When I was 13 and bought the Broadway cast recording of Anything Goes, I didn’t do so because I loved the musical. I had no idea what the musical was about except that it seemed to take place on a ship. I bought the tape not because of the musical but because of the lead actress Patti Lupone.
West Side Story was the first movie/musical that I, as a too-cool-to-cry-teenager, allowed a few tears for. Grand Hotel was the first musical I saw on Broadway. But Evita, starring Patti Lupone, was the first musical I fell in love with. I read and reread the libretto sometime in the car by street light while my mom was out running errands. I bought books on Eva Peron. I bought other Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and Aspects of Love. I even saw original phantom, Michael Crawford, in concert. I was a Broadway nerd.
And though I listened to other recordings of Evita, starring Elaine Paige, no one could top Patti Lupone. She was a classic Broadway belter. When she sang, you could feel her voice, not just hear it, but feel it rumbling and bouncing around inside your chest.
And so I bought Anything Goes just so I could hear more of Patti Lupone.
Recently, I’ve rediscovered Anything Goes. I can’t even remember now what I was searching for on YouTube at the time, but there was Anything Goes, the newest version starring Tony Award winner Sutton Foster. Now Sutton Foster is not Patti Lupone or even Ethel Merman who originated the role of Reno Sweeney, but what I like about Sutton Foster is the tenderness and vulnerability she brings to the role, something neither Lupone nor Merman have/had in their repertoire.
I find myself listening to the lyrics now, more than twenty years later and I find myself wonderfully amused by the story. The main character Reno Sweeney is described as an evangelist turned night club singer. I love that. Normally a story would have that as the reverse. Normally Reno Sweeney would be a reformed night club singer, but no, here she was an evangelist and now is singing for money.
It gives new meaning to me in the song Blow, Gabriel, Blow. Obviously, I always knew the lyrics had biblical connections, but now when I listen to the music, I can hear and understand that it has all the flavor of an under the big tent revival.
There is no question that we outgrow many of the things we loved as children, but I think what we loved as children says so much about who we are today and we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss those things. It’s okay to revisit them, not just to be reminded of better times, but to see things with new eyes and incorporate them into who we are now.
