As the 1934 Broadway theatre season was getting under way, it looked as if veteran producer Vinton Freedley had yet another hit on his hands. In the late 20s and early 30s, he had produced a string of successful musicals including the Gershwin shows Lady Be Good, Oh, Kay!, Funny Face and Girl Crazy. His next show, entitled Hard To Get, was anticipated to match or top any of his previous productions. Hard To Get was first envisioned by Freedley while hiding out aboard a fishing boat in the Gulf of Panama after fleeing the U.S. to escape creditors. His idea was based on the premise of an ocean liner facing the threat of a possible shipwreck. He returned to New York and, after paying off his debts, began assembling his dream team. It had a script by comedy masters Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, a score by Cole Porter, and a cast starring three of the biggest names of the day: William Gaxton, Ethel Merman and Victor Moore. The plot crowded a dozen or so madcap characters on a glamorous transatlantic ocean liner and made wild comedy out of mismatched lovers, mistaken identities, a fake bomb, and ultimately a shipwreck. However, a few weeks before rehearsals were scheduled to begin, an event occurred that put the entire future of the show in question.
As the S.S. Morro Castle was passing close to the coast of New Jersey at the end of a cruise, it suddenly burst into flames. Hundreds of beach-goers watched in horror as the ship was swept by fire and quickly sank with a loss of more than 125 lives. This was by far the worst maritime disaster of the 1930s, and it was clear to all involved that a fun-filled musical comedy about a shipwreck was now out of the question.
Both of the writers were out of the country, so the producer asked the director of the show, Howard Lindsay, if he would rewrite the script as well. Lindsay agreed, but only on the condition that a collaborator be found to work with him. Through sheer happenstance he hooked up with young theatrical press agent and fledgling playwright, Russel Crouse, and a great and enduring partnership was born. (Together these two created the musicals Red, Hot and Blue, Call Me Madam and The Sound of Music, as well as the long-running play Life With Father.) This new team worked like madmen to fashion a revised script. They used many of the characters and situations from the original version, but most of the dialogue and all the plot had to be invented from scratch. Perhaps most significantly, they created a new role for Ethel Merman to play: Reno Sweeney, a cross between the world-famous evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and the notorious nightclub hostess Texas Guinan. Less than six weeks after the Morro Castle went down, Vinton Freedley called the cast to rehearsals for a largely new show. He was hoping for a new title as well, and the creative team wracked their brains trying to come up with one. Finally, star William Gaxton blurted out "Anything Goes", and Cole Porter - knowing a "money" title when he heard one - rushed out to compose a title song. The next morning, he came in with the catchy melody and brilliant lyrics that we know and love today. Anything Goes opened on November 21, 1934, and was an immediate and resounding success. Its score was loaded with hit tunes and they monopolized the radio and dance band repertoires for months afterward. The show ran 420 performances and has proven to be one of the most frequently revived musicals of the 1930s. We are performing the version first performed in 1987 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, New York.

Synopsis

Set in the 1930s, the story takes place on a luxury ocean liner sailing from New York to England. As the show opens, the ship’s crew is readying it for passengers. Reno Sweeney, a famous nightclub singer, is on board with her Angels as the entertainment. Hope Harcourt, a socialite, is sailing with her mother and her fiancé, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. He is handsome, wealthy, and a bit of a fop. Hope is not in love with him but the marriage will secure the future for her and her mother. Once wealthy, the family lost just about everything in the 1929 stock market crash and her father committed suicide.

Elisha Whitney, a Wall Street business tycoon, is also on board. His assistant, Billy Crocker, boards the ship to give his boss his forgotten passport and sees Hope Harcourt. The two had met previously and he still harbors a romantic a attraction towards her. Impulsively, Billy decides to stay on the ship when it leaves New York, even though he promises his boss he will work on an important business deal. He is forced to hide because he doesn’t have a passport or a ticket. He bumps into a small time crook, Moonface Martin, who is traveling dressed as a minister because he is wanted by the FBI. Moonface’s cohort, Snake Eyes, hasn’t shown up for the trip so Moonface gives Billy his passport and ticket, both under an assumed name. Billy and Moonface travel in disguise with Erma, Snake Eyes’ girlfriend, who enjoys flirting with all of the sailors. Other passengers on board include Reverend Henry T. Dobson, a missionary in China, and two of his recent converts, Luke and John.

Once the ship leaves harbor, Billy uses a variety of disguises to avoid being discovered. During the voyage, he tries to convince Hope that he is in love with her and she shouldn’t marry Lord Evelyn. Reno, who is an old friend of Billy’s, agrees to help him by pretending to seduce Lord Evelyn. In the process, she discovers that she actually finds him attractive, but he has no idea she’s interested, at least for awhile. When it’s discovered that two gangsters, Moonface and Snake Eyes, are on board, the passengers are excited to have celebrities and the pair become instant heroes. But soon they are thrown in the brig by the ship’s captain. Reno leads an impromptu revival meeting for the infamous passengers to confess their sins. Getting into the spirit, Lord Evelyn confesses he previously had a fling with a woman named Plum Blossom in China. Meanwhile Billy and Moonface plot their escape from the brig by enticing Luke and John into a game of cards to win their clothes.

Mrs. Harcourt sees that Hope’s interest in Billy is growing and doesn’t want the marriage to be stalled, so she arranges for the captain to marry Hope and Lord Evelyn immediately on the ship. At the wedding, Reno appears, disguised as Plum Blossom, with Billy and Moonface, disguised as Chinese men. They say that Lord Evelyn must marry Plum Blossom to make an honest woman of her. Realizing that it’s Reno, he readily agrees that would be the proper thing to do and Hope agrees to release him from their engagement. Hope and Billy are then free to marry. Elisha Whitney suddenly proposes to Mrs. Harcourt and she accepts, so the captain performs a triple wedding ceremony on the spot. The cast does a big tap finalé and everyone lives happily every after.