Showboat Theatre’s ‘Anything Goes’ is a treat

By Ruby Nancy

According to the tales told by theatre veterans, the Cole Porter musical “Anything Goes” got its name from a frustrated response to a questions about how to wrap up Act I during the show’s first major revision.

Supposedly, as legend has it, an exhausted producer finally blew a gasket, replying, “At this point, anything goes!”

Whether based on a true story or just a cute faux-anecdote, the title does sum up a lot of what’s happening in the show, currently being staged at the Lillian Russell Theatre aboard the Showboat in Clinton, IA.

Aboard the S.S. American, which sets sail for England from New York at the beginning of this popular musical, the audience is introduced to a menagerie of characters whose stories, predictably, will intersect during the voyage.

Taken simply as fluff with lots of lovely music, “Anything Goes” is plenty of ridiculous fun – living up to its title with gusto by presenting unlikely romantic leads and impossible situations galore – and the broad theatricality of it is highly entertaining.

Take the character of Reno Sweeney (the lively, super-talented Cassandra Marie Nuss), a nightclub-singer-turned-evangelist who seems to still be a night club singer who accosts an affianced man as a favor to a friend, then sets her sights on the man as a keeper.  The show calls for her to be a bawd, a girl-next-door and a charismatic religious figure at various random times.  Nuss, thankfully, is so effervescent in this role – so totally fabulous as a singer and dancer – that no one really cares.  Her rich vocals, strong tap and dance skills and lively personality are a joyous example of what musical theatre performance is when it is at its best.

Likewise Elisha J. Whitney (the always wonderful Colin Douglas), a missionary (the funny, underused Chris Appuhn) and a host of other characters pop in and out of the story for no apparent reason, but – since the music and most of the cast are so much fun – who cares?

Isaac Jankowski is a superb tap-dancing steward, Nicole Horton is virtually unrecognizable as a slightly blowsy, past-her-prime society drunk, and Maggie Mountsier – despite a pinched look that makes it seem that she and/or her character are the only ones not having any fun here – does wonderful vocal and dance work, particularly on her duet with the talented Benjamin Cole (who plays a low-key, likable Billy Crocker) on “It’s De-Lovely.”  Jeffrey Fauver is plenty of fun as small-time gangster Moonface Martin, too.

Best of all, Rob Engelson is an absolute laugh riot as Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, the wealthy-bit-naïve Americanism-loving Englishman who begins the voyage engaged to one young woman and ends it with another.  His portrayal is frothy and silly, delightfully vague and perfectly delivered.  His patent, and totally sweet, obliviousness is one of the finer things comedy is made of, and audiences will absolutely adore him.  The entire musical is wonderfully done, of course, but Engelson’s fantastic work is the pinnacle of this comic achievement.

Fans of musical comedies as well as dance-loving audiences – who will be enthusiastically appreciative of Sheryl Villa’s fantastic choreography – are sure to love this “Anything Goes.”

Make sure you get to see it for yourself.