Get your tickets and grab your seats. On the relatively small stage at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, Porchlight Music Theatre is putting on a big, big show: the 90th anniversary production of Cole Porter's inimitable Anything Goes.
Do you like big production numbers? Tap dancing sailors? Slinky chorines? Big brassy belters? Mistaken identities and preposterous plots? Yes... yes you do. Or, at least, yes you should. And Anything Goes has got all that and more on a stage jam-packed with dazzling talent.
The talent to start with is, of course, Porter himself. One of the giants of the American theater, Porter wrote some of his very best work for this show: "I Get a Kick Out of You"... "You're the Top"..."Easy to Love"... "Blow, Gabriel, Blow"... and, of course, the title song itself. And in the decades since, productions have added more Porter favorites to the show, like "Friendship" (originally from DuBarry Was a Lady) and "It's De-Lovely" (from Red, Hot and Blue). The end result is a hit parade of some of the greatests numbers in the American songbook. And this production, under the direction of Michael Weber, presents those gems in a near-perfect setting.
Speaking of jewels, this cast is headed by a particularly sparkling one: Meghan Murphy as "Reno Sweeney"—a former evangelist turned saloon singer. The role, first made famous by Ethel Merman and subsequently portrayed by Broadway luminaries Patty LuPone and Sutton Foster in later revivals, is an electric one—and Murphy delivers the galvanic volts. Often billed simply as "Big Red" in her cabaret act, Murphy truly has the goods: she sings... she belts... she struts... she dances. In short, Ms. Murphy sizzles.
And the rest of the cast provides similar talented jolts. Luke Nowakowski, who portrays romantic lead Billy Crocker, displays his beautiful tenor in the show's sentimental ballads "Easy to Love" and the lesser-known "All Through the Night" and his quick comic timing when paired with Murphy as they trade compliments in one of Porter's most famous "list songs," "You're the Top."
Crocker's comic sidekick, Moonface Martin (only #13 on the FBI's most-wanted list—the show often reminds us) is perfectly inhabited by Steve McDonagh (a Chicago actor also famous as one-half of the Food Network's "Hearty Boys"). McDonagh is a brilliant comic—and he gives a master class in how to find and deliver the laughs.
And McDonagh is not alone. In a show packed with comedy, Jackson Evans stands out as the quintessential upper-class twit, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, whose stiff-upper lip hides a tremendous funny bone. His side-splitting performance comes close to stopping the show when paired with Murphy's Reno in the brilliant comic number "The Gypsy in Me."
I could go on—this is an immensely talented cast, guided by Michael Weber's keen direction and crackerjack choreography from Tammy Mader. Yes, the plot of the show is silly—that's part of the charm. Any show with this many gangsters-in-disguise, tipsy millionaires, Boystown runaways, speakeasy sirens, footloose flappers and not one, but three shipboard weddings—well, silliness is maybe the point. And what grand silliness it is. Go see it.
Porchlight Music Theatre's Anything Goes has been extended through March 10 at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts (1016 N. Dearborn). Run time is 2 hours and 15 minutes, with one intermission. Tickets are available at www.porchlightmusictheatre.org.
For more information on this and other plays, see theatreinchicago.com.
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