Neshaminy Valley Music Theatre presents the Cole Porter Classic ANYTHING GOES. It is a fun romp through a cruise liners and the series of mishaps that happens on it, classic early 20th century themes abound, gangsters, mistaken identities, and racial stereotypes of all shapes and sizes.
Kyle Rodgers (Billy Crocker) was the “triple threat” of the show, great acting skills, a voice Cole Porter would have chosen himself for the part and fantastic dancing. He also had great characterizations in all of his disguises.
Jackie Laurence (Reno Sweeney) was the female star of the show, a strong dancer, a wonderful singing voice. She truly raised the bar for everyone else in the show. Alicia Landis (Hope Harcourt) had a great singing voice, and was believable as the not-quite-socialite Hope. Both Landis and Laurence had fantastic body language and comedic timing.
Andy Kind Rubin (Lord Evelyn Oakleigh) was hilarious as the pompous nitwit of a brit. George Laurence (The Captain) Spoke with authority and command. Paul Waldowski (Moonface) and Meg Waldowski (Erma) were hilarious as the gangsters aiding Crocker in his schemes.
The opening of the show was EXTREMELY long, the music played completely almost twice and then abruptly ended. The choreography wasn’t anything special for such a dance heavy show. Lots of missteps were seen except for the leads above and Steve Tirendi, Erik Daughterman, Jordan Hayes, Caitlin Monohan, Michael O’Hara, Klaus Heitman who were all fantastic, and helped keep the dance numbers going strong. Luckily, they were often taking the front of the dance numbers when a lead wasn’t there. The titular big dance number had a wardrobe malfunction that in and of itself could have inspired the name ANYTHING GOES. The set itself was quite beautiful, as were the props used.
Canned music was used, and it was a VERY bad choice, multiple times songs were played twice in awkward moments and at other times just stopped and restarted many times in a row. Sound issues can happen any night and I would never mention it usually but it happened constantly. Mic issues constantly abounded throughout the show, going up and down without rhyme or reason.
ANYTHING GOES
Music and Lyrics by: Cole Porter
Directed by: Stephen Casey
Musical Director: Sam Frenkel
Produced by: Thomas J. Urquhart and George W. Kinsley III
April 4-12, 2014
Neshaminy Valley Music Theatre
http://www.nvmt.org/
