Socially un-distanced magic
Just back from Anything Goes at the Barbican.
This is Cole Porter (from a book by P G Wodehouse) at his best, with a number of show-stoppers (which did stop the show on its Covid-delayed First Night last week).
The lead artists (particularly Sutton Foster reprising her Broadway role and an irrepressible Robert Lindsay) carried the show admirably, and even Felicity Kendal and Gary Wilmott sang and hoofed a little.
The two ingenue lovers were weaker, particularly as dancers, but a special mention to Carly Mercedes Dyer as the sailor-chasing Irma, who has one great song and delivers it in spades.
Two great dance numbers, which close the first act and open the second got prolonged (and deserved) applause – what’s not to love with massed tap dancing sailors at the end of Act 1?
As a start to an unsocially distanced London musical theatre, after such a hiatus – well, couldn’t be better