All Aboard “Anything Goes”

NEW PALTZ — The time-honored musical Anything Goes is about to set sail in a new production by the talented and able company of players in the Department of Theatre Arts at SUNY New Paltz. The twenty-six performers and twelve piece orchestra perform the fabulous, tune-filled score by Cole Porter which includes such classics as I Get A Kick Out of You, You’re the Top, It’s De-Lovely, Blow Gabriel Blow, All Through the Night, and the galvanic title number Anything Goes. Both music and lyric capture the spirit of the 1930s American musical theatre. The production runs October 14?16, and 20?24 in McKenna Theatre.

The plot crowds a dozen or so madcap characters onto a glamorous transatlantic ocean liner and makes wild comedy out of mismatched lovers, mistaken identities, and charming criminals. Among the passengers heading for England on the luxury liner SS American are Reno Sweeney, a sometime celebrity evangelist turned nightclub entertainer; Lord Oakleigh, a wealthy English aristocrat, accompanied by his debutante fianc?e Hope Harcourt, her protective mother, and Wall Street millionaire Eli Whitney. Less legally on board are the stowaway Billy Crocker, desperately pursuing Hope, and Moonface Martin, Public Enemy Number Thirteen, desperately seeking the kind of notoriety enjoyed by Snake Eyes Johnson, whom the FBI believe to be making the trip in disguise.

Under the direction of Theatre Department faculty member Paul Kassel, an exuberant cast of 26 perform the sophisticated music and lyrics by Cole Porter. Musical Director Tom McCoy conducts a 12 piece orchestra that will fill McKenna Theatre with the melodies that have become American standards.

Tickets to Anything Goes are $18 adults, $16 seniors, students, and SUNY staff. They are available online at www.newpaltz.edu/theatre or by calling the box office at 845-257-3880.