Go, go, go, Cole: ‘Anything Goes’ thru Porchlight Theatre

Meghan Murphy and The Company. Photo by Liz Lauren.

Of all the Broadway shows Cole Porter ever wrote, Anything Goes is the one that keeps on going.

So far, Porter’s estate hasn’t been quite as keen to slot his sterling songs into new-old plots as has, say, the Gershwins’. Meanwhile, the gender politics of Kiss Me, Kate, his one enduring hit in which songs were directly integrated with plot, require an increasingly deft hand to keep it aloft.

But Anything Goes seems to have emerged not only as the quintessential Cole Porter musical but the Broadway musical of the 1930s. Silly, screwball, chock fulla folks squaring off and pairing off, and zesty enough in its satire on celebrity and love versus career, it’s the one that just sails.

Provided you cast it right, of course. As ever since olden days, the passengers of the S.S. American needs some top-class personalities to fill them out. Chicago-based chanteuse Meghan Murphy is the advertised draw as Reno Sweeney, the role that cinched Ethel Merman’s place in the pantheon. And, heavens to Betsy, does she wield control with knuckles as brassy as her voice.

But director Michael Weber is also smart enough to treat this Anything Goes like an ensemble piece. We have them all—the suave sort, (Luke Nowakowski), the gangster galoot (Steve MacDonald), the ingenue (Emma Ogea), and the toff (Jackson Evans)—and each take a nibble at these bon-bon roles and find a nougat center. Ogea and Evans, in particular—she for digging down deeper into this musical comedy debutante’s soul than one could ever anticipate, and he for delightfully turning into rubber at the slightest stimulus.

Music director Nick Sula captains an above-stage band ably, and especial props to Greg Strauss’s obbligati in “Blow, Gabriel, Blow”.

For anyone sick of waiting out the freeze, Anything Goes is a worthy trek to warmer climes.

Anything Goes runs through Mar. 10 at 1016 N. Dearborn St. For tickets or more information, please call (773) 777-9884 or visit porchlightmusictheatre.org.

For more reviews on this or other shows, please visit theatreinchicago.com.