©Ottawa Citizen June 14, 2004 Anything Goes is Still Piffle, But Stratford Makes it Sparkle by Jamie Portman
STRATFORD, Ont. - The Stratford Festival's stellar revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes is the sort of entertainment that brings an instant smile to your face and a spring to your walk when you leave the Avon Theatre to return to the dreary world outside. Inside it's all fizz and sparkle and unharnessed exuberance--as exemplified in a first-act finale that sees virtually the entire cast, led by a high-stepping Cynthia Dale, honour the title song with an explosion of tap dancing worthy of Broadway at its best. In brief, the production that romped onto the Avon boards last week is a gilt-edged triumph, thanks to the buoyant direction and choreography of Anne Allan, working here with a terrific cast, and to the spirited contribution of musical director Berthold Carriere, whose 17-piece pit band provides a transport of delight. Still, when it comes to story, this 70-year-old show is a piece of mindlessly cheerful piffle about frustrated love and mistaken identities set on an ocean liner bound for London. Despite a revised 1987 book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman, it continues to be piffle, albeit with a bit more glitz and gloss. Still, it remains true to its period, with its stock characterizations and unrepentantly corny humour -- not to mention its cheeky disregard of political correctness. You therefore have to deal with Anything Goes on its own terms and revel in its uninhibited tomfoolery and its unexpected one-of-a-kind pleasures -- for example, the spectacle of Cynthia Dale, the first lady of Stratford musicals, suddenly going "quack, quack, quack" and "woof, woof, woof" at the audience The indefatigable Dale is doing double duty at Stratford this season, playing straitlaced Salvation Army missionary Sarah Brown in the outstanding Guys And Dolls at the Festival Theatre and providing a striking contrast over at the Avon with her brassy portrayal of Reno Sweeney, sexy evangelist turned nightclub singer. This is the role that made a star of Ethel Merman, whose high-octane personality was exactly what Depression America needed to lift it from its gloom. For Dale it's a golden opportunity to offer further evidence of her versatility -- her considerable talent as a comedienne, a talent that extends to her infectious work as a hoofer, and her ability as a singer to deal with Cole Porter's witty lyrics and his treacherous musical and rhythmic structures. Songs like I Get A Kick Out Of You, Anything Goes or Blow Gabriel Blow, the soaring revival ditty that has Dale singing and kicking up a storm, are a litmus test for any musical theatre performer. Dale comes through with flying colours. Dale's costume changes are so numerous that we lose count, but designer Patrick Clark ensures they keep us interested as they run the gamut from shimmering elegance to uninhibited zaniness. Clark also has framed the action of the show in a lovely art deco evocation of a magnificent liner during the great days of ocean travel. The show is always fun to look at. All the performances are true to the giddy spirit of the material. Michael Gruber could have been spirited out of the '30s: he seems so much the quintessential old-fashioned romantic lead with his engaging work as Billy Crocker, the guy who's hopelessly in love with debutante Hope Harcourt and in despair over her impending marriage to English aristocrat Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Elizabeth DeGrazia plays Hope with the right measure of vacuous charm, Laird Mackintosh plays the blueblooded Lord Evelyn with stork-like comic expertise and an engaging dottiness. Patricia Collins, a specialist when it comes to haughtiness, is delightfully at home in the role of Hope's gold-seeking mother. And it's a pleasure to see a seasoned old pro like Douglas Chamberlain doing a near-sighted Mr. Magoo routine and thereby bringing renewed freshness to another stock character from the musical theatre of the '20s and '30s -- the eccentric millionaire tycoon. This already bubbling mix gets a couple more zesty ingredients in Jimmy Spadola's bouncy work as a pint-sized gangster named Moonface Martin and Sheila McCarthy, a chippy pleasure as his fast-talking moll, Emma. One can't imagine more wonderful company for a summer's afternoon. main Anything Goes 2004 page

©Ottawa Citizen
June 14, 2004

Anything Goes is Still Piffle,
But Stratford Makes it Sparkle
by Jamie Portman

STRATFORD, Ont. - The Stratford Festival's stellar revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes is the sort of entertainment that brings an instant smile to your face and a spring to your walk when you leave the Avon Theatre to return to the dreary world outside.

Inside it's all fizz and sparkle and unharnessed exuberance--as exemplified in a first-act finale that sees virtually the entire cast, led by a high-stepping Cynthia Dale, honour the title song with an explosion of tap dancing worthy of Broadway at its best.

In brief, the production that romped onto the Avon boards last week is a gilt-edged triumph, thanks to the buoyant direction and choreography of Anne Allan, working here with a terrific cast, and to the spirited contribution of musical director Berthold Carriere, whose 17-piece pit band provides a transport of delight.

Still, when it comes to story, this 70-year-old show is a piece of mindlessly cheerful piffle about frustrated love and mistaken identities set on an ocean liner bound for London. Despite a revised 1987 book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman, it continues to be piffle, albeit with a bit more glitz and gloss. Still, it remains true to its period, with its stock characterizations and unrepentantly corny humour -- not to mention its cheeky disregard of political correctness.

You therefore have to deal with Anything Goes on its own terms and revel in its uninhibited tomfoolery and its unexpected one-of-a-kind pleasures -- for example, the spectacle of Cynthia Dale, the first lady of Stratford musicals, suddenly going "quack, quack, quack" and "woof, woof, woof" at the audience

The indefatigable Dale is doing double duty at Stratford this season, playing straitlaced Salvation Army missionary Sarah Brown in the outstanding Guys And Dolls at the Festival Theatre and providing a striking contrast over at the Avon with her brassy portrayal of Reno Sweeney, sexy evangelist turned nightclub singer. This is the role that made a star of Ethel Merman, whose high-octane personality was exactly what Depression America needed to lift it from its gloom. For Dale it's a golden opportunity to offer further evidence of her versatility -- her considerable talent as a comedienne, a talent that extends to her infectious work as a hoofer, and her ability as a singer to deal with Cole Porter's witty lyrics and his treacherous musical and rhythmic structures. Songs like I Get A Kick Out Of You, Anything Goes or Blow Gabriel Blow, the soaring revival ditty that has Dale singing and kicking up a storm, are a litmus test for any musical theatre performer. Dale comes through with flying colours.

Dale's costume changes are so numerous that we lose count, but designer Patrick Clark ensures they keep us interested as they run the gamut from shimmering elegance to uninhibited zaniness. Clark also has framed the action of the show in a lovely art deco evocation of a magnificent liner during the great days of ocean travel. The show is always fun to look at.

All the performances are true to the giddy spirit of the material. Michael Gruber could have been spirited out of the '30s: he seems so much the quintessential old-fashioned romantic lead with his engaging work as Billy Crocker, the guy who's hopelessly in love with debutante Hope Harcourt and in despair over her impending marriage to English aristocrat Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Elizabeth DeGrazia plays Hope with the right measure of vacuous charm, Laird Mackintosh plays the blueblooded Lord Evelyn with stork-like comic expertise and an engaging dottiness. Patricia Collins, a specialist when it comes to haughtiness, is delightfully at home in the role of Hope's gold-seeking mother. And it's a pleasure to see a seasoned old pro like Douglas Chamberlain doing a near-sighted Mr. Magoo routine and thereby bringing renewed freshness to another stock character from the musical theatre of the '20s and '30s -- the eccentric millionaire tycoon.

This already bubbling mix gets a couple more zesty ingredients in Jimmy Spadola's bouncy work as a pint-sized gangster named Moonface Martin and Sheila McCarthy, a chippy pleasure as his fast-talking moll, Emma. One can't imagine more wonderful company for a summer's afternoon.

main Anything Goes 2004 page