Question about "Anything Goes..."

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 5:46pm

I've been a fan of the musical "Anything Goes" for a couple years now and I recently saw a (God-awful) high school production which inspired me to buy the Patti LuPone cast recording. But, I noticed some differences. Like, the song "Let's Misbehave," is omitted, there was a character in the productions that I've seen named Bonnie who sang a fun song "Step Out," and it seems the character and the song are out, and there is a character named Erma who sings a completely pointless 11:00 number "Buddy Beware." Also, I usually see "Friendship" performed by Billy, Moonface, and Reno, but on the CD, it's only sung by Moonface and Reno. What's the deal with all of the changes? And what else is different? This has bothering me lately.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 5:51pm

There are 2 versions that are liscensed, the revival from the 60's and the Lupone edition. We did the former in Hs. I believe the version you saw was likely the 60's revival, which is on Cd, and completely worth the purchase.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 5:58pm

Anything Goes has been used, abused, cut, expanded, mistreated and disrespected for years and years. The original 30's version is never performed any more. In the 60's, the revival featured several extra Cole Porter "hit" songs added to the score. That version was released to amateur groups and is still performed often. Then, the Patti LuPone version cut some of the added songs and I think, added in a couple of different, more obscure Porter songs.

The show itself is free wheeling enough that songs can be added or subtracted without most audience members knowing the difference. (I don't really care for it, however) Amateur groups are also infamous for making duets trios or giving songs to other characters to "Balance" the parts better. I've never seen Buddie Beware sung by anyone other than Reno, however.

Definitely get the revival album (Orange cartoon cover). There's a lot of great Porter songs on it!

[MusicalDirector109]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 6:44pm

In the Beaumont version "Buddy Beware" is sung by Erma,Moonface's companion.

[Plum]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 6:49pm

Yep. I saw it sung by Erma both times I saw it, actually.

[TxTwoStep]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 6:53pm

BUDDY has never been a Reno song (though there have been plenty of Porter standards that came and went for that character).

FRIENDSHIP was originally a duet for Porter's DU BARRY WAS A LADY.

Bonnie's two songs for 1963 off-B'way revival were HEAVEN HOP and LET'S STEP OUT.

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 7:23pm

It seemed odd to me that what appears to be the 11:00 number, "Buddy Beware," isn't given to Reno. The song seems utterly pointless. And I like the character of Bonnie and her two songs.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 7:48pm

"Buddy Beware" was Reno's 11:00 number in the original Broadway production (but dropped after a few weeks in favour of a reprise of "I Get a Kick out of You.")

The 1962 off-Broadway revival dropped 4 songs from the original (There'll Always Be a Lady Fair", "Where are the Men?", "Buddy Beware" and "The Gypsy in Me") adding 6 other Porter Tunes ("It's Delovely", "Heaven Hop", "Friedship", "Let's Step Out", "Let's Misbehave" and "Take Me Back to Manhattan.") The cast album is on Cd on the Epic label.

The 1987 revival kept most of the original score (only "Where are the Men?" was dropped) but re-assigned "Buddy BeWare" to Moonface's girlfriend - here re-named Erma - and giving "The Gypsy in Me" to Lord Evelyn. Added to the score this time were: "There's No Cure Like Travel", "Easy to Love", "I Want to Row on the Crew", "Friendship", "It's Delovely", and "Goodbye Little Dream Goodbye." All three scripts are available for performance but they rarely send the original and most people who look at the script realize it cannot be played the way it was in 1934 and opt for one of the later revisions.

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 7:54pm

Is there any reason for all the changes?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 7:56pm

A lot of the changes in 87 were to make the 2 chinese characters a bit more pc than in the other versions.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 8:11pm

The change were made because the original script allowed for a lot of specialty material for the original stars (William Gaxton and Victor Moore - who had starred on Broadway a few years earlier in OF THEE I SING. Think of them as the Broderick and Lane of their day!)

The original script was thrown together durring rehearsls (Merman recalled the authors came out of the mens room on the day of the dress rehearsal with teh final scene sketched out on paper towels.)

The show was a hit in its day thanks to the great songs and the fact that audiences did not expect a musical to have much of a book. To streamline it for later revivals, authors took the basic premise and rewrote the book.

[EternalJayJay]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 10:39pm

The version of ANYTHING GOES you saw was the early 1960s Off-Broadway Revival version (which originally starred Hal Linden and Eileen Rodgers). The reason I know this is because I just did this version of ANYTHING GOES last summer. You can still buy this recording rather cheap through Amazon.com. It is a really fun listen.

