Initial casting has been announced for the upcoming West End return of the recent revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes, which played a July 23–November 6, 2021, engagement at the Barbican Theatre.
The hit production, as previously reported, will play an eight-week run at the Barbican July 15–September 3. Prior to the London return, the musical comedy will tour the U.K. beginning April 11 at the Bristol Hippodrome. The production will subsequently play Liverpool, Edinburgh, Canterbury, and Manchester on its way to the Barbican.
The cast will be led by Kerry Ellis (Wicked, We Will Rock You) as Reno Sweeney, Olivier Award winner Denis Lawson (Bleak House, New Tricks) as Moonface Martin, Olivier winner Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Amadeus) as Elisha Whitney, and Bonnie Langford (EastEnders, 9 to 5) as Evangeline Harcourt.
Reprising their roles in the U.K. tour and Barbican season are Samuel Edwards (Les Misérables) as Billy Crocker, Carly Mercedes Dyer (A Chorus Line) as Erma, Nicole-Lily Baisden (The Book of Mormon) as Hope Harcourt, and Haydn Oakley (A Christmas Carol) as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Further casting will be announced.
The summer London revival featured two-time Tony winner Sutton Foster re-creating her Tony-winning performance as Reno Sweeney (read the reviews here). Foster, who currently stars opposite Hugh Jackman in the Broadway revival of The Music Man, played her final performance October 10 and was succeeded by Rachel York, who starred in the U.S. national tour of Anything Goes.
Directed and choreographed by Tony winner Kathleen Marshall—who helmed the 2011 Broadway revival of the Cole Porter musical—the London revival, starring Foster, was filmed for U.K. screenings. The musical was seen in over 400 cinemas in November and will be screened in the U.S.
WATCH: Official Trailer for Screening of London's Anything Goes, Starring Tony Winner Sutton Foster
The production also has set design by Derek McLane, costumes by Jon Morrell, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, sound design by Jonathan Deans, and music supervision by Stephen Ridley.
Marshall also directed the aforementioned Broadway revival of Anything Goes, from Roundabