Anything Goes

Last weekend my wonderful boyfriend and I were lucky enough to get tickets to the first Broadway show we've been to in a long time. We saw Anything Goes at the Stephen Sondheim Theater, and it was really fabulous.

Thanks to a very thoughtful Christmas gift, we spent a night in a hotel very close to Times Square. This gave us the opportunity to take advantage of the famous discount tickets booth, just a few blocks away. Sunday morning, we were in line at 10:30am, and the booth opened at 11. By 11:15ish, we had great seats for the matinee performance of Anything Goes. The show won the Tony for Best Musical Revival, and had a great cast, including the incredible Joel Grey.

The plot of the show doesn't really make a ton of sense. It's a case of a lot of mistaken identities, silly old-time-y jokes, and convenient coincidences in the plot to make the songs fit the story, bit none of this mattered. The songs, all written by Cole Porter, were wonderful, especially since they were performed by such an incredible cast. It was exactly what we were looking for - a true Broadway musical complete with big dance numbers and amazing singing. It felt like we went back in time, to the heyday of Broadway.

The show was surprisingly funny and even a little racy. There were a lot of little jokes in there that would go over younger viewers heads, but were definitely shocking, especially knowing the show's first run was in 1937!

My favorite numbers were the show-stopping "Anything Goes" which really had it all, and "The Gypsy in Me," which I thought was the funniest number in the show. "Anything Goes" included almost the whole cast in a long and very impressive tap dancing break. "The Gypsy in Me," was a hilarious look at the fuddy-duddy englishman character, who all of a sudden becomes a deeper character. One other song I wanted to mention was "Friendship" where the characters break the third wall at the end and acknowledge the audience, pretending to mess up the end of the song and argue about it. That part caught me off guard and was a really funny surprise.

I didn't know any of these songs prior to seeing the show except "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "De-Lovely." It was really fun to go to a show, not knowing the plot or the songs in advance. I was definitely really impressed with this show, and I think we will be seeing more of Broadway this year.