Review: Pittsburgh CLO Sets Sail with ANYTHING GOES at Benedum Center

Almost every time you see a major production of Anything Goes, it'll vary in some way from the last one you saw. There are at least three licensable editions of the show, from as far back as the 1930s and as recent as 2022. The song stack is in perpetual flux between a long list of Cole Porter greatest hits and B-sides, and there are several characters who appear only in certain editions of the show. About a decade ago, the show underwent a reputation update from "park and bark" diva and vaudeville standard to an all-singing-all-dancing showcase for triple-threat performers. It's a lot of wigs on A VERY OLD head, but somehow the show still works.

Pittsburgh CLO's production, directed by Ameenah Kaplan and choreographed by Mara Newberry Greer, is blessed with a standout cast, light on their feet and quick to the punchline. It's also lucky to have Rashidra Scott, probably the best Reno Sweeney I've ever seen (and that includes Sutton and Patti). It takes skill to make a slightly overlong show full of intentionally corny jokes fly by, but the CLO never disappoints, and the two and a half hours on this cruise liner feel like a week's joyous vacation.

It's folly to try and describe the plot of Anything Goes, so here's the thumbnail: it's the 1930s and a bunch of rich people are on a cruise ship. Chaos ensues with a seemingly infinte love triangle between nightclub singer/phony evangelist Reno Sweeney (Rashidra Scott), drunken business tycoon Elisha Whitney (Allan Snyder), business assistant Billy Crocker (A.J. Shively), debutante Hope Harcourt (Liz Leclerc) and daffy British nobleman Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (Geoff Packard). Additional comic relief is provided by gangland figures Moonface Martin (Jeffrey Howell) and gangster's moll Erma (Andrea Weinzierl). There are also a pair of... children? Sleazy adult men? Gangsters? Orphans? A pair of SOMETHING, played by Ted Guzman and Jerreme Rodriguez. (I'll get to them later.) Does this sound like a pan? It's not, it's just a shrug; nobody goes to Anything Goes for the plot. You go for the cast, for the dancing and the groaners and the incredible Cole Porter score that still feels fresh almost a century later.

As previously mentioned, Rashidra Scott is a standout as Reno: funny, sexy, witty, and whip-smart. She sings with a fantastic mix of passion and subtlety, in a song stack that more often than not brings out a sledgehammer approach rather than a sculptor's grace. Moreover, she couples that vocal acumen with some genuinely impressive tap-dancing, following in the Sutton Foster mold of "Reno does her own dancing." Scott generates instant chemistry with whoever she's paired with, and the freewheeling plot leads to her doing double acts with just about every other character in the show. Jeffrey Hwell and Andrea Weinzierl prove time and again why they're Pittsburgh favorites, and this show is no different: their portrayal of platonic-life-partner mob nobodies is perpetually amusing. (Howell in particular got an extended improv bit to cover a scene change at opening night that had me in stitches.) A.J. Shively's Billy is a rubber-limbed master of disguise, and Shively locks into the comedy in the role better than most "handsome leading man" types have in the past. If there's an honorable mention to be given, it's to Geoff Packard as the hapless, sexually-ambiguous Lord Evelyn. His bubbleheaded cheerfulness gets laugh after laugh... as did the apparent decision to style and costume Packard to resemble Tom Wambsgans from Succession.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention two of Pittsburgh's great ensemblists, the multitalented Jerreme Rodriguez and Ted Guzman. They're triple threats with great comic timing and they dance like mad. Unfortunately, they're playing possibly my least favorite characters in musical theatre, Spit and Dippy. A little history here: the original versions of this show contained a misguided and racist subplot about two "ignorant Chinamen" named Ching and Ling. This was revised in the 1960s and 1980s to be less racist, but still pretty offensive, and Ching and Ling became two mischievous Chinese "converts" named Brother Luke and Brother John. Their sole purpose in the show has always been to allow for a tacky yellowface disguise sequence at the end, where most of the leads put on straw hats and kimonos. Naturally, and thankfully, you can't do that anymore, so a 2022 revision cut the two converts, and replaced them with pickpockets Spit and Dippy. The trouble with THESE characters, though, is that they make almost no sense. Their whole purpose is to run around the ship, pulling very minor crimes in the background and eventually helping with the grand finale. They are also, inexplicably, written both to be ten-year-old boys, and also implied to be adults of the same size as our leading men. There is exactly no circumstance in which an actor could play Spit or Dippy truthfully to the page, so director Kaplan has wisely allowed Guzman and Rodriguez to ignore as much of the written characterization as possible. Instead, the two men play their roles as slightly decadent rich kids out on a spree, dressed in classic Gouster fashion and puffing on cigars. Does it make sense a hundred percent of the time? No, but it's better than Ching and Ling! (If you'd like to read my unsolicited essay on "how I would fix up the script to Anything Goes if I were the next book doctor," shoot me a message. Trust me, I have THOUGHTS.)

Nothing says summer as much as taking a cruise, and nothing says summer in Pittsburgh as much as the start of the CLO summer season. I've been looking forward to this one all year, as its mix of old chestnuts with less-produced new shows is unparalleled. Anything Goes sets sail with laughs, heart and spectacular dancing, so I can't wait to see where this ship docks next.

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