Take a Trip with Cole Porter’s Anything Goes at The Western Stage

 

The Western Stage continues its 30th Anniversary on July 16th with Cole Porter’s classy, high seas farce Anything Goes. Come aboard the S.S. American, where you’ll get more than a carnival, you’ll get a downright circus complete with gangsters on the lam, mistaken identities, young love, and the de-lovely music of Cole Porter.  Anything Goes plays through August 6th on the main stage, Hartnell College Performing Arts Center. Performances are Fri and Sat at 8 pm, and Sun at 2 pm.  Purchase 1 or more tickets to Anything Goes or Arsenic and Old Lace, or become a season ticket holder, and you’ll be entered in a raffle to win cruise tickets aboard the Chardonnay II. Tickets are $25 reserved seating, $17 Seniors/Juniors/Military and are available through the ticket office at 755-6816 or by visiting our website at westernstage.com. (139 Word PSA)

 

As the song says, “There’s no cure like travel/ To help you unravel/ The worries of living today”, and that is just what Cole Porter and his crew deliver with Anything Goes, a madcap musical farce that has helped thousands of audiences leave their everyday worries in the lobby for the past 70 years and escape into a world of rollicking laughter and toe tapping music on the high seas.

 

Anything Goes serves up a classic Romeo and Juliet style love story about a boy, Billy Crocker, who is in love with a girl, Hope Harcourt, who is in turn engaged to be married to a member of British royalty, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Set on the S.S. American, a ship of fools headed to Southampton, England from New York, this 1934 Broadway smash weaves a hurly-burly tapestry of romance, comedy, and music as Billy sneaks aboard the luxury liner to stop his true love from marrying the wrong man. What ensues is a wild transatlantic romp involving gangsters on the lam, mistaken identities, clever repartee, unrequited love, and, of course, requited love—the best kind of love there is—all to the de-lovely music of Cole Porter. 

 

The play was originally conceived by producer Vinton Freedley as a musical about a disaster at sea. In dire need of a hit—his previous play bombed on Broadway—he hired Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse to write the book, and enlisted the talent of Cole Porter to write the music and lyrics. Yet, as timing would have it, once Freedley had a cast of actors ready to begin rehearsals, the burning of the Morro Castle took place just off the coast of New Jersey, costing 134 people their lives. Suddenly, shipwrecks became a very sensitive subject for the public. Freedly, worried that the play would be perceived as making light of the tragedy, attempted to salvage what he could, He hired Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse to completely re-write the play, taking all references to a disaster at sea out of the script.  The result was Anything Goes, whose title, incidentally, did not appear on the script until the second draft and referred to the desperation with which Freedley, Porter, and crew put the play together. Despite its uncertain beginnings, however, Anything Goes proved to be a huge success becoming the fourth longest running Broadway musical of the 1930’s. (For more on this story, see supplemental article.)

 

Much of the play’s success, then and now, is due in large part to the joyous music of Cole Porter. Forty years after his death in 1964, Porter remains one of the greatest songwriters in American musical theatre, and his light shows no sign of dimming. His passion for music—a passion that seemed to extend into every facet of his life—was fostered in him at an early age by his mother, Kate, who saw to it that he learned both the piano and violin by the age of six. Always precocious, he was composing his own music by the time he was ten. (Two of his early pieces “Yale Bull Dog Song” and “Bingo Eli Yale”, which he composed while attending school there, are sung by the character Elisha Whitney during the opening scene of Anything Goes.) Although the tragedies he suffered equaled the heights he attained, Porter never wavered in his passion for music. His ultimate goal was to write 1,000 songs people would continue to love after he was gone…and in this he succeeded. His obituary in the N.Y. Post probably summed his contribution to American music best: “the Porter legacy throbs, booms, soars, and sparkles, lush with words and music that the public apparently cannot live without.” The music in Anything Goes, some of his best, is certain to make The Western Stage’s main stage throb, boom, and sparkle for audiences as well this summer. For more information on the life of Cole Porter visit http://www.coleporter.org/.

 

Anything Goes is directed by TWS casting director Jim McLean (Hello, Dolly! 2004).

 

As part of this production, The Western Stage and Magic 63 A.M are offering 10 chances to win a trip aboard the Chardonnay II, a 700-foot sailing yacht that offers whale watching tours throughout the migration season and several much loved wine-tasting cruises during the spring, summer, and fall. Entering this exciting contest is as easy as buying one or more tickets to Arsenic and Old Lace or Anything Goes, purchasing season tickets, or registering for TWS’ new e-newsletter at westernstage.org between May 1 and July 31. 

 

Also, do not miss TWS’ other upcoming summer productions including Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace (June 3rd – July 2nd) and John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row (August 5-28). In the fall, TWS’ season continues with Bat Boy the Musical, The Waiting Room, Victor Villianseńor’s Rain of Gold, The Cherry Orchard, and Wind in the Willows.

 

Anything Goes plays through August 6th on the main stage, Hartnell College Performing Arts Center. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, and Sunday at 2 pm. Season tickets are still the best deal. Tickets are $25 reserved seating, $17 Seniors/Juniors/Military and are available through the ticket office at 755-6816 or by visiting our website at westernstage.com.

 

Dan Tarker

Literary Associate

 

Directed by Jim McLean

Choreography by Joe Niesen

Musical Direction by Yvonne Crane

Scenic Design by David Parker

Light Design by Derek Duarte

Costume, Makeup & Hair Design by Fred P. Deeben

Stage Management by Jennifer West

 

CAST

 

Elisha Whitney…………………………. Tom Donald

Billy Crocker………….…………………..Ronald M. Livingston

Reno Sweeney …………………………Tania Johnson

Captain………….……………………… Marc Grossman

Purser……………………………………Pete Russell

Sailors…………………...………………P.J. Arata

                                                                   Robert L. Armstrong III

                                                                   Justin Azevedo

                                                                   Warwick Cruz

                                                                   P.J. Dunn

                                                                   Daniel Garcia

                                                                   Victor James

                                                                   Dale Thompson

Minister…………………………. ………Jerry Pearlman

Sister Luke…………………………Anna Schumacher

Sister John….…………………………Leslie Krautkraemer

Fallen Angels……….……………… ..Jillian Bagley

                                                                Joelle Kaiser

                                                                Aaron Lichtanski

                                                                Heather Osteraa

                                                                Hillary Salbacka

                                                                Carissa Schubin

Hope Harcourt…………………………Kristen Sharpley

 Evangeline Harcourt………………….Pat Horsley

Lord Evelyn Oakleigh…………………John G. Bridges

Bonnie La Tour………………………Reina Cruz Vasquez

Moonface Martin…………………….Mike Baker

 

Passengers, Reporters, Photographers, etc………..Kristen Carder

                                                                                         Elizabeth Fazzio

                                                                                         Judy Mayfield

                                                                                         Miranda Mayfield

                                                                                         David Mills

                                                                                         Eileen Nicholas

                                                                                         Errol Osteraa

                                                                                         Lynn Pearlman

                                                                                         Michelle Russell