You're a melody from a symphony by Strauss
You're a Bendel bonnet
A Shakespeare's sonnet
You're Mickey Mouse
Although I was in quite a few plays and musicals when I was younger, I was never in Anything Goes. I did however, become quite familiar with the Cole Porter musical, thanks to a crush. One of my best friends played Moonface Martin in a local community production and I often picked him up from rehearsals.
I usually arrived early to sit at the back for a bit to watch before the rehearsal was over. It was there that I became familiar with the score, and the hottie who played Billy Crocker. I have a vivid memory of sitting in the back one day when 'Billy' was having his costume fitting.
He and the costume designer came to the back of the theatre to try on a costume. They stood about five feet from me and the guy playing Billy took off his jeans as if he was a lone and slipped on his costume. When he took off the costume, he stood there in just his baby blue briefs, waiting for stage hand to bring more costumes for him to try on. The stage hand was slow, giving me close to five minutes to enjoy the baby blue view.
That memory had me interested in watching the recent PBS airing of the London revival of the show. The show featured Sutton Foster in the lead role of Reno and Samuel Edwards as Billy Crocker. I hadn't heard of Edwards before, but after watching I had to start Googling. I really enjoyed Edwards in the role, much more than Foster, who seemed to be phoning it in. Foster is usually fantastic, and maybe it was just her take on the character, but her performance seemed... a bit lazy. Edwards on the other hand, was full of energy.
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