Even 90 years after its Broadway debut, Cole Porter’s rollicking shipboard romance Anything Goes still has its sea legs–especially with the incandescent Meghan Murphy making waves as naughty nightclub singer Reno Sweeney in this Porchlight Music Theatre production at the Ruth Page Center.
A fine crew of singers and dancers showcase several of Porter’s contributions to the Great American Songbook, from show opener “I Get a Kick Out of You” to “You’re the Top,” “It’s De-lovely,” “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” and “Friendship.” The title number, a euphoric first-act climax, showcases Murphy’s talent for belting out songs to the cheap seats while the entire company sings and dances around her, nailing Tammy Mader’s crowd-pleasing choreography (there’s lots to love here for fans of tap). Murphy’s not the only one catching her breath as the house lights go up at intermission.
This is a revision of the original musical, with added songs and a new book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman updating the work of P.G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. All those chefs in the kitchen cook up a passable libretto that reliably delivers slapstick laughs, like when a gangster uses his tommy gun to win a trap-shooting contest on the cruise from New York to London where most of the story takes place. Playing that gangster, “Moonface” Martin, who can’t even make the Public Enemy Top Ten, is amiable Steve McDonagh, who proves to be a better matchmaker than he is a crook when he decides to help a stowaway win over the woman of his dreams.
That stowaway, Billy Crocker (a charming, quick-witted and vocally gifted Luke Nowakowski), had one hot-cha evening with debutante Hope Harcourt (Emma Ogea) and can’t get her out of his heart. Which is a problem, as she’s heading to England with Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (a very funny Jackson Evans) with plans to get married on their arrival.
Madcappery, of course, ensues, complete with nightclub dancers in sequined dresses (costume designer Rachel Boylan nails the lush period look throughout), a fake priest, multiple cons involving ludicrous disguises and cover stories, larcenous street urchins and a crack seven-piece jazz band keeping time on the upper deck while everyone else is trying to make time below.
It’s those delightful, de-lovely songs that keep the show steaming in the right direction and give the main players several great showcase moments. These are usually funny and fun (Moonface and Reno’s “Friendship” duet is a treat), but they’re sometimes poignant, as with Hope’s “Goodbye, Little Dream, Goodbye,” in which Ogea, a junior studying musical theater at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, leaves quite an impression with her lovely singing voice. She’s definitely a name to watch. But Murphy? Her ship has already come in, and she brings the boisterous, bawdy heat throughout the show, a welcome development in the frigid depths of a Chicago winter.
Anything Goes runs through March 6 at the Ruth Page Center.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Liz Lauren
