Anything Goes

• Main
• YMMV
• Wikipedia
• All Subpages
• Create New

Reno Sweeney: They think he's Gangster # 1, So they Made him the favorite son! And that goes to show Anything Goes!

A musical from the 1930s with songs by Cole Porter. Anything Goes takes place aboard a boat, following a number of unusual characters, including a evangelist-turned-nightclub singer (Reno Sweeney, originally played by Ethel Merman) and a gangster disguised as a pastor (originally played by Victor Moore). Famous songs from the show include the title song, as well as "You're the Top" and "I Get a Kick Out of You". "Friendship" is also well known, but it's not originally from this show.

It received major revivals on Broadway twice, first in the 1960s in a version that interpolated songs from a number of Porter's other shows, and again in the 1980s in a version that stayed closer to the original musical in terms of songs, although not necessarily in terms of script. A third Broadway revival came out in 2011, based on the 1980s revival. It won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.

Not to be confused with the opening theme for Kamen Rider OOO. Or the style of martial arts practiced in Ranma ½. Or the bizarre team-competition sport-thing program on ABC in the 1970s]].

---

Tropes used in Anything Goes include:

• Adorkable: Evelyn, primarily when he's trying to use American idioms

Evelyn: I have hot pants for you! (to Moonface)

• • His initial reaction to hearing this idiom is to ask the woman if she'd like a glass of water.
• Arranged Marriage: Between Hope and Evelyn.
• Bad Habits: Moonface Martin's priestly disguise (although notably, he is NOT disguised as a Roman Catholic priest).
• Beta Couple: Evelyn and Reno
• Blind Without'Em: Eli, a fact exploited by Moonface
• Bowdlerize: The "Some get a kick from cocaine" section from the chorus is frequently either replaced with bowdlerized lyrics or chopped out of the song entirely, especially in high school productions (the "official" bowdlerization -- changed for the movie due to the Hays Code, and recorded by Frank Sinatra -- is "Some like the perfume in Spain", which fits the rest of the lyric about sniffing it). Cole Porter being Cole Porter, easily offended directors can easily find many more lines to alter or excise from the lyrics, not to mention the book.
• Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: As is standard Romantic Comedy fare.
• Crowd Song: "Anything Goes," "Public Enemy Number One"
• Driven to Suicide: Mr. Harcourt during the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929.
  • "He jumped like a Yale man."
• Funny Foreigner: Luke, John, and Evelyn Oakley.
• George Jetson Job Security: Elijah Whitney, according to Billy, hires and fires him every eight minutes.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: The entire song "Anything Goes".
• Girl Friday: Subverted by Bonnie/Erma who does nothing but cause trouble for Moonface.
• Gold Digger: Hope's mom becomes one when she marries Eli to get out of poverty
• Go Seduce My Arch-Nemesis: Reno is sent to lure Evelyn away so Billy can woo Hope. It...doesn't work.
• Gospel Revival Number: "Blow Gabriel Blow"
• The Great Depression
• Harmless Villain: Moonface
• Have a Gay Old Time "Blow Gabriel Blow", especially the line "Will you be ready to go when I blow my horn."
• Karma Houdini: Actually created by Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends. Hope's mother gets all the wealth she wanted without having to even apologize to Hope for trying to force her into marriage. But at least Whitney's happy.
  • Moonface despite being a gangster and a criminal (albeit of the Harmless Villain variety) gets away completely scot-free of his crimes (although he's only Public Enemy number thirteen).
    • Which is cleaned up even nicer at the end when he gets a telegram saying they've dropped him off the list entirely.
• The Not Love Interest: Reno for Billy and Moonface for Reno
• Let's Duet: "It's De-Lovely", see above.
• Loveable Rogue: Moonface
• Merchandise-Driven by the songs.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Reno is a parody of Aimee Semple McPherson
• Noodle Incident: The "Amalgamation Deal" Mr. Whitney was working on is never explained in detail.
• Official Couple: Billy and Hope
• Pair the Spares: After Hope and Billy are together, Evelyn and Reno fall in love out of nowhere.
  • Although the Ass Pull depends on how closely you've been watching and how suspicious you are of shipping. There are hints of it even in the first act, when Reno tries to seduce Evelyn in order to blackmail him. Once he understands what's going on, he doesn't seem entirely adverse to the idea.
  • One of the things the 1962 revival does better than the others is putting the song "I Get A Kick Out Of You" directly after the scene where Reno attempts to seduce Evelyn. This makes the song about Evelyn as opposed to Billy and shows that Reno is legitimately in love with him.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Billy and Moonface run through several of these in the course of the show.
  • A beard cut directly from the fur of Mrs. Harcourt's dog turns Billy into a convincing George Bernard Shaw.
• Platonic Life Partners: Reno and Billy, also Reno and Moonface. "Friendship" is pretty much a song about this trope
• Roma: Evelyn is part Gypsy.
  • Or Hope, if you're watching the 1934 liberetto.
• Rule of Funny: The entire show runs on this
• Senseless Violins: Moonface smuggles a Tommy Gun onboard, not that it does him any good.
• Sidekick Song: "Be Like The Bluebird" for Moonface
• The Family for the Whole Family: Moonface is a luckless and perfectly harmless gangster who decides to help Billy out with his romantic troubles
• Unusual Euphemism: "Hot Pants." That is all.
• Weddings for Everyone: Three of them: Billy and Hope, Reno and Evelyn, and Ms. Harcourt and Whitney. Some productions can add Moon and Bonnie/Erma to this.
• Zany Scheme: Billy's attempt to keep himself on the boat by posing as Public Enemy Number One "Snake Eyes Johnson".
  • This is just one of many schemes keeping the show's plot together like so much bubble gum and duct tape.