“Anything
Goes”
Composer:
Cole Porter
Performer:
Cole Porter (restored original), 1934
Composer:
Cole Porter
Performer:
Cole Porter
Composer:
Cole Porter
Performer:
Ethel Merman
Composer:
Cole Porter
Performer:
Patti Lupone, 1988 Tony Award broadcast
Perhaps
I should begin by admitting that it is difficult even to talk about the plot,
written originally by Guy Bolton and P. J. Wodehouse, and revised extensively
by the later writing team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (at the time the
director and an agent), of Cole Porter’s Anything
Goes. Since the 1934 production, the musical has been reworked numerous
times, with major cuts of songs, additional Porter songs added, and the story
tweaked so 
extensively that
its original writers might not even recognize it. I saw the 2011 revival,
performed in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theater, which had added numerous
songs such as “Friendship,” “It’s De-Lovely,” “You’d Be So Easy to Love” (cut
from the original) and “The Crew Song” mostly from other Porter musicals
extensively that
its original writers might not even recognize it. I saw the 2011 revival,
performed in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theater, which had added numerous
songs such as “Friendship,” “It’s De-Lovely,” “You’d Be So Easy to Love” (cut
from the original) and “The Crew Song” mostly from other Porter musicals
But the comments below and in my
discussion of other songs from Anything
Goes are all based on the 1934 original performed at New York’s Alvin
Theatre.
In
a sense, the daffy plot—involving two sets of lovers, mediocre gang members
(“Moonface” Martin is only Public Enemy 13) dressed up as clergy members,
wealthy parents and a full crew aboard a European-bound voyage of the SS American—hardly matters. It’s the
songs in this fairly licentious and libertine work that is the central thing.
And what wonderful songs Porter provided, several of which are among my
favorites: “I Get a Kick Out of You,”
“You’re the Top,” and the memorable “Anything Goes.”
In the original version, the song was
sung by Reno, a former evangelist turned nightclub singer, played by the great
Ethel Merman. She has just discovered that she is in love with the wealthy Britisher
Evelyn Oakleigh, who is engaged to Hope Harcourt, daughter of a wealthy
American family, the Hartcourts, who pretend their healthy business is in financial
danger in order to arrange the marriage between the two families. Meanwhile
Billy, a young wallstreet broker, who has previously met Hope in a taxi, and is
desperately interested the stranger, determines to stow away on the boat with
the hopes of courting Hope.
Sensing wealth and security in Oakleigh,
Reno throws over convention in her determination to marry the stuffy and quite
incomprehensible Brit, praising the current American attitudes that permit her
to make such an audacious choice.
Porter was never funnier than in this
musical, and his high-spirited salute to the looseness of current mores quite
literally leaps off the stage as dancing sailors and sailorettes tap away the
song’s contagious repetitions. Porter’s original is necessary if one wants to
hear nearly all the lyrics (although others were later added). But it is
Merman’s shortened and clearly-iterated version that is the most unforgettable,
although Patti Lupone sings it with more subtle shadings; Merman was never
truly subtle! The lyrics below give just some of this true poem dedicated to
naughty America’s delights.
[RENO]
Times
have changed,
And
we've often rewound the clock,
Since
the Puritans got a shock,
When
they landed on Plymouth Rock.
If
today,
Any
shock they should try to stem,
'Stead
of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth
Rock would land on them.
In
olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was
looked on as something shocking,
But
now, God knows,
Anything
Goes.
Good
authors too who once knew better words,
Now
only use four letter words
Writing
prose, Anything Goes.
The
world has gone mad today
And
good's bad today,
And
black's white today,
And
day's night today,
When
most guys today
That
women prize today
Are
just silly gigolos
And
though I'm not a great romancer
I
know that you're bound to answer
When
I propose,
Anything
goes
ah, Cole.... great to have so much of his music in my CD collection here is Vilnius, and a wonderful coffee-table book of photos and posters and lyrics, etc.... a classic in its own right
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