Entertaining romp is simply de-lovely

Reporter: Paul Genty
Date published: 09 April 2015


Anything Goes, Opera House, Manchester to April 18.

THE plot of this 80-year-old musical comedy famously defeated even the talent of PG Wodehouse to make sense of it — and several lesser writers since have tried and failed too.

But that hardly matters when the tale of shipboard romance, mobsters, vicars, club singers and the aristocracy is as entertaining as in this production.

The trick is to let the story go over your head and wait for the tunes. It’s not too much of an imposition because this is Cole Porter’s side of things and as we know, he was really rather good at show tunes.

Here are at least a handful that have remained in the songbook since they were first heard — the title song, “I Get a Kick Out of You”, “You’re the Top” and “It’s De-Lovely” among them. And the title song and “Blow Gabriel Blow” manage to become full-on production numbers to close the first half and open the second respectively — and are mighty impressive given the vocal forces on offer.

This Sheffield Theatres production, directed by Daniel Evans, gives the show the full weight of the major rep company’s resources and beyond.

Foremost among those impressive vocal performers is West End star Debbie Kurup as cabaret queen Reno — the role that made Ethel Merman’s career.

A curiosity of “Anything Goes” is that the romantic leads aren’t, unusually, the stars. Matt Rawle and Zoe Rainey are cute as lovebirds Billy and Hope, but there is never any doubt that the supporting character of Reno is the star.

Kurup is brilliant in that first act closing number, equally strong both with voice and tap shoes at the start of the second, and has a wonderfully silly song and dance number with the Wodehouseian Lord Evelyn (the show-stealing Stephen Matthews).

The production is probably the best I have seen of this romp, both silly and sophisticated, with good comedy turns from Shaun Williamson as mobster Moonface and Simon Rouse as millionaire Whitney.

Ultimately the show is what it is, unpretentiously funny, silly and enjoyable, and here all three get pretty equal measure.