‘Anything Goes’ gives audience a thrill ride

After seeing “Anything Goes,” which opened over the weekend at the Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth, you’ll get no kick from champagne. Mere alcohol won’t thrill you at all. What you’ll want is to stow away with director Ken Stack’s cast into the romping, rhyming, reeling world of Cole Porter.

Written hastily by P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton in 1934 as a light burlesque, “Anything Goes” was designed as more of a farce than a musical. The first storyline was about a shipwreck, but when an ocean liner went down in flames off the coast of New Jersey and 125 passengers were killed, the director Howard Lindsay was called in to happify the plot.

The ocean liner was kept, and a cast of socialites, crooks, sailors and mismatched lovers were brought aboard in a romantic comedy.

The resulting show ran for 420 performances on Broadway, where Ethel Merman originated the belting role of Reno Sweeney, the steamy entertainer and fallen evangelist. In short, the show was a hit, and nattily distracted theatergoers from a country strapped by the Great Depression, from a world “that’s gone mad today and good’s bad today.”

In 1987, writers Timothy Crouse and John Weidman gave the show a face lift, nipping and tucking to get rid of lines that were outdated and the references that were blemishes to a more PC nation. Since it only gets better with age, Porter’s music remained the same, and, with Patti Lupone at the helm, the rejuvenated “Anything Goes” played double the performances of the 1934 show and pulled in the Tony Award that year.

The artistic team at the Grand uses the smartened 1987 version, and — here comes the line you’ve been waiting for — it’s the top. Stack has gathered a feisty collection of actors that are giddy, gutsy and blazing with spontaneity. He also designed the suggestively art deco set, which is mostly the deck of the S.S. America, but has more fold-out compartments than a Rubik’s cube has squares.

Linda Grindle must have gone through a time-travel machine in search of period costumes, which are luxurious, varied and tight in all the right places. Most of the outfits are black, white or cream colored, and the effect against the powder-blue background of the ship is pure elegance. For music director Bob Bahr, the orchestra is more of a swing band, which is entirely on the mark. And Judy Brookings’ choreography swims along with major production numbers, tap dancing, the fox trot, and a whole lotta shaking going on.

The success of every production of “Anything Goes,” however, ultimately rests on the shoulders — not to mention rangy voice and curvy hips — of the actor playing Reno. Heather Astbury, who not that long ago was playing Dorothy in “The Wizard of OZ,” sure ain’t in Kansas anymore. Between her Broadway-style voice and the zing of her stage work, Astbury has found a role that lets her cut loose and fly high. She has that star power mostly because she found the tricky balance of sex appeal, intelligence and down-home girlishness of Reno.

Although your eye will want to follow Astbury’s every move, she doesn’t steal scenes from the talent around her. Indeed, the other actors flex their own stage muscles without strain or sprain. Tony Pizzuto, in his first leading role at the Grand, is a boyishly handsome and eager Billy Crocker. High school senior Kate Pierce, as the deb Hope whom Billy woos, is also in her first feature role, and plays the part with demure Botticelli beauty. Her voice is small, but lovely and she has the sweetness of a rosebud.

Robert Libby plays it straight in the role of Lord Evelyn Oakley, a Brit slated to marry Hope, and comes up with a winningly naive, stuffy and witty performance. His rendition of “The Gypsy in Me” is the outrageously understated and nerdy humor Libby has a pro’s stroke with.

Speaking of strokes: Steve Robbins couldn’t be more slaying in the role Moonface Martin, a second-rate gangster whose looking to lower his number. More than anyone else in the cast, Robbins has the right why-I-oughta, sight-gag humor for the era of the show. He, too, is in a role written for his broad clownish comedy. Yet he brings it to a grace pitch in the duet “Friendship,” with Astbury, which is one of the strongest pieces in an evening made up of show stoppers.

Nancy Buckingham, the third newcomer lead in the show, holds her ground opposite Robbins as Erma. The woman can sing, she can dance, she can wallop a few sailors, and walk away with a smile.

At the final dress rehearsal last week, the cast was still working out scene-changes and the orchestra was still finding a few of the notes. It’s worth remembering that this is a community production — so minor glitches might find their way into final performances. But these singer-actors bring the show back with integrity and spunk. So you can forget the Colosseum, the Louvre museum and a melody from a symphony by Strauss. Go to the Grand where you’ll get a kick out of “Anything Goes.” And go there early because the show, which lasts about 2 1/2 hours, starts at the civilized hour of 7 p.m.

“Anything Goes” will be presented 7 p.m. Nov. 12 and 13, and 2 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Grand Auditorium in Ellsworth. For tickets, call 667-5911.