Questions about ANYTHING GOES

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Questions about ANYTHING GOES

Posted: 7/4/13 at 10:04pm

My new obsession is the cast recording of the '87 revival w/LuPone. I got it a few days ago and have been playing it non-stop. Love the energy that just pops right off that CD. And while I'm not a HUGE LuPone fan, her rendition of BLOW, GABRIEL BLOW is incredible. Just a fun, fun CD. I definitely prefer it over the more recent revival (which I also have).

Question: Track 1 begins with Cole Porter signing 'Anthing Goes.' Incredible. Did they play a recording of him doing the same at the beginning of every show in the '87 revival before the orchestra began playing?

Also.. ANYTHING GOES debuted in 1934. It's a musical comedy.. yet OKLAHOMA! is often given credit for being the first 'breakthrough musical' that gave us the book musical as we know it today (isn't it?). But ANYTHING GOES is also a strong book musical that debuted nine years earlier.

Questions about ANYTHING GOES

Posted: 7/4/13 at 10:37pm

Yup. The show opened with the recording of Cole Porter singing and ended with his picture being lowered during the curtain call.

As for your other question, Anything Goes was kind of a screwball comedy type book. Oklahoma was more of a story story.

Updated On: 7/4/13 at 10:37 PM

Questions about ANYTHING GOES

Posted: 7/4/13 at 10:46pm

Got it. Thanks!

Questions about ANYTHING GOES

Posted: 7/5/13 at 1:28am

I've also always wondered this. Great to finally get an answer!

Questions about ANYTHING GOES

Posted: 7/5/13 at 1:46am

Also, didn't they have a new book for LuPone/Foster? What was the book like in 1934?

Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.

Questions about ANYTHING GOES

Posted: 7/5/13 at 2:59am

The 1934 "Anything Goes" was basically the same story as the current versions, but with lots more puns for William Gaxton and visual gags for Victor Moore. Gaxton and Moore were the wildly successful Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick of the 20s and 30s. They starred in "Anything Goes", "Of Thee I Sing" and about a dozen other big hits. Moore made movies but Gaxton never really made the transition. He remained on Broadway and was the President of the Lambs Club.

As for the book question, it's all Oscar Hammerstein. He created the first true musical with a story in the 1920s with "Showboat" and then spent the 30s trying to match that hit - unsuccessfully. When he teamed up with Rodgers for "Oklahoma" they began a string of "musical plays" as opposed to musical comedies and conquered Broadway.

http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=972787#3631451 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=963561#3533883 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955158#3440952 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954269#3427915 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=955012#3441622 http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=954344#3428699

Updated On: 7/5/13 at 02:59 AM

Questions about ANYTHING GOES

Posted: 7/5/13 at 6:16am

I haven't seen the original book for ANYTHING GOES, but you can bet it was nothing like what you are seeing today. (I believe the book originally dealt with a shipwreck, but the book was quickly rewritten after a real shipwreck made the subject inappropriate for humor.)

(I have seen a "museum" recreation as well as the 1960s revisal of BABES IN ARMS and the differences are striking!)

Musicals of the 1930s often hired vaudeville comics and invented flimsy excuses for the comics to do their vaudeville routines. The musical comedy was an entirely different form back then (with the possible exception of the Princess musicals of Wodehouse and Kern, which seem to have been a bit more character-based).

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