06/16/2002
In more than two decades of theatergoing, I have never walked past strikers to see a show. That changed Thursday when "Anything Goes" opened at the Ordway Center, where 25 essential stagehands picketed the production.
As a member of my newsroom union and someone who likes to think of himself as conscientious, I was pained to brave the pickets. Yet the production, which I saw Thursday and Friday, gladdened my soul.
Even with the light and sound glitches -- and there are a few -- this local staging of the Cole Porter musical is the most spectacular show I have experienced at the Ordway in the past four years.
It has zippy, zesty direction by David Armstrong and heart-stopping choreography by Jody Ripplinger, including a stirring tap dance-off between 10 men and 10 women. Most of all, "Anything Goes" has performances to write home about by its terrific trio of stars -- tiny-but-tremendous Sandy Duncan, rascally brilliant Jim Walton and hysterically hammy Michael Brindisi. They make this musical comedy swing and sway and sail into a dream.
"Anything Goes" is a bon voyage bursting with bon mots.
Porter was a student of the classics, and his musical comedy owes a debt to Elizabethan comedy. The plot involves mistaken identities, multiple disguises and unbalanced relationships, with everything working out at the end.
A ship sets sail from New York to England. On board are evangelist-cum-nightclub-singer Reno Sweeney (Duncan), a mopey mobster named Moonface Martin who is Public Enemy No. 13 (Brindisi) and Reno's friend Billy Crocker, who first came on board to say goodbye to Reno but discovered that his long-lost love, Hope Harcourt, is going to England to marry. Her fiance, a gangly, low-libido Englishman named Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, is also on board.
To stay on the ship so that he can prevent Hope from marrying Evelyn, Billy, who has no ticket, no passport and no change of clothes, asks Moonface for help. Moonface, who came aboard expecting to see a crony, gives Billy the ticket and passport for Snake Eyes Johnson, otherwise known as Public Enemy No. 1. Billy (Walton) stays on the ship, but he has to steal clothes, impersonate a sailor, a lady, a Hong Kong man and a royal who's sometimes French, sometimes Spanish.
Hysterics ensue.
Some of this production's success might be attributed to the worries arising from the strike. It's far from the siege of Sarajevo or London, when artists performed shows under extraordinary conditions, but the cast performs under unusual conditions. It's wonderful to see actors put everything into their characters, projecting with strength even if the microphones sometimes came on too late or the spot seemed to wander sometimes.
Backed by a nimble, expressive 17-member orchestra that did not blow out the rafters, the singing actors make the music delightful and, well, de-lovely. They render standards from "You're The Top" to "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "It's De-Lovely" -- songs that you've heard in varying renditions -- with freshness and verve.
Duncan headlines the show, and she deserves high praise for her palpably explosive performance. You can see her panting. It's especially gratifying to see her in this role because the images of her as Peter Pan are so fixed.
Duncan has great chemistry with her two fellow headliners. Walton, who plays Billy, is pure joy to watch. He is like a liquid force onstage, able to pour himself into any character, any situation, and be simultaneously credible and entertaining in each new persona. He decorates Billy with touches of Mango from "Saturday Night Live," Richard Nixon and Groucho Marx.
Brindisi, making his first appearance onstage in more than a decade, is just as entertaining. He makes mobster Moonface Martin, disguised as a priest, into a dumb, genial Brooklyn stitch. He draws out his vowels, mishears and mispronounces things and hams it up to great effect.
The next ring of characters in this 32-member cast has no slackers. Jay Russell is funny as the overstarched Evelyn. He plays a cut-out role with gusto. Tari Kelly, who plays Moonface's cohort Bonnie Latour, does a wonderful job on "Let's Step Out," moving through the choreography with grace. Richard Ooms does some well-paced, fumbling bits as Elisha Whitney, a Wall Street powerbroker who's blind without his glasses. And Shannon Warne gives Hope a sweet disposition.
Anything GoesWho: By Cole Porter. Directed by David Armstrong.
When: 7 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Through June 30.
Where: Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 345 Washington St., St. Paul.
Tickets: $38 to $60. 651-224-4222.
-- Rohan Preston is at rpreston@startribune.com .
© Copyright 2002 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.