Anything Goes

The "Anything Goes" from eOne is GREAT! This is the 1954 episode of the Colgate Comedy Hour that featured a much-abridged version of Cole Porter's 1934 Broadway show (later made into a movie and with many revivals on, and off-, Broadway. This "hour long" show starred Ethel Merman and Frank Sinatra with Bert Lahr and Sheree North filling out the cast. It was "Produced" by Jule Styne.

The show was done live but kinescopes were made and were circulated among collectors in poor condition for many years. After Merman's death, a relative called theatre writer Stephen Cole and said she found Merman's original kinescope print. Its from this print that eOne - and the Archive of American Television produced this DVD. Its in pristine condition!

Like many versions of the musical, other Porter songs are inserted into this production. At least eight full-length versions of "I Get a Kick out of you", "You Do Something to me", "All Through the Night" and the wonderful "Blow Gabriel Blow" are here in addition to two versions of the title song. When Lahr was asked to join the cast, he insisted that he and Merman reprise their duet - "Friendship" from their run of DuBarry Was A Lady. It's wonderful! As you will hear in the "bonus interview" with the show's musical arranger - Buddy Bregman (who was Styne's nephew) - Lahr often flubbed his lines. Look out for when he refers to Merman's character as "Annie Oakley" (when her character is Miss Oakley.).

The show is presented here with the commercials deleted, so it only runs 47 minutes. When the show originally aired the director thought that it might run "over" so they cut one song. The cast found themselves with four minutes to fill at the end, so we get an impromptu encore!

The "bonus interview" I noted above is with Bregman and is not dated - but is apparently fairly recent. It lasts nearly 25 minutes and Bregman does nearly all the talking. He is certainly engaging and has great stories to tell, skipping ahead in school so that he was in college when he was 16 (and living at the Beverly Hills Hotel while attending school. He has some great stories about Judy Garland too! I won't spoil the fun. You need to hear these for yourself.

The set has a nice 20-page booklet with lots of history from Cole. If I had one small complaint it is that the show itself is presented with nine chapter stops but none are at the beginning of the 10 musical numbers. It wouldn't have taken much to index the DVD so that viewers could return to selected performances. But that's not enough to even drop my rating one notch.

This DVD belongs in EVERY American Musical Theatre collection!

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

For anybody who has never seen la Merm strutting her stuff, this is an excellent opportunity to see why she was the toast of Broadway for decades.

But, for fans of the play, this version has been chopped and clipped and cut and sewn into something that barely even resembles "Anything Goes." It's a shame that, with each of the versions of the Cole Porter classic, there has yet to be a filmed version of the actual play with the intended songs and dances.

Frank Sinatra sings pleasantly - though his being the love interest of Merman - easily 25+ years his senior - is a little ridiculous. Sheree North as the gangster's moll does a very credible job in another role that has been cut up and blue penciled into oblivion. Bert Lahr is Bert Lahr - yes, that means very funny and very professional.

I'm giving this production three ''s. Really, just one star for the production as a whole. But, it is definitely worth seeing for Ethel Merman's performance. There is nothing like seeing Ethel face forward, plant her feet, and belt to the balcony! She's a real theatrical legend and deserves to be seen.

Ethyl Merman does a standout job reprising her Broadway performance of "Anything Goes", with Frank Sinatra's velvet voice and the hijinks of Bert Lahr (o.k., Bert sings a bit, too, let's just leave it at that!)

What a joy to watch this after all those years of having this great show locked away in the vault. Sure it's before my time and probably yours, too, but I found it really enjoyable, at least knowing about all the major performers.

The original commercials are quite interesting, too. I highly recommend AG for everyone!