Last evening, my friend Carolyn and I took in the Reprise! production of Cole Porter's Anything Goes up at the Freud Playhouse at U.C.L.A. It closes Sunday, which is a shame for those of you who won't get to see it. Storywise, Anything Goes ain't much of a story…some trivia about a guy who stows away on an ocean liner to try and stop the woman he loves from marrying somebody else. Since its original production in 1934, the book has been revised a few times and it's still silly. Fortunately though, subsequent productions have also interpolated a few of Mr. Porter's best songs from other venues. They join some terrific songs that were already in the show and…well, you have a score that can't be beat. Get together a terrific cast and you have a helluvan evening.
The Reprise! folks got together a terrific cast, headlined by Brent Barrett, Anastasia Barzee, Larry Cedar, Jason Graae, Delee Lively, Sally Struthers, Fred Willard and Rachel York. Boy, were they good — all of them, as were the other members of the troupe, directed by Glenn Casale. Half the numbers had that little magical moment at the end where the audience bursts into applause a half-second faster than normal, courtesy clapping, and hits their hands together hard and fast to indicate how much they loved what just occurred. At the end of "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," there was an explosion you may have heard in other time zones.
Everyone was good. Rachel York sings like the proverbial dream. Fred Willard, Jason Graae and Larry Cedar were all very, very funny. So was Sally Struthers, who seems to be succeeding in her ongoing campaign to turn herself into Shelley Winters.
Not much point in me saying more since there are only a few more performances. But I'm glad to be a subscriber to Reprise! The batting average is high and every so often, they come up with one like this one that all by itself is worth the price of the whole season. If you live in Southern California, check out the Reprise website. The remaining two shows for this season are On the Twentieth Century, which will star Kristen Chenoweth and Douglas Sills, and She Loves Me, in which Patrick Cassidy will play the role his father Jack played on Broadway.
