Anything Goes

"BUDDY BEWARE”

As I sit down at the beautiful Besen Theatre and scan my program before the matinee of a Cole Porter musical sitting next to a crowd that look like they may have hung with Porter in their day I am interested at a point I read in the Director’s Notes. It is in reference to Whitehorse Musical Theatre’s production of “Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story” which was to have taken place but was replaced by Anything Goes because they were “unable to cast some of the crucial roles”. Relief falls upon me and a sense of gladness that a company in the Melbourne non-pro musical theatre community has decided to not just push on, but find a new show instead of casting a heap of ‘make-do’s’. Things have come a long way from when I started doing/seeing shows where people would get the role because they had the right hair colour and ‘we could save on a wig’. I digress, this then led me to a moment of caution hoping they’d made the right decision and come up with the goods for this production, I am very pleased to say they have indeed!

Anything Goes as most of you know it is an old school, boy meets girl musical scripted with slapstick and obvious puns that can easily be misinterpreted or overplayed in an effort to make the show more than it is. Here though Whitehorse has embraced the charm and simplicity of a classic show that features some of the most unforgettable songs of all time, audition piece selection is a testament to this if nothing else.

The story unfolds on a ship, so thematically and thanks to recent reincarnations on Broadway tends to be typically in a heightened sense of nautical and Americana red, white and blue. However Jeremy Bailey Smith’s set design favoured a much warmer toned deco-inspired style complete with all the glamorous trimmings of the deco period to provide a cleverly functional set lit beautifully by Stelios Karagiannis whose design brought out the best of both the set and the action throughout the piece. Bailey Smith’s also responsible for costuming, this left me a little underwhelmed as he seemed to have gone the route of so many costumers in non-pro theatre paying special attention to the detail of principal characters and not so to ensemble who in a big dance show like this often are the glue to keep the show together. Whilst I would have liked more cohesion to his colour palettes to complement the set I did find relief and continuity with the ensemble’s performance. No major standouts in the ensemble which says to me they’ve done a brilliant job, however for the principals there were definitely those who took the lead, quite literally.

A few songs in I was left thinking if Patti LuPone and Caroline O’Connor were to procreate what would their offspring be like, yes I have warped thought process when sitting in a musical for a matinee, and then there she was. In the role of Reno Sweeny, Rachel Juhasz was a knockout. Her effortless performance carried those playing off her who at times missed the boat especially vocally, and seeing someone attack a role with such gusto and lack of precaution was a welcome thrill. Other notables include the sassy and Rhonda reminiscent Katie Bull as Erma, the always entertaining Barry Mitchell as Elisha Whitney and his love interest Evangeline Harcourt brought to life (albeit fading fast) by Sallyanne Skeggs whose dry wit gave a great Carol Burnett quality to the role. Packing a comedic punch was James Cutler as Moonface, brilliantly delivered and vocally spot on, Cutler will say Bon Voyage to non-professional theatre for bigger things soon no doubt. Not packing a punch for me and failing to even swing was the orchestra in this show as they failed to keep pace or at times volume enough to support most of the onstage talent. All in all though this production was exactly what it should be, a bright toe-tapping song and dance show, directed but not over directed, choreographed to bring the best out of those on stage and entertaining for an escape from the hum drum of our day to day lives.

Don’t miss this show as aside from being a classic, it’s anchors down at the Besen Centre for a short time and is from my understanding selling very well so don’t wait till the night to get tickets at the door or you’ll be left on the docks as the fortunate ones set sail on this musical adventure.

Luke is an accomplished music
theatre performer, his theatre credits include the Australian Tour of EUROBEAT,
Graeme Murphy’s Turandot for Opera Australia and more recently as Arvin in the
Australian Premiere at Chapel Off Chapel of ‘Zanna, Don’t!’.
He also works as an events producer and choreographer on events such as
L’oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and The State Schools Spectacular.