Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Debbie Kurup, Matt Rawle, Simon Rouse, Hugh Sachs, Jayne Wymark, Zoe Rainey, Alex Young, Adam Dutton, Bob Harms, Nick Len, Andy Yau, Michelle Andrews, Anouska Eaton, Jack Evans, Victoria Hinde, Lauren Jade, Rebecca Jayne-Davies, Michael Lin, Dylan Mason, Joanne Lee Marrtin, Ryan Pidgen, Adam Rhys-Charles, Rohan Richards, Tom Partridge, Alexandra Waite-Roberts.

The age of elegance, of travelling with style and exuberance, it’s no wonder that even now to sail across the Atlantic, to step on in New York harbour and wave goodbye to the French lady and come into port beside the three graces of Liverpool, is seen as glamorous compared to being waiting in line to take your shoes off in the sterile conditions afforded by airlines. Before the days of getting on a plane for several hours in cramped conditions was even considered to be commercially viable, the only way to travel was to board one of the great beasts of the sea and be amused and entertained as almost Anything Goes.

With the overriding majority of musicals, it is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the music that is the main driving force behind the audience’s enjoyment and in which the expectation is set. For productions such as Anything Goes, the expectation can be seen to be that little higher, the hurdle height lengthened and perhaps more lingering. Like Chicago or Saturday Night Fever which has been played at the Empire Theatre before it, the emphasis is truly on the dancing. The structure of the combined group dynamic or even when Reno Sweeney’s all-girl band entertains, the ship’s manifest, is solely the point and throughout it is handled with extreme wonderful provocation and professionalism.

With Debbie Kurup leading the ensemble into the ways of interpreting Jazz as a dance form, and who was also in sparkling form throughout the whole evening, there should be no doubt on where the night would take the near capacity crowd at the Empire Theatre. With Stephen Matthews as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh alongside Ms. Kurup, that dynamic between the dance and the music exploded into stars high above the imagined Atlantic sky. Added to the youthful energetic mix that paraded on stage with so much vigour it positively took years of the audience themselves, Hugh Sachs as the gangster Moonface Martin and Simon Rouse as businessman Elisha Whitney were on splendid form, with Mr. Rouse giving such a comedy balanced performance that might take some by surprise.

With a score that includes the bubbly I Get A Kick Out Of You, You’re The Top, It’s De-Lovely, The Gypsy In Me and the fabulous title song of Anything Goes, the dance routines are incredibly complemented and given that certain feeling of complete assuredness, which unfortunately can be missing from other musicals.   

Anything Goes might have had a difficult birth, especially being born in the era of prohibition and the wave of despair felt by the Wall Street Crash and the depression, however with the genuine affection that it has placed on its deck over the intervening 80 years, the musical is still to be seen as tip top and Bristol fashion and gleaming with more pride than a sailor putting on his uniform to hit the town.

Anything Goes? Not quite, but it is still one of the great reasons to go and watch a musical, It’s certainly de-lovely!

Ian D. Hall