When I entered the wonderful Hopebox Theater to see their production of Anything Goes I was a little nervous for them. I absolutely love their mission and this particular musical is one of the hardest classic musicals to pull off for community theater. What makes it so difficult is it’s plot is paper thin so it relies completely on the quality of the singing and dancing. A lot times community theaters can get one or the other- the dancing might be good but then the singing isn’t and vice versa. Fortunately the good folks at Hopebox have managed to combine both making for a delightful night of theatre all for a wonderful cause.

This production is directed by Jan Willaims and Wyatt Welch and they have done a good job bringing out the best of the Teal Cast that I enjoyed. The set by Williams, Ashley Collins-Dowse and Ian Fife is easy to transform with doorways turning into beds and other such clever choices. It’s a small space at Hopebox but they make it work and at one point there are over 20 dancers all tap dancing with tap shoes. This is no small accomplishment! I also loved the costumes especially for Reno by Jamila Lowe and Shelbi Raynor.

My favorite songs of the night are “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” which I should have included in my recent podcast on my favorite Broadway songs. What a fun take on a Broadway spiritual. The dancing on this song is captivating from beginning to end. I also love “You’re the Top,” and the title song “Anything Goes.” One can’t help but smile when witnessing such entertaining song and dance numbers.

For the Teal Cast we had Samantha Wursten as Reno Sweeney. She has most of those difficult numbers I listed above- difficult both singing and dancing- but Wursten feels like a natural. Kayleigh Eagle is Hope Harcourt who is a ton of fun but I think my favorite is Stefan Kurzius as Moonface Martin and Kenna Ford as Erma Latour (“Be Like the Bluebird” and “Buddie, Beware” are a delight sung by these 2.) They both have terrific comedic timing as well as being good at the singing and dancing.

Watching this musical made me feel nostalgic for my Grandma who I miss very much. She loved old-fashioned song and dance shows like Anything Goes (Th Rockettes were her favorite in NYC.) My Grandma was the first person to introduce me to musical theatre taking me to shows and giving me cast albums. I hope that young people today can have the same experience with shows like Anything Goes at Hopebox. It’s important we pass down these classics to new generations and that’s what one can do by taking the whole family to this musical. Plus, when you support Hopebox you support their cancer-fighting Hopebox recipient so it is truly a win-win.

I saw the cast opening night and there were some jitters but it was nothing that stopped me from having a great time. One of the actresses fell of the set quite dramatically but she covered it quite well. I hope she wasn’t too bruised up from the incident! Also a few times they were a little out of sync with the backtrack but they pushed forward. It truly was a great night of community theatre. It is playing at Hopebox through September 5th and tickets can be purchased here.

Anything Goes features music and lyrics by Cole Porter with a book by Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse with a Broadway revival book from John Weidman and Timothy Crouse. It first premiered on Broadway in 1934 and had a Broadway revival in 2011. It premiered on the West End in 1935 and has had 3 UK revivals the latest being in 2021 (which one can watch on proshot here)

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