Anything Goes: History and Key Facts

Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, revised considerably by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London. Billy Crocker is a stowaway in love with heiress Hope Harcourt, who is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Nightclub singer Reno Sweeney and Public Enemy Number 13, "Moonface" Martin, aid Billy in his quest to win Hope. Songs introduced that later became pop and jazz standards are "Anything Goes", "You're the Top", "All Through the Night", and "I Get a Kick Out of You".

Since its November 21, 1934 debut at the Alvin Theatre (now known as the Neil Simon Theatre) on Broadway, the musical has been revived several times in the United States and Britain. It has been adapted for film three times (in 1936, 1956 and a filmed version of a stage production in 2021), and adapted for television also three times (in 1950, 1954 and 1962). The musical has long been a popular choice for school and community productions.

Source and attribution

Text excerpted from Anything Goes by Wikipedia contributors, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The extract is abridged and formatting has been adjusted; the adapted text on this page is shared under the same licence. Revision history.