Here Goes Anything

Ben Brantley in The New York Times likes the latest Broadway revival of Anything Goes.  It seems to be the revised verion that did so well in the 80s, and interpolates other great Cole Porter numbers such as "Friendship," "It's De-lovely" and "Easy To Love."

Brantley especially goes for Sutton Foster in the Ethel Merman/Reno Sweeney role, but the show was never just a vehicle; I'd say it features three equal leads--Billy Crocker and Moonface Martin along with Reno.  And this production, in addition to the many young faces, also has veterans Joel Grey, John McMartin and Jessica Walter.

Brantley goes into a little history:

The vicissitudes the original production underwent included having to jettison a large part of the original script (which involved a shipwreck) after a fire on a cruise ship killed 134 people. The first team of writers, P. G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton, had moved on to other projects, so Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse were brought on, beginning a collaboration that would peak with the long-running “Life With Father.”

So Brantley buys this old story.  Apparently he hasn't heard it was a cover.  Actually, the Bolton/Wodehouse script was no good.  The producers threw it out and hired Lindsay and Crouse, but since B and W were bigger names, their names were not removed from the show.