Anything Goes

Edinburgh University Footlight’s oeuvre has steadily grown in popularity since the company’s fformation in 1989. From their earliest performances of the best-known Broadway musicals—the infectious Little Shop of Horrors, to the inescapable heartbreak of Sweet Charity—Edinburgh Footlights has a reputation that goes beyond the current student population. And their latest production, Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, the follow up to the successful 2009 run of The Pyjama Game, promises not to disappoint.

First performed on Broadway in 1934, the show premiered during the Great Depression, at a time when America was in financial turmoil and unemployment was rife. But Porter was not concerned with the problems of the day, as the plot of Anything Goes follows a group of misfits onboard the luxury liner the S.S American as they sail from New York to Southampton. Among them are Reno Sweeney, a nightclub singer, Billy Crocker, her admirer and Billy’s long-lost love, Hope Harcourt. Throughout the cruise, we see a number of comedic moments as Billy desperately tries to keep the love triangle a secret from both women before the ship docks.

Regularly revived and revised and updated in 1986, Anything Goes features such songs as: "I Get A Kick Out Of You", "De-Lovely" and the infamous title track, "Anything Goes". After supporting Waverley Care (Scotland’s leading HIV and Hepatitis C charity), Edinburgh University Footlights will be donating all the profits from their Wednesday performance to the charity and collecting donations after the show. The producer, Sam Hansford, says: “We are absolutely thrilled to be able to support Waverley Care again in 2010. Last year, we managed to raise over £1,500 and we hope to do even better with our production of Anything Goes. Everyone in the cast and crew were really enthusiastic that we should continue supporting this fantastic local charity.”