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Anything
Goes (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane)
"It's delightful, it's delicious...it's de-lovely":
Cole Porter wrote his own review in the lyrics to one of the endless
parade of hit tunes you can hear in this frothy, escapist musical.
| "It's
all just a peg on which to hang a parade of tall girls, low
jokes and songs that are romantic and ravishing..." |
Trevor
Nunn's shipshape new production was first seen at the National Theatre
last Christmas, and has now set sail across the Thames to dock triumphantly
in Drury Lane and rejuvenate the West End.
There
is only one cloud on the horizon, and that's the absence of veteran
actor Denis Quilley who appeared in it on the South Bank: he died
of cancer just two days before this production re-opened.
But
the show must go on, and it does - with overwhelming confidence
and tremendous panache.
tangled
improbabilities
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|
Low
note: veteran actor Denis Quilley died before the production
re-opened
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When
it was originally written, it was supposed to be about an ocean
liner getting shipwrecked, but when a passenger ship really did
sink, the story had to be hastily re-written.
Now, instead of the ship going down, the plot goes overboard.
The
tangled improbabilities mount up amid a series of mismatched romances
between a nightclub singer and a stockbroker and a debutante and
an English gent, plus a minor gangster (Public Enemy Number 13 is
his sad boast) and his moll.
unflagging
energy
But
it's all just a peg on which to hang a parade of tall girls, low
jokes and songs like Easy to Love, All Through the Night,
I Get a Kick Out of You and Blow Gabriel Blow that
are by turns romantic and ravishing, sardonic and sassy.
The cast, led by Sally Ann Triplett and John Barrowman, are uniformly
tremendous, and execute Stephen Mear's showstopping choreography
with an unflagging energy that threatens to blow the roof off.
This
is a staging as slick and sleek as they come and a real crowd pleaser
from overture to curtain call.
Agree
or disagree with our review? Add your comments below...
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