The cast of ‘Anything Goes’ is preparing for opening night in Duncan Feb. 2. (Lexi Bainas/Citizen)

The cast of ‘Anything Goes’ is preparing for opening night in Duncan Feb. 2. (Lexi Bainas/Citizen)

‘Anything Goes’ in Musical Society’s madcap new show

Every possible character is on board an ocean liner

Saying the musical Anything Goes includes a night club singer, a wall street broker, a debutante, a stuffy English lord, and a second-rate gangster, you begin to think you’re describing a game of Clue.

Every possible character is here, and on board an ocean liner, in the Cowichan Musical Society’s annual blockbuster, hitting the Cowichan Performing Arts Centre’s stage on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Feb. 2-4.

‘You’re the Top’, ‘Anything Goes’, ‘Blow Gabriel Blow’, and ‘I Get a Kick Out of You’ are songs any musical theatre fan knows almost by heart, and these are just a few of the numbers you’ll hear in this tuneful show.

It’s Cole Porter time in the Cowichan Valley. It’s hard to believe they were written for a show that was first produced in 1934. But as musicals go, Anything Goes, is lively and fun: great entertainment for the whole family and the Cowichan Musical Society loves to kick up its heels in front of a big audience.

Check out the rehearsals here: https://www.facebook.com/MacGregor.Natalie/videos/o.87521323347/10156306881484610/?type=2&theater

Anything Goes offers vintage costumes, great sets and of course, Porter’s great music.

It’s indeed a madcap time as the ship makes its way across the Atlantic from New York.

The S. S. American is sailing to England with a comically colorful assemblage of passengers: Reno Sweeney, a popular nightclub singer and former evangelist; her pal Billy Crocker, a lovelorn Wall Street broker who has come aboard to try to win the favor of his beloved Hope Harcourt (who is engaged to another passenger, Sir Evelyn Oakleigh), and a second-rate conman named Moonface Martin, aka “Public Enemy #13.”

It’s all singing, all dancing as Reno and Moonface try to help Billy win the love of his life. But will he? Who gets who? If as the title says Anything Goes, who knows?

Gregg Perry is directing this musical, as well as performing in it, with Mike Simkins as musical director, and Ricki-Lee Allision as choreographer, assisted by Andrea Wickham.

Showtime is 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 2 and Saturday, Feb. 3, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Feb. 4

Tickets are $20 for rows A, B, O, and P, while it will cost $35 to sit in rows C to N.

Book your seats from Cowichan Ticket Centre at 250-748-7529 or online at cowichanpac.ca

Cowichan Valley Citizen