ANYTHING GOES – REVIEW OF 2025 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Anything Goes is a classic 1930’s musical that has the virtues and the shortfalls of Depression Era entertainments. Cole Porter was a master creator of melodies and lyrics but in the case of Anything Goes, a pre-Rodgers and Hammerstein work, he was not lucky with the libretto which had pedigreed writers like P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton, Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse and, fifty years later, a new book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman.

The Shaw Festival gives a fast-paced and colourful production with some fine singing and outstanding dancing. Kimberley Rampersad directs and choreographs the production with some praiseworthy results and some questionable steps.

Aside from Porter’s delightful songs, the musical does have a slim plot with considerable humour, much of which did not connect with the audience. It is set on a luxurious ocean liner in the 1930’s travelling from New York to London. You know what age you are in when one of the rich characters quips to a woman that he remembers seeing her husband on a ledge just before he jumped after the stock market crashed.

The play has a large array of characters from celebrities to criminals combined with mating rituals, hidden identities and plot twists that I probably missed. There is the stowaway Billy Crocker (Jeff Irving) who is in love with Hope Harcourt (Celeste Catena) who is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (Allan Louis) who is “interested” in Reno Sweeney (Mary Antonini). The latter is a former evangelist who has become a fantastic nightclub singer with a heart of gold. 

The cast of Anything Goes (Shaw Festival, 2025). 

Photo by David Cooper.

Billy works for millionaire Eli Whitney (Shawn Wright) who is also in love and ready to get married but is outwitted. And wait until you meet Charity (Jade Repeta), Chastity (Jaden Kim), Purity (Kiera Sangster) and Virtue (Mikayla Stradiotto). And we do have some major crooks like Public Enemy No. 1 to keep a balance of good and others.

The dances choreographed by Rampersad are marvelous. I have not seen such rousing, fast and gorgeous tap dancing except in old movies. You can see them in Anything Goes. They are athletic, precise, coordinated and simply amazing.

The singing is good but Mary Antonini as Reno outperforms everyone with her outstanding vocal beauty and prowess. She has a full-throated voice and dominates the stage whenever she sings, she steals the show with “I get a kick out of you” sings “You’re the Top” and leads everyone in “Anything Goes” and kicks butt in “Blow Gabriel, Blow.”

As director, Rampersad sets a breakneck pace but I would have preferred less activity during some songs. Making singers run up the stairs and slide down the banister takes away from the song and does not offer much else. And somehow, amid all the activity much of the humour simply did not register. Admittedly, some of the humour is not very good, but even some good lines did not go over well.

The sets and costumes by Cory Sincennes were very good.  The American SS is for the rich and those who want to be rich. The revolving stage gives us a good view of the ship and provides lots of opportunities for kinetic energy to be displayed.

The show is carried by Cole Porters wonderful songs and the extraordinary dancing and is certainly worth seeing. There is not much that can be done about the creaky plot and we can hope that the humour will come out in future performances.
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Anything Goes by Cole Porter (music and lyrics) and a new book by Timothy Crouse and John Wedman continues in repertory until October 4, 2025,  at the Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.

JAMES KARAS IS THE SENIOR EDITOR, CULTURE, OF THE GREEK PRESS