The producers of the much-anticipated UK re-working of the award-winning Broadway revival of the Cole Porter and P.G. Wodehouse musical Anything Goes have announced new dates and further casting for the show which will play a season at the Barbican before embarking on a UK tour.
Starring Emmy and Screen Actors’ Guild winner Megan Mullally (Will & Grace, Young Frankenstein) who will make her West End debut as Reno Sweeney alongside Tony, Olivier and BAFTA award winner Robert Lindsay (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Oliver!) as Moonface Martin, the production will now sail into London’s Barbican for a strictly limited engagement from 23 July until 17 October 2021.
As previously announced, the high-profile pair will be joined by Evening Standard Theatre Award winner Felicity Kendal (Much Ado About Nothing, Lettice and Lovage) will make her West End musical debut as Evangeline Harcourt alongside musical theatre favourite Gary Wilmot’s (Chicago, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) Elisha Whitney.
Revealing the new dates along with more principal casting news, producer Howard Panter said: “We’re delighted to announce that Anything Goes – which truly is one of the greatest musical comedies of all-time – will open this summer at London’s Barbican Theatre with the first performance on Friday 23 July and playing through the autumn until Sunday 17 October.
“Starring the incredible line-up of Megan Mullally, Robert Lindsay, Felicity Kendal and Gary Wilmot, this show is the perfect tonic following the last year of theatre closures and we can’t wait to set sail!”
New additions to the cast include rising star Samuel Edwards (Les Misérables, Wicked) who will take on the role of Billy Crocker with Nicole-Lily Baisden (The Book of Mormon, Let’s Face The Music) as Hope Harcourt, Carly Mercedes Dyer (West Side Story, Chicago) as Erma and Haydn Oakley (A Christmas Carol, An American in Paris) as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Further casting will be announced soon.
The Tony Award-winning director of the hit 2011 Broadway revival of the show, Kathleen Marshall will also make her West debut as director and choreographer of the lavish new production which will feature a company of over 50 including a full orchestra and 14 tap dancing sailors.
The madcap musical comedy set aboard an ocean liner bound for New York from Southampton boasts music and lyrics by Porter, an original book by Wodehouse and Guy Bolton with Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and a new book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman.
Anything Goes debuted on Broadway in 1934 when it proved the perfect show to lift the spirits of American theatregoers during The Great Depression. The musical arrived in the West End a year later.
In 1962 the Off-Broadway revival of the show became the first to incorporate a number of songs from Porter’s other shows with ‘Take Me Back to Manhattan’ (from The New Yorkers), ‘It’s De-Lovely’ (from Red Hot and Blue) and ‘Let’s Misbehave’ (from Paris) joining Porter standards including ‘I Get A Kick Out of You’, ‘You’re the Top’ and the title song ‘Anything Goes’.
Marshall’s 2011 Broadway revival of Anything Goes was nominated for nine Tony Awards and 10 Drama Desk Awards, winning the gongs for Best Musical Revival and Best Choreography.
Angela Thomas
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