The Music of "Anything Goes" (1934) Quiz

"I get no kick from champagne
Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all
So tell me why should it be true
That I get a kick out of you"

"Anything Goes" first opened on Broadway on November 21, 1934, and ran for 420 performances. Cole Porter wrote the music and lyrics for the show.

This opening number, "I Get a Kick Out of You", is sung by Billy Crocker (originally played by William Gaxton) and Reno Sweeney (originally played by Ethel Merman). At the beginning of the show Billy, a businessman, is aboard the SS American, ready to set sail for England with his boss Elisha J. Whitney (originally played by Paul Everton). He sees Reno, a former evangelist on the ship. She is now a nightclub singer. Billy just wants to be her friend; she wants more. Billy is in love with someone else.

In this song, some members of the ensemble sing the words in English and some in French.
"By the seashore."
"You mean "sur la plage"

During this song, Billy goes to say goodbye to his boss and Reno. He also learns the name of the woman he has fallen for is Hope Harcourt (originally played by Bettina Hall). Hope and her mother (originally played by Helen Raymond) are on the ship with Hope's fiancé. Billy has learned that Hope is an heiress. She is marrying a nobleman named Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (originally played by Leslie Barrie). Hoping to win Hope's affection, Billy stows away on the ship.

Billy ends up with the passport of Snake Eyes Johnson, (Public Enemy Number One), after some crazy events earlier. Then, after tricking Evelyn into believing Evelyn is sick, he ends up alone with Hope when Evelyn goes on deck for air.

"All through the night from a height far above,
You and your love bring me ecstasy."

Billy learns that Hope returns his love, but insists on marrying Evelyn anyway. However, she will not give Billy a reason, which is that her family's business is in trouble. If she marries Evelyn there will be a merger and the company will be saved.

Meanwhile, the ship's crew has been informed that Public Enemy Number One is on board. Since Billy has the passport of Snake Eyes, it looks like he is Public Enemy Number One, only he was never informed who Johnson was.

Billy avoids the ship's crew who are trying to catch Snake Eyes. Meanwhile, he wants to win Hope but is starting to think he has no chance against Evelyn. Reno, still in love with Billy, wants him to be happy and tries to build up his courage.

"You're the top!
You're the Coliseum
You're the top!
You're the Louvre Museum"

She puts herself down playfully, as she builds him up. Because they are such good friends, he builds her back up as well, doing the same thing.

"You're the top
You're Mahatma Gandhi
You're the top
You're Napoleon Brandy"

Billy has ditched the Snake Eyes passport and put on a sailor's uniform. However, the crew has since figured out he's not a sailor and they are after him again. Moonface Martin (originally played by Victor Moore) and Reno have now disguised him as a drunken passenger. Billy also learns that Evelyn kissed Reno, and now she thinks she will marry Evelyn. She tells him these days, "Anything Goes".

"In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything Goes."

At the end of the last act, Billy is recognized as "Public Enemy #1" and at the start of this act, he is being praised as a celebrity.

"Public Enemy Number One,
Thank thee for ev'rything thou hast done."

He tells everyone that Moon is helping him to reform, since Moon is dressed as a minister. However, Moon wants to get some of that celebrity praise and tells everyone he is Public Enemy #13. Both Billy and Moon are thrown into the brig.

Reno goes to the brig and tries to cheer Moon and Billy up. Since she was a former evangelist, she and her girls do an evangelist-sounding number, "Blow, Gabriel, Blow".

"Oh, blow, Gabriel, blow,
Go on and blow, Gabriel, blow!
I've been a sinner, I've been a scamp,
But now I'm willin' to trim my lamp,
So blow, Gabriel, blow!"

Moon feels better; Billy does not.

Moonface feels better and sings a song to Billy trying to cheer him up, since Reno's song did not work. Moon tells him that Dillinger once told him, "It's always the darkest just before they turn on the lights." He thinks Billy's problem is that Billy isn't philosophical.

"When your instinct tells you that disaster
Is approaching you faster and faster,
Then be like the bluebird and sing,
"Tweet tweet, tra-la, tra-la, tra-la."

Billy is depressed because he believes he will never see Hope again since they cannot leave the brig until they return to America. But then they meet their cellmates Ching (originally played by Richard Wang) and Ling (originally played by Charlie Fang). They get them to play strip poker and win their clothes and now, having their costumes, can leave the brig when they arrive in England.

Moon's girlfriend has been with a lot of other men on the ship. Many of them want to marry her now. She warns them that life with her may not be that easy.

"Buddie, beware,
Buddie, better take care,
Though at heart I'm a pearl
I'm a difficult girl,
So, buddie, beware."

She is used to a certain lifestyle and is not about to give it up. She may give up the gangster boyfriend, but not the luxury of his criminal activities.

Hope wants to marry Billy and is upset she has to marry Evelyn.

It turns out that Evelyn was scamming Hope and the family's company was worth millions. Billy lets Evelyn know that he knows this and Evelyn offers to buy the company from Hope for a lot of money and she accepts. She and Billy get married, as do Reno and Evelyn.