LET'S be upfront and obvious. It is de-lightful, it is de-licious, and it is de-lovely. Cole Porter's Anything Goes is one of the most entertaining and joyous musical comedies ever produced.
You can see it in a precision-perfect production at the National Theatre in London, or you can see it in an all-stops-out glitzy Broadway rendition where it is wowing audiences again, or you might see it at any number of high school productions across the globe with cardboard scenery, dodgy singing and op-shop costumes.
But wherever you see it and in whatever state of dress Anything Goes still does now what The New York Times reported at its Broadway opening in 1934. ''Take it from me,'' first-nighter Sol Herman who dealt in women's apparel told the Times, ''the Depression is over''.
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The show's screwball plot set on a trans-Atlantic cruise ship was co-devised by P. G. Wodehouse and its vintage champagne Cole Porter songs include You're the Top, I Get a Kick out of You, De-lovely and You'd Be So Easy to Love. These ingredients effervesce into a such an instant cure for winter melancholy it's a wonder the show is not wheeled out every July.The last time Melbourne saw a full-scale production was in 1987 when it starred Simon Burke and Geraldine Turner. It was back again in 2001 when Jeannie Pratt's Production Company staged it in a concert version at the Arts Centre.
Tonight the Production Company opens a new concert version in one of its series of pop-up musicals it produces for super-short seasons at the Arts Centre's State Theatre. Here devotees of American musicals rub shoulders over five days of performances with what always seems to be an entire division of Visy employees in the audience. (Mrs Pratt's late husband Richard Pratt founded the global packaging and recycling company and she continues to stand at the top of the Arts Centre's escalators at opening night to personally greet the ticket holders.)
This Anything Goes features a new generation of musical comedy performers. Many of them are recent graduates from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts but who have quickly become noticed in cabaret circles and in the Melbourne Theatre Company musicals The Drowsy Chaperone last year and Next to Normal in May. The director of Next to Normal, Dean Bryant, and its choreographer Andrew Hallsworth are directing the Anything Goes core acting ensemble of 12.
They include Amanda Harrison (Elphaba in Wicked) as evangelist-turned nightclub dame Reno, Todd McKenney as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, Christie Whelan (last seen in Xanadu and Britney Spears: The Cabaret), and Wayne Scott Kermond as the on-the-lam crook Moonface Martin. The WAAPA alumni include Christy Sullivan (Next to Normal) as heiress Hope Harcourt and Alex Rathgeber as love-struck young stockbroker Billy Crocker. The names of the roles give an idea of the farcical, madcap story that features ridiculous disguises, copious tap dancing, whip-smart dialogue and Porter's witty songs. The New Yorker apparently once suggested You're the Top was a song that ''summarised American civilisation''.
At one stage, the full cast of 28 are tapping on stage in front of the 17-piece orchestra that makes for tight moves and tighter timing. The shoestring production budget for the short seasons allows only two weeks of rehearsal, which means the performers have been preparing their roles at home in front of the mirror or, in the case of Christy Sullivan, in front of the DVD player .
''It is a bit of a whirlwind,'' Sullivan, 24, said. ''You have to do your research and find out what your character is about before the rehearsal because there is not enough time to pull it out once you're in there.''
Part of her research has been sitting in front of the DVD player to perfect her uppity American accent as ingenue Hope Harcourt. ''I've been watching a lot of Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn films,'' Sullivan said. ''I'm going for an old-school rounded American accent. It's mid- Atlantic, which is American but they don't pronounce the r's as much.''
The show is new to Sullivan, who has never seen it staged, and she has avoided looking at the old film versions so as not to influence her reading of the role.
''This is such an old-school musical. The story is so silly and the plot is just ridiculous.''
Anything Goes is at the State Theatre at the Arts Centre from tonight until Sunday afternoon.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/musicals/all-aboard-for-hijinks-20110719-1hnet.html#ixzz1SciZFdjW
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