Anything Goes - (3)

Blow Gabriel Blow picture from the Rider Waite Tarot pack Judgement card

Gifts that relate to this show include all kinds of nautical paraphernalia, life belts, ship's wheels, anchors, toy boats; plus sailors, and their hats, collars, uniforms.
Angels, and Gabriel's horn (like a post horn or fanfare horn, just a straight one like the picture above)
1930's style gangster machine guns (a nerf gun or water gun perhaps?) or a “Wanted” poster for Public Enemy Number 13
Friendship bracelets, or Forever Friends merchandise (particularly for Reno and Moonface)
Champagne or champagne bubbles (blowing bubbles).
Tap shoe charms, stockings, postcards wishing Bon Voyage or “wish you were here” messages, depending on character or rehearsal happenings. Rehearsals are often the most fertile ground for imaginative personal presents, things that relate to a particular lyric or move that are personal to you and your partner or team.

Anything Goes - (2)

Set on a cruise liner, the nautical theme runs throughout the show, with the added glitz and glamour of on-board cabaret, and the high fashion cult of celebrity which was as prevalent in 1934 as it is today. Lots of design freedom in the costuming, with trousers being fashionable for daywear,, and bias cut evening dresses in fabulous fabrics at the other end of the scale.

Our company had a two tier set, depicting the deck and bridge of the ship, with ladders leading from one level to the other. These were narrow sets of steps that gave the opportunity to vary the height and patterns of the players, so that Blow Gabriel Blow had several of the cast perched on the ladders and formed up across the bridge framing Reno centre stage, and giving everyone exposure to the audience. It did mean that the taller cast members had their heads up among the lighting bars if they weren't careful! At that time our auditorium had a flat floor, so the higher level allowed for some better sight lines for the audience. This is the usual way of setting for this show, but small community venues with low proscenium arch openings may make this impossible, and set your designer and director some headaches in developing imaginative settings that work well on a single level.

Anything Goes

Probably the most famous and long-lasting of Cole Porter's musicals Anything Goes was first staged in 1934 as a contemporary piece of theatre. Set on a cruise liner with very little in the way of set changes, it is a fun story with lots of well-known and popular songs including “I Get a Kick Out of You”, “You're the Top” and “Anything Goes”. Less well-known maybe is the evangelical “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” which is a big production number in the second act.
There some decent sized parts as well as the lead, Reno Sweeney, and her love interests,  and plenty of chorus numbers to get your teeth into. Reno also has a backing group of girl singers, her “Angels”.
The original 1934 setting gives scope for some fantastic costumes and a wide variety of dance styles, including some tap dancing if that is a skill available among a company's membership. It can also be updated to different time periods without too much difficulty as the music crosses several decades of the twentieth century without being out of its time.
The version I did was the 1962 revival version which included some songs that have since disappeared from the libretto, such as “Heaven Hop” which for us was a tap routine done in shorts and striped sailor tops (perhaps that was why it was cut from later productions!) with Bonnie leading (even this character has been re-named and re-written for the later versions.)