ANYTHING GOES
Rumour has it that Anything Goes may be headed back to Broadway starring Reba McEntire as Reno Sweeney under the direction of Kathleen Marshall for the Roundabout Theatre Company. Marshall tends to hit or miss, so I guess it’ll be interesting to see what she comes up with for Anything Goes, a return to the Porter oeuvre after her production of Kiss Me, Kate. I wonder which book and score elements with be used. The 1987 update (for the Patti LuPone / Elaine Paige revivals) seems to be the most popular today and I suppose the production will be based on that. Any thoughts? Head on to the comment box!
Musical Cyberspace 
I’d love for there to be a revival, but Reba? She’s way to old and the only reason she could play Annie Oakley is because she didn’t really have to act that much.
I would rather she do a TV production of Annie Get Your Gun but this will be interesting.
For a while TV productions of old musicals seemed to be in. I enjoyed it even though some were far better than others, but now – maybe because film musicals have come back pretty strongly – they seem to be forgotten.
As much as Reba is pretty good, I can definitely not see her as Reno.
I hate everything about Reba: her voice, looks, accent, political party and above all her lack of acting ability. Besides its too soon for another Anything Goes. There are better Cole Porter shows to be revived: DuBarry Was a Lady, Can-Can, Silk Stockings, 50 Million Frenchemen and Out of This World.
I totally agree on the more Cole Porter shows to be revived. I’d love to see Can-Can. And yes, I totally agree on that it’s too soon for an Anything Goes revival. The only reason I think Reba is pretty good is because the TV show makes me laugh – but I often wonder how “authentic” her character is because of it being the same name. My guess is not very.
It has been 20 years since the last full scale Broadway revival of Anything Goes. There are many shows that have revivals within shorter periods these days, so I think it’s fair enough that the show is making a return to Broadway – and it seems the most logical choice if you’re going to produce a Porter considering the economic climate and the scale of a Broadway production.
I would have liked to get into discussing the other shows mentioned here, but I’ve run out of time this morning. But for a start:
Out of this World has a few fantastic Porter numbers (“Nobody’s Chasing Me”, “I Sleep Easier Now” and so on) and his lyrics for the show are witty and particularly suggestive. But the book is no great shakes – although I’m not sure what the revised version from San Francisco is like. Still, I don’t see it playing a full scale commercial run on Broadway. It’s an average old school musical comedy bedroom farce where the book fills the gaps between the songs, and a full scale Broadway revival would just reveal the weaknesses that were apparent even in the context in which it first played. It was not one of Porter’s greater successes, running for 157 performances (compared to, for example, the 420 performances that Anything Goes had in its original run). Even from a non-commercial perspective, I’d never say it was a better show overall than Anything Goes.
Many people, including me, feel Out of this World is Porter’s best score. Robert Kimbal puts it above Kiss Me Kate and with book revisions it needs a second chance. Anything Goes, as good as it is, is more a typical musical comedy of the 1930s than Out of this World is of the 1950s.
Anything Goes is much more likely to get a large audience though. I love the idea of a revival, but I hate the idea of Reba as Reno. I could probably think of over one thousand people better suited.
I don’t like the idea of reviving sows just to make money. Revivals should be done to bring awareness to shows that many people don’t know. After all, thats how Anything Goes became popular again in 1962.