Anything Goes - Bonnie vs. Erma

Anything Goes opened on Broadway in 1934. Vera Dunn played Bonnie, a comic gangster's moll. The name stuck for the films and the 1962 Off-Broadway revival. The part was expanded, slightly for that production.

The 1987 revival changed her name to Erma and cast Linda Hunt. Subsequent revivals have been of the Crouse/Weidman version so the new name stuck. Anyone know the reason for the name change?

Slight correction, it was Linda Hart in the 1987 revival, not Linda Hunt. Linda Hunt is probably one of the last actors I would expect to see playing a sexy gangster's moll.

When I did a summer stock production of ANYTHING GOES in 1979, I played a character named Sir Evelyn Oakleigh and sang "Let's Misbehave" with Reno Swweny. When I saw the Patti LuPone revival at Lincoln Center some years later, the character was re-named LORD Evelyn Oakleigh and sang a completely different song called " The Gypsy in Me". Neither song really fit Evelyn's character.

Updated On: 11/30/21 at 09:11 PM