Anything Goes - Bonnie vs. Erma

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 11/22/21 at 1:03pm

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?

[ohjustjake]

Posted: 11/22/21 at 1:06pm

I don't know the reason for the name change, however I wish there was a way to combine the both. I like Bonnie's song Heaven Hop, but I love Buddy Beware as well. 

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 11/23/21 at 12:04am

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.

[jacktorres1]

Posted: 11/30/21 at 3:53pm

MrsSallyAdams said: "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?"

I like Bonnie songs

[Dollypop]

Posted: 11/30/21 at 9:11pm

 

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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