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Anything
Goes
Anything Goes was first envisioned
by producer Vinton Freedley
while hiding out aboard a fishing boat in the Gulf of Panama after
fleeing the country to escape creditors. His idea was based on
the premise of an ocean liner facing the threat of a possible
shipwreck. He returned to New York and, after paying off his debts,
began assembling his dream team: Cole Porter, Guy Bolton, P.G.
Wodehouse, Ethel Merman. Soon Freedley had a script that he felt
sure would reverse his sagging fortunes. Then, with rehearsals
just about to begin, the S.S. Morro Castle went down off the coast
of New Jersey. Over 125 passengers lost their lives in the highly
publicized disaster. Anything Goes, Freedley decided, would have
to be rewritten. Anything Goes did not actually appear as the
title until this second draft and referred to the desperation
with which the show was put together. The rewrite retained most
of the same characters, but did away with the idea of the shipwreck.
The plot revolved around nightclub singer Reno Sweeney (Merman),
her pal Billy Crocker, Crocker's debutante-love Hope Harcourt,
Moon-Face Mooney, and Public Enemy No. 13 who slips onto the ship
to avoid the FBI. Anything Goes opened at the Alvin Theatre on
November 21, 1934 and turned out to be the fourth longest running
musical of the 30s. In 1987, it was revived at the Vivian Beaumont
Theatre with Patti LuPone in the leading role and a revised book
by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman. The 1936 screen version starred
Ethel Merman and Bing Crosby.
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