"Anything Goes" Articles"Anything Goes" Articles
Marion talent shines again in 'Anything Goes' (Linda Lee-Courier Journal)
Marion High School's annual musical, Anything Goes, was performed for three packed houses last weekend, having added a last-minute matinee to their usual Friday and Saturday night shows, because those shows were sold out.
Every musical has a big production number, with a large number of dancers and singers doing their thing. This musical had "Anything Goes" and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" and they were magnificent. With an estimated 60 people on stage, doing complex choreography of tap, they both stoped the show.
The two numbersare evne more impressive if you know that prior to the beginning of rehearsals a few short months ago, only a handful of the students who performed them had any tap dancing experience at all.
The show centers around several characters, the main on being Reno Sweeney, played by Alicia Weeks, who musical-goers remember from her oerformance as Marian the Librarian in The Music Manand Irene Molloy in Hello, Dolly. Her Easmtan School of Music voice training showed in a strong, steady voice capable of holding its own even over 60-strong chorus in the production numbers, as well as blending beautifully with her co-star, Peter Stevens, as Billy Crocker in the light, upbeat duet, 'You're the Top"-a cute "buddy" number.
Stevens has consiberable talent as well; his role as Billy, a likeable scoundrel, took him right from "You're the Top" to the slow, romantic "Easy To Love" with his love interest, Hope (played by Elizabeth Fino-Radin). All three actors were outstanding, and seniors Weeks and Fino-Radin will no doubt be missed in future musical productions.
Supporting players included Kyle Haak as Moonface Martin and Jennifer LaFlam as Erma and Jessica Lammers as the Cruise Director. haak has played other comedic "sidekicks", as Barnaby (of Cornelius and Barnaby) in Hello, Dolly and in in the barbershop quartet in The Music Man.
Notable for their comedic value were some of the off-stage sound effects; particularlythe shaving of the aforementioned cute dog so as to use his fur for a disguise, and the success of a skeet shooter with a machine gun. The orchestra was as fine as we've come to expect from marion musicals, and costumes as elaborate and beautiful.
It would seem that Director Shelly Thompson and Musical Director Rebecca Borden might as well bow to the inevitable and schedule a matinee for next year's musical right from the start. Word has gotten around, Marion has established its well-deserved musical reputation, and the seats will be needed. The public has made its demands clear.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please email me.
Marion-Comedy, romance, a cute dog, and not one but two toe-tapping, goosebump-raising, stand-up-and-cheer major production numbers:what's not to love?
