Cole Porter classic will put a smile on your face

ANYTHING Goes was once described as ‘the musical equivalent of sipping one glass of champagne after another.’ Of course, our wealthy Cabinet Minister George Eustice suggests our financial positioning is such that we should restrict ourselves to a dandelion and burdock and own-brand supermarket tins lifestyle.

But if that’s the case, it almost makes seeing this Cole Porter musical an absolute essential. We need joy in our lives, don’t we? We need escape. So, why not take to sea with the SS American and wallow in this story re-written by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman.

It tells of two unlikely pairs who set a course to find true love. Billy Crocker is a stowaway in love with heiress

Hope Harcourt, who happens to be engaged to the mad-as-a-boat-full-offrogs Lord Evelyn Oakleigh.

Meanwhile, nightclub singer Reno Sweeney and Public Enemy Number 13 Moonface Martin aid Billy in his quest to win Hope. Add to that a love triangle, mistaken identity, bad disguises, clever wordplay and resplendent deco designs. And of course, some toe-tapping sailors and lots of shimmying.

Yes, you’ve guessed it. You’re not going to be drowned by the weight of a complicated plot. Indeed, it’s as floaty and light as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s dismissal of his Cinderella cast.

But the real point of Anything Goes is the notionally more peripheral characters, particularly the sassy evangelist-turned-singer Reno

Sweeney, who is the show’s lead by default because she gets all the big songs.

During this Atlantic crossing you can wallow in the songs of Cole Porter such as Anything Goes, I Get a Kick Out of You and You’re the Top.

So, if you like singing sailors, tap dancing and some good old-fashioned blackmail you will most likely go home delighted.

The show also boasts a powerful cast. Kerry Ellis (Wicked) stars as Reno

Sweeney, Denis Lawson plays Moonface, Simon Callow is Elisha Whitney and Bonnie Langford plays Evangeline Harcourt.

And keep this in mind; the plot certainly focuses on those mad keen

to fall in love but doesn’t rely on the matchmaking. It’s also a story about friendship, about people realising they are all on the same boat who need to pull together.

Last year Anything Goes smashed multiple Box Office records at London’s Barbican Theatre including the single highest grossing performance week for a musical in the Barbican’s 39-year history and the highest sales across a weekend for a musical.

First seen on Broadway in 1934, Anything Goes premiered at a time when audience members lucky enough to afford a trip to the theatre were in desperate need of some light relief from the grim realities of the Great Depression.

See this show and the dandelion and burdock won’t

taste half as bad.

Anything Goes, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, May 11 to 15.

Anything Goes with Bonnie Langford, below, offers a glorious escape from reality