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June 9, 2004 Get a big kick out of Cole Porter by Martin F. Kohn |
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STRATFORD, Ontario -- No wonder Cole Porter's musical "Anything Goes" takes place aboard an ocean liner -- long before anyone sets foot onstage, all sorts of hands have been on deck. Start with Porter, add the four writers of the original 1934 script, the two writers who revised it for the 1987 revival and the folks who decided which songs to keep, to cut, to add. That latest version is the one they're using at Stratford, which means that the biggies from the original are retained: "I Get a Kick Out of You," "You're the Top," "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," "Anything Goes"; a couple of Porter hits from other shows are folded in: "Friendship," "It's De-lovely"; and a little ditty Porter wrote at Yale in 1914, "I Want to Row on the Crew," gets tossed in as well. It's hard to go wrong choosing Cole Porter tunes, but just in case you could, the showbiz gods have got Stratford's back: "Anything Goes" hits the boards at the Avon Theatre around the same time that "De-Lovely," a movie musical about Porter, is poised to hit big screens everywhere. Folks unfamiliar with Porter might suddenly become interested. Such interest is amply rewarded in Anne Allan's staging, a production that places all manner of apt hands (not to mention throats and feet) on the deck of the S.S. American as it sails from New York to Europe. The script is total froth; light and funny, but far short of the brilliant "Kiss Me, Kate," Porter's greatest show. A young man named Billy has stowed away in pursuit of his true love, Hope, a rich young woman who's about to marry an even richer English lord. Billy is aided by his friend, nightclub singer Reno Sweeney, and a gangster, Moonface Martin (public enemy No. 13, no less), who is disguised as a minister. All around them is your usual assortment of tap-dancing sailors, celebrity-obsessed ship's officers, rich travelers, Chinese acrobats... Cynthia Dale, as Reno Sweeney, sings and dances as if she had an inexhaustible supply of ability and energy (which she might); Michael Gruber, as Billy, is right up there with her. Laird Mackintosh, as the English lord, crafts a standout number out of "The Gypsy in Me," wherein the stuffy Britisher reveals his hitherto hidden wilder side. Large ensemble numbers sparkle, conjuring the Depression days of the show's origins, when actors (heck, nearly everyone) worked cheap and you could fill every inch and a couple of levels of a stage with talent.
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