Alan Olee Book Report

“Where have you been?” you might ask – but please don’t ask.  Work and general busy-ness has gotten the better part of me for the last few weeks.  Looks like I have about another week of nuttiness and then things settle back down to their normal mad, mad level.  But somehow amidst the consecutive seven-day work-weeks (please make it stop!) peppered with social and music obligations, I managed to make it to a show.  Cole Porter’s Anything Goes.

Anything Goes

The show itself is a madcap comedy aboard the ocean liner SS American and a reasonably good synopsis is here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anything_Goes

What a great show – first performed in 1934 it harkens back to a previous artistic era, but the music and songs of Cole Porter generally speaking, and in this show particularly have enjoyed a favored spot in American music far beyond the show itself.  I mean check out these titles:

• I Get a Kick Out of You
• Easy to Love
• It’s De-lovely
• Anything Goes
• Blow Gabriel Blow

I first got into I Get a Kick Out of You way back in my band and vocal arranging days back in I guess the mid ’80s.  I had an assignment to do a take-down of the Frank Sinatra version.  I mean, it is a good, strong song, but back in those days you listened to it over and over and transcribed it by ear with a pencil and music score paper and by the time I was finished I was just blown away at the brilliant writing.  Cole Porter was genius – pure musical genius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtwO2tKZmwQ

I think this was the version I did the take-down on.  I adapted it for full jazz band and vocalist.

In the show, Reno Sweeny, evangelist turned nightclub singer, sings this song in Act One, Scene 1 – she likes the lead-man Billy, but Billy of course, is into Hope Harcourt.  This is a show with lots of characters, but Reno is the actor at the center of everything, and she also sings the big number Blow Gabriel Blow in Act Two.  At the end of Act One she sings the title song, Anything Goes.

Debby Rosenthal played Reno the night I went (she was amazing!) and I spoke with her for just a brief moment after the show – I asked something like “Debbie, the show is all about Billy and Hope and love at first sight, plus there are all these other characters that are all like mini-stars in their own right.  Yet your character is in the middle of every scene; and the show is very physical.  What did you find most challenging?”  She answered that the show was an absolute blast to do, but actually the part she had found most challenging was memorizing the words to the songs!  And if you think about it, some of the words are kind of crazy.  Here are the words to Anything Goes:

[Recit Intro]
Times have changed,
And we’ve often rewound the clock,
Since the Puritans got a shock,
When they landed on Plymouth Rock.
If today,
Any shock they should try to stem,
‘Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would have landed on them!

[Reno Sings]
In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now God knows,
Anything Goes!

Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, Anything Goes!

The world has gone mad today
And good’s bad today,
And black’s white today,
And day’s night today,
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos.

And though I’m not a great romancer
I know that I’m bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes!

When grandmama whose age is eighty
In night clubs is getting matey with gigolos,
Anything Goes!

When mothers pack and leave poor father
Because they decide they’d rather be tennis pros,
Anything Goes!

If driving fast cars you like,
If low bars you like,
If old hymns you like,
If bare limbs you like,
If Mae West you like,
Or me undressed you like,
Why nobody will oppose!

When every night
The set that’s smart
Is intruding in nudist parties in studios,
Anything Goes!

The world has gone mad today
And good’s bad today,
And black’s white today,
And day’s night today,
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos.

If saying your prayers you like,
If green pears you like
If old chairs you like,
If back stairs you like,
If love affairs you like
With young bears you like,
Why nobody will oppose!

And though I’m not a great romancer
I know that I’m bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes!

Yeah.  Those are some tough words to memorize; but they are great words!  Very racy and funny.  The show was well produced and directed, casting was perfect and it was a wonderful night.  It is Phoenix Theatre’s 95th season.  http://www.phoenixtheatre.com/