The cast recording you bought was the late 1980s Broadway revival, which (in my opinion) omitted some really cute and fun songs. This is a pretty good revival and recording, but I like the 1960s version a lot better.

I hope that helps!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 4/21/05 at 10:24am

This thread sent me back to the books last night-- Thanks to Front Row Center for all his info. I was thinking of Buddie Beware as a Reno song because I think it turned up by Merman in another Porter show but couldn't track down which one- Something for the Boys perhaps?

And Anything Goes had a very turbulent preview period. It was originally written as the story of survivors in a shipwreck stranded together on a island when The Morro Castle (a reknowned cruise ship of the day) sunk, spoiling the mood for a light hearted romp about ship wrecks. The plot was then changed to an Atlantic crossing.

It was a great hit in it's day and Porter delighted in revising and adding to it's popular "list" songs, thrilling audiences with surprise references to events that happened only days earlier. That has also had the effect of leaving behind dozens of verses that were performed for at least part of the Broadway run, which is why "Your the Top" for example has so many different "real" versions. It's a pop culture lesson of it's time, touching on so many events, scandals and catch phrases: Cellophane, Garbo's Salary, Pepsodent toothpaste...Imagine a broadway show today that would be able to drop in, at a moment's notice, Nicole & Paris' fights, the latest AI performance, the new Pope.....

Porter was also tossed in many racy references that were delightfully shocking on Broadway but verboten on Radio or sheet music. The stage version of "I Get a Kick Out of You" contained the line "Some get a kick from Cocaine/I'm sure that if I took even one sniff it would bore me terrifically, too" which had to be changed for other media. It ended up variously as "I get no kick in a plane" or "A bebop refrain."

Thanks for reminding me about one of my earliest Broadway Loves!

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 4/21/05 at 12:36pm

Funny you should mention the "cocaine" lyric...

When I saw the 80's revival with Patti LuPone and Howard McGillin (both of whom were outstanding), I remember two old ladies sitting behind me and gasping when "cocaine" was mentioned. They were chatting later and said that they thought the lyric change, adding "cocaine", was unnecessary. They thought it was put into the revival as an update. They must have supposed that either Cole Porter NEVER would have written such a lyric, or that cocaine hadn't been invented at the time the song was written. Wrong on both counts.

In hindsight, I wished I had turned around and set these two biddies straight, but the moment slipped away...

Incidentally, Billy has never been sung better than by Howard McGillin. Golden vocal cords -- and perfectly suited for that music. "Easy to Love" is a highlight of the CD.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 4/21/05 at 1:07pm

I have five different recordings of ANYTHING GOES. They all vary. After its original Broadway outing, songs started to be added from the Cole Porter treasure chest of music and other songs were of course removed. For me, the best song compilation, by far..........was the 1960s Lincoln Center Revival starring Hal Linden and Eileen Rodgers........I think they made some very poor choices in the 1980s Lupone revival. I love every song on the Linden/Rodgers recording with the exception of Bon Voyage and Public Enemy Number One. As I mentioned here previously, I suspect at one time, those numbers were probably used to perform while scenery was being moved or something like that. :)

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/21/05 at 1:57pm

Tony - the 1962 revival was an off-Broadway production. The Lincoln Center staging was in 1987 (Patti LuPone.)

In addition to the 1962, and 1987 New York cast albums there are four London casts: the original 1936 production recorded some highlights (now out on Prism), the 1969 Cameron Mackintosh production used the 1962 script revisions but the Lp was withdrawn within days of its release and was a rare item until TER re-released it in the 1980s. As far as I know that one has never come out on CD. The 1987 Broadway revival was done in London in 1989 with the cast headed by Elaine Paige and the recent John Barrowman revival was also recorded.

For a different version, Decca released the movie soundtrack of the 1956 film which keeps 5 of the original songs, adds "It's Delovely" as well as three new (forgettable) tunes by Van Heusen and Cahn. The movie scrapped the original story and replaced it with an even weaker one. Bing Crosby. Mitzi Gaynor and Donald O'Connor starred.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/21/05 at 2:17pm

frontrowcentre2 - You missed two! The 1987 version of the show also received an impressive Australian recording which, other than poor American accents, it quite good. Then the 1987 revival just recently received its own revival from the Royal National Theatre with John Barrowman as Billy (who replaced Howard McGillin, the original Billy on both the London and Broadway prvious recordings).

I've always been fascinated by the flexibility of this show and its various incarnations. The 1987 score is really the most appealing to me as far as its tunestack and orchestrations. The 1962 score is fun, but Take Me Back to Manhattan is one of the weakest finales I've seen in any musical. I would campaign to have Heaven Hop and Let's Step Out added to the 1987 score to create the best score of the show.