The 2021 London revival of the Cole Porter classic musical comedy has been captured on film and will be shown in U.S. theaters on March 28 and 30.
Anything Goes was one of Cole Porter’s biggest Broadway hits. It debuted in 1934 and was a vehicle for theater legend Ethel Merman, who starred as evangelist turned night club singer Reno Sweeney. Now a film of the recent London production, starring Sutton Foster, will be shown in U.S. theaters. Foster first slipped into Merman’s big shoes, which here are fitted with taps, in the 2011 Broadway revival, which was directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, and in 2021 she reprised that role in the London revival, which was also directed and choreographed by Marshall. Anything Goes had an original book by P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton with Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and featured a new book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman. That production was captured on film, which ran in Britain in November and will play in theaters in the United States on March 28 and 30. Sweeney, one of the great musical comedy roles of all time, was said to have been based loosely—very loosely—on evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and night club star Texas Guinan.
