caper.  Moonface and Billy adopt new disguises and try to convince Hope’s mother that Lord Evelyn is really a deranged imposter, escaped from Bedlam.  This scheme also fails, when Hope exposes Billy, who exits, pursued by sailors.  Billy, undaunted, sneaks back to romance Hope (IT’S DE-LOVELY).  This time she melts.  Unfortunately, having abandoned his disguise, Billy is set upon by crew members.  They’ve finally caught Public Enemy No. 1!  Rather than clap him in irons, however, the Captain–ever eager to satisfy the passengers’ hunger for celebrities–makes Billy the honorary captain of the ship.  Reno, noting how “times have changed,” leads the company in a rousing tap-filled ANYTHING GOES.

  ACT TWO opens that evening at the Captain’s table.  Billy and Moonface are serenaded by the passengers and crew (PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE).  Dinner is followed by one of Reno’s sensuous “sermons” (BLOW, GABRIEL, BLOW), during which all the passengers confess their sins, including Lord Evelyn, who admits to a “romp in the rice” with a certain “Little Plum Blossom” when he visited China some years ago.  Billy confesses too: he’s not really the famous criminal they all  thought he was.  The crowd turns on him, and he and Moonface are dragged off to the brig. Hope finally admits to herself that she’s in love with Billy–too late. (GOODBYE, LITTLE DREAM, GOODBYE).

  In the ship’s brig, Moonface tries to cheer Billy up (BE LIKE A BLUEBIRD).  Billy is unmoved, until Erma arrives with a note from his beloved: “Dearest darling, I love you so, but what good does love do when there is no hope?  Love, Hope.”   Billy knows then that things will work out somehow (ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT).  Meanwhile, on deck, Reno encounters Lord Evelyn, who is composing a poem to his beloved.  He confides to Reno that he’s fallen for her, but that his family’s code of honor requires that he marry Hope.  When Reno questions how his “romp in the rice” fits in with the Oakleigh code, he discloses a deep, dark secret (THE GYPSY IN ME). 

  The morning of the wedding and the sailors surround Erma imploring: “We’re going to have a wedding, why not two?”  Erma wonders if they’ve considered what married life with her might be like (BUDDY, BEWARE). Finally, the big moment arrives, and all are assembled for the wedding.  Billy and Moonface–who’ve escaped from the brig dressed as Chinese–interrupt the ceremony to insist that Lord Evelyn make an honest woman of Little Plum Blossom (actually Reno, in disguise).  In a triply happy ending  Hope marries Billy, Reno marries Lord Evelyn, and Hope’s mother marries Mr. Whitney. (I GET A KICK OUT OF YOU/ANYTHING GOES–REPRISES). 

  

                                                MUSICAL NUMBERS

            ACT ONE

Scene1: a bar

I Get a Kick Out of You                       Reno Sweeney

No Cure Like Travel                            Sailor, girl and ship’s crew

 

Scene 2:  Ship’s Deck

Bon Voyage                                         Company

 

Scene 3: Ship’s Deck

You’re The Top                                   Reno and Billy Crocker

Easy to Love                                        Billy

 

scene 4: Mr. Whitney’s Cabin              

I Want to Row With the Crew              Elisha Whitney

 

Scene 5: Ship’s deck

Sailors’ Chantey                                   Chantey Quartet

Friendship                                            Reno and Moonface Martin

 

Scene 6: Lord Evelyn’s Stateroom                               

 

Scene 7: Ship’s Deck

It’s Delovely                                         Billy and Hope Harcourt

 

Scene 8: Ship’s Deck

Anything Goes                          Reno and Company

 

            ACT II

 

Scene 1: Ship’s Nightclub

Public Enemy Number One                   Company

Blow, Gabriel, Blow                             Reno and Company

Goodbye, Little Dream, Goodbye         Hope   

 

Scene2: the Brig

Be Like A Bluebird                               Moonface

All Through the Night                            Billy, Hope, Men

 

Scene 3: Ship’s Deck

The Gypsy In Me                                 Lord Evelyn Oakleigh

 

Scene 4: the Brig

 

Scene 5:  Ship’s Deck             

Buddy, Beware                                    Erma and Sailors

I Get a Kick Out of You/

Anything Goes (reprises)                       Company

 

                                     CAST (In order of appearance)

 

Louie

Elisha Whitney

Fred

Billy Crocker

Reno Sweeney

Young Girl

Sailor

Captain

Purser

Purity

Chastity

Virtue

 Minister

Luke

John

Hope Harcourt

Mrs Evangeline Harcourt

Lord Evelyn Oakleigh

Erma

Moonface Martin

Mrs. Wentworth Frick

Ship’s Crew, Passengers, Reporters, Photographers, and G-men