The St. Cyril Theatre Guild's 1999 Summer Musical Anything Goes! will be presented on Friday, July 16 and Saturday, July 17, with a Sunday matinee at 2:00PM on July 18. Peformances continue the following week-end on Thursday, July 22, (Patron's Night), Friday, July 23, and Saturday, July 24. The curtain goes up for all evening performances at 8:00PM on Rice University's Hamman Hall stage.

For a light-hearted evening of song, dance, and romance, come join us on board the pleasure steamer S.S. America where "ANYTHING GOES!" The music is fabulous Cole Porter: It's De-Lovely, I Get A Kick Out Of You, Easy To Love, Friendship, You're The Top, and the title song, Anything Goes!

Billy, our hero, stows away aboard the S.S. America to convince his lady love, Hope, that she loves him and not Englishman Sir Evelyn Oakleigh. Billy is aided by Reno, the female night club evangelist, and Moonface Martin, better known as Public Enemy No. 13. After various trials and tribulations, it all ends happily with no less than three weddings!

Check our Tickets page for further information.

Anything Goes!

A Bit of History About the Show

Music: Cole Porter Lyrics: Cole Porter Book: Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse

Anything Goes! was first envisioned by producer Vinton Freedley while he was hiding out aboard a fishing boat in the Gulf of Panama. Eventually, Vinton returned to New York and began assembling his dream team, which consisted of Cole Porter, Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse, and Ethel Merman. Soon Freedley had a script that he felt confident would reverse his bad luck and sagging fortunes. Then, with rehearsals just about to begin, the S.S. Morro Castle went down off the coast of New Jersey. Over 125 passengers lost their lives in this highly publicized disaster. Anything Goes!, Freedley decided, would have to be rewritten. Anything Goes! did not actually appear as the title of the musical until this second draft and it referred to the desperation with which the show was put together. The rewrite retained most of the same characters, but did away with the idea of the ship sinking. The plot revolved around nightclub singer Reno Sweeney (Merman), her pal Billy Crocker, Crocker's debutante/love, Hope Harcourt, Moon-Face Mooney, and Public Enemy No.13, who slips onto the ship to avoid the FBI. Anything Goes! opened at the Alvin Theatre on November 21, 1934 and turned out to be the fourth longest running musical of the 1930s. In 1987, it was revived at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre with Patti LuPone in the leading role and a revised book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman. The 1936 screen version starred Ethel Merman and Bing Crosby.

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