“Anything Goes” decks the halls a bit di≠erently
“Special” is the word of the moment on sports radio. Meaning, a player is a few cuts above the usual talent it takes to make it, say, into the NFL. (For instance, might Broncos running back C.J. Anderson be special?) The word has taken the place of “intangibles” from a few seasons back.
musical
Of course, football fans aren’t the only ones hungering for the special this season. Families are gathering in theater lobbies with hopes of a holiday outing that proves a bit transcendent.
More often, they’ll be met with the warmly comforting, the satisfyingly nostalgic. Evenwinking and nudging fare like “The Santaland Diaries” or “Santa’s Big Red Sack” are starting to have the glowof the known.
So went the thoughts dancing in my head returning home from “Anything Goes,” at Town Hall Arts Center in Littleton.
Director/choreographer Nick Sugar and his game cast deliver a mostly sparkling outing with a few bursts of the special.
Like the Arvada Center with “She LovesMe,” TownHall has avoided the 34th streets, the bah-humbugs and ho-ho-hos and gone with an expanded notion of the festive.
Cole Porter’s tart 1934 musical decks the halls differently yet hits nostalgic notes. It also hits notes — with the help of Donna Debreceni and her quartet — de-lovely and delightful. A number of tunes here have become staples in the Great American Songbook, starting with the opener “I Get a Kick Out of You” and gliding into “You’re the Top,” “Easy to Love,” “It’s DeLovely” and “Anything Goes.”
If those sound like the contents of a jukebox musical, it’s because composer Porter was so darn hot.
This romantic comedy of a musical takes play on board the S.S. American. The ship is headed to Britain from New York City with an assortment of characters, zany or smitten or on the lam.
And then there’s Reno Sweeney. NorrellMoore keeps things merrily afloat as the nightclub singerwho has a crush on nice-guy Billy Crocker (Zach Stailey) who, in turns, is head over heels for debutanteHope Harcourt (Alison Mueller).
EthelMerman played Sweeney in the original Broadway production. And there’s a nice bit of belt and growl toMoore’s renditions. And Stailey’s got a fine croon and appealing presence.
Billy is assistant to hard-tippling tycoon Elijah Whitney (Ed Hickok). Porter, himself a Yale man, has some fun poking at this stuffedbulldog-carrying, fight-song singing moneybags.
On board to deliver a passport, Billy stays to thwart Hope’s fiscally sound but romantically lacking marriage to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (Robert Janzen).
Also sneaking on deck: mobster MoonfaceMartin (Mark Shonsey) and squeaky-voiced moll Erma (a terrific Ellen Kaye).
When Billy’smistaken for prominent mobster Snake Eyes Johnson, he’s hunted then, in a mighty contemporary twist, celebrated. Seems the captain is desperate for a celebrity cruise, if you will. The infamous will dowhen the famous are scarce.
In a phrase: Anything goes. And thanks toMoore, Stailey and Janzen, who uncorks brilliantly in the second act with “The Gypsy in Me” some things stick.