ANYTHING GOES Reviews — Page 3

Add me to those who had a heck of a good time.

Actually, more than a heck of a good time.

If I was writing a review, it would be a love letter to Sutton Foster.

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NY Post is mixed to postive:

"With her fizzy enthusiasm and Girl Scout pluck, Foster doesn't feel quite right for Reno, a jawbreaker candy filled with 100-proof liquor.

And yet . . .

Kathleen Marshall's revival for the Roundabout, which opened on Broadway last night, is like one of those old Hollywood movies with Bette Davis as a frumpy schoolteacher: You don't really buy it, but the star's still fun to watch.

Marshall struggles with the farcical tempo, and many bits of comic business fall flat. Several involve the ubiquitous, shamelessly mugging Grey -- he's like the uncle who somehow inserts himself in every wedding photo."

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/de_lightful_musical_revival_is_easy_5Mqq9RwbTzPWoo5lc9bJDI

Did you like the show, PJ?

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Fflag, I would just like to point out that Foster is anything but Brantley's pet. If you read her NY Times reviews chronologically from Millie to Anything Goes, you will see that Foster had to win Brantley over. In Millie, he hated her (or heavily disliked, your pick). Little Women he was indifferent. Drowsy Chaperone he begrudgingly admitted that he enjoyed her. Young Frankenstein and Shrek were extremely positive and almost-rave, respectively, and now with Anything Goes, she's gotten the NY Times love letter she deserved 9 years ago with Millie.

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Entertainment Weekly is a RAVE. They gave it an A.

"But thanks to the show's sturdy construction, its classic Porter songs (including 'I Get a Kick Out of You,' 'You're the Top,' 'Blow, Gabriel, Blow,' and the great title tune), and its essential, intangible, urbane joy even as it pokes gentle fun at society swells, Anything Goes has proved to be highly adaptable to any era. That's why, when Patti LuPone raised her own roof as Reno in the Tony-winning, all-stops-out Lincoln Center revival of 1987, the show could be read as the funhouse mirror of an anything-goes, Bonfire of the Vanities moment in time.

Speaking of self-confident and exemplary, let's get back to Sutton Foster. The Tony-winning star, with her big, endearing smile and her characteristic openness — and happiness — has typically been cast in softer, more innocent roles. Well, look out, fellas. Draped in a slinky spangled number, coiffed in a platinum pouf, lips scarlet red and eyes flashing (giving her demeanor a touch of the Christine Baranski), the girl throws off the good-time sparks of a woman who has been around the block and knows how to negotiate the town.

At the same time, with no LuPone-prone camp to her capers, Foster stars — yet generously blends — with the rest of the assured cast. As the lovelorn Billy Foster, Donnell suggests a somewhat more compact Jon Hamm as a much less agonized Don Draper. Laura Osnes brings a crystalline grace to the role of debutante Hope Harcourt, pressured by her status-conscious mother (hooray for Jessica Walter) to marry into class — and money. Mama's quarry, the audience knows, is Lord Oakleigh, a prime specimen of an upper-class twit, all foppish, repressed postures. What the audience doesn't know is that British theater regular Adam Godley will, by the time he busts loose with Foster in 'The Gypsy in Me,' steal his crucial bit of the show and utterly delight the cheering house with his brilliant comic timing."



Stage Review Anything Goes

Updated On: 4/7/11 at 11:35 PM

Huffington Post is mixed to negative:

"It's hard to go wrong with a sturdy musical theater vessel like the Cole Porter classic Anything Goes. But the Roundabout comes close with the mildly pleasant revival currently on Broadway, an indifferent affair saved almost entirely by those buoyant songs. Undemanding subscribers certainly won't feel cheated but this is not a show anyone involved was driven to mount.

...

Foster glides through the role of Reno with the charm and talent we expect. But Reno is a role you steamroll your way through and that never happens here. One problem is she's paired with partners that force Foster to dial it down."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/theater-seaworthy-anythin_b_846472.html

So, going back to this morning's kickoff discussion, the reviews are not at all a surprise. Anyone looking for complex characters, serious dramatic content and hysterical comedy routines are not going to rave over this production. But it is their loss.

You get your great performances of some of the greatest music ever written for the theater by a talented cast and ensemble led by a talented and likeable triple-threat star. If you are bored by the short intervals between the wonderful musical numbers, read the Who's Who in your Playbill.

It will have a long run because you just can't see this caliber of entertainment anymore. All those tap dancers. (Although I would be a little concerned that all the teen and pre-teen girls will just insist on seeing WICKED for the sixth time instead.)

I originally thought that Patina Miller would be the one to beat at the Tonys, but the critics have not seen "Sister Act" yet.

"Who needs a brass section when you’ve got Sutton Foster?"

What a fantastic opening line to the Times review

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I think she'll win. We'll see if Patina Miller is able to win the star-in-the-making Tony that Sutton Foster won for MILLIE almost ten years ago, but you can't deny that love letter from Brantley. If anything, the competition will be interesting.

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Personally I love Sutton, I think she has an amazing amount of talent but in this case I rooting for Patina al the way. I did not like Anything Goes, but I think I don't really like the show itself. I think this is a star performance from Patina that she may not be able to get again, she deserves to be recognized and surely makes the show what it is.

A big advantage for Sutton will be that voters are going to like Anything Goes a lot more than Sister Act. This is often what tips it in an actor's favor in close races.