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Cole Porter's 'Anything Goes' anchors ӰAV's season finale

Cole Porter’s classic, seafaring musical comedy “Anything Goes” will set sail for ӰAV’s stage as the music theater season finale.

A cast of 38 performers accompanied by a 16-piece orchestra will present the Tony Award-winning romantic comedy April 11-13 at ӰAV’s Bass School of Music.

Porter’s madcap musical — set on a Jazz-Age cruise ship populated by tap-dancing sailors and old-fashioned hijinks — is anchored by a score featuring favorite Broadway songs such as “Anything Goes,” “It’s De-lovely,” “You're the Top” and “I Get a Kick Out of You.” 

“Anything Goes” will be presented by ӰAV’s award-winning Oklahoma Opera and Music Theater Company as the grand finale of its 73rd consecutive season. Three performances will be staged in the Kirkpatrick Auditorium: 7:30 p.m. April 11 and 12, and 2 p.m. April 13.

Tickets ($15-$30) are available online at  or by calling 405-208-5227. 

A free curtain talk with director David Herendeen will be held 30 minutes before each performance. Matthew Mailman will lead the pit orchestra with choreography by Sheri Hayden and Cassandra VanHouten, scenic design by Jason Foreman, lighting design by Jackson Maner, costume design by Alyssa Couturier-Herndon and sound design by Brett Havens.

A themed opening-night dinner ($25 reservations required) will be held at 6:15 p.m. April 11 in the atrium of the Bass Music Center.

“This is Cole Porter at his finest,” Herendeen said. “The show takes place on a steamy steamer populated by fallen angels, celebrity-crazed passengers, star-crossed lovers, inept gangsters and a proselytizing nightclub singer. The entendres are beyond double in this tappy, happy, clever and crazy show!”

With original music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and a book by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, the show’s setting was inspired by producer Vinton Freedley, who hid from creditors by living on a fishing boat.

“Anything Goes” inspired a 1936 film starring Bing Crosby and Ethel Merman, and won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical in 1987 and 2011.

The Hollywood Reporter noted: “Vintage Broadway musicals were about pure pleasure, and this one delivers a boatload of it…the show is so packed with daffy physical shtick, comical dialogue and those still dazzlingly clever Cole Porter lyrics that it’s impossible not to surrender.”

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