'Anything Goes:' Cole Porter's songs still charm
BY NANCY STETSON nstetson@florida-weekly.com
"Anything Goes," currently playing at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, is an apt description of the musical's goings on. In this classic show from the 1930's, anything goes; it's as if everything is thrown into the pot - or plot.

COURTESY PHOTO "Anything Goes," on stage at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, is an apt description of the musical's goings on.

The cast includes a couple of gangsters on the lam, a socialite, a British lord about to get married, a sexy nightclub singer/evangelist, a couple of Chinese gamblers and a lovesick, headstrong stowaway.

It was all originally a vehicle for the great Ethel Merman and Cole Porter's luscious songs, tunes such as "You're the Top," "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," "I Get a Kick Out of You," "It's De-Lovely" and the title song, "Anything Goes."

This popular musical (which enjoyed a revival on Broadway in 1987 with Patti LuPone in the Merman role) is a curious mixture of lowbrow and highbrow. The plot, characters and humor are mostly lowbrow - mistaken identities, puns, one-liners and slapstick.

Michael Oberfield as Eli Whitney (no, not that Eli Whitney, who invented the cotton gin) provides lots of physical humor, first as a drunk, then as a guy who's lost his glasses. (But even with his glasses, he's fairly clueless.) He winds up making passes at some men, because he mistakes them for women - a curious plot device, given Porter's own proclivities.

Morgan Rose as Erma and Craig Victor as Moonface Martin provide yuks as dim-witted gangsters. Moonface pretends to be a priest while Erma steadily makes her way through the sailor population aboard the ship. The plus-sized Victor garners laughs while dancing about delicately in "Be Like the Bluebird," looking like a hippo dancing ballet in "Fantasia." Erma gets two well-deserved turns in the spotlight, singing "There'll Always Be a Lady Fair" and "Buddie, Beware" with her sailor friends, but somehow seems overlooked in this production.

The plot?

Well, it seems almost made up as it goes along.

Billy Crocker (Eddie Schnecker) is in love with Hope (Dionysia Williams), who's traveling across the Atlantic via ship with her fiancé, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (Dion Stover). So he becomes a stowaway to be near her, even though her fiancé and his boss are on the same ship.

Reno Sweeney (Carolyn McPhee), a sophisticated nightclub singer in love with Billy, is also on the ship, as are the abovementioned gangsters, Erma and Moonface.

The musical's considered a farce, but it doesn't come across that way in this production. Somehow, it doesn't pack enough punch, and I wish director/choreographer Tony Parise had given us more. I saw another production a few years ago, and seem to recall an almost endless succession of tap dance numbers. By the time this production gives us a big tap dance number, it's almost too late.

Ethel Merman knocked people out in her role as Reno, so McPhee has some big shoes to fill. She's got a great voice and personality plus, but McPhee's not a big belter. But she does have tremendous stage presence, rolling her eyes and flirting, hand on hip. She delivers her lines with great comedic skill. McPhee gives the show its sex appeal, and the action lags when she's not on stage.

Schnecker, as Billy, knows his way around a song. With his sweet, high tones, he's adept at delivering Cole Porter's lyrics and is charming as the musical's hero. You find yourself rooting for him.

Unfortunately, he's hampered by either a really bad haircut or an ill-fitting wig. (He appears bald in his head shot in the program, so perhaps it's the latter.)

Stover is sufficiently smug as the British Evelyn, but his continual misunderstanding of American sayings grows old quickly. To his credit, Stover does the best he can with the role, and actually grows more likeable as the story progresses.

But if the plot and its lines are lowbrow, the songs are highbrow, all the way. That's not to say they're not accessible. They're some of Porter's best songs, with the clever word play of "You're the Top," "It's De- Lovely" and "I Get a Kick Out of You."

It's worth sitting through the silly plot and bad puns to hear those songs delivered so well, especially by McPhee and Schnecker. And to hear the entire company sing "Anything Goes" is quite wonderful too.

McPhee, as Reno, wears some of the show's most sophisticated and attractive gowns. Unfortunately, costumer John White seems to ignore the other actors. Poor Williams, as Hope, is subjected to wearing horrible outfits that look like rejected bridesmaids gowns.

The set design by Kristian Perry is your basic ship with a two-storied deck, a nice composition of circles (portholes), vertical rectangles (doors, panels) and horizontal lines (the ship's railing). But a wall almost fell down during a recent show, and you could see hands sticking up overhead, trying to hold it up and put it back into place. And that's kind of an apt metaphor for this production: it holds up in some places, but not in others.

The show lags. But then McPhee sweeps out on stage, or you hear those wonderful Cole Porter lyrics, and you think: what does it matter? This right here is delightful and delicious.

If you go

>>What: "Anything Goes"

>>When: though April 5

>>Where: The Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, 1380 Colonial Blvd.

>>Cost: 25 to $52

>>Information: Call 278-4422 or go to www.broadwaypalm.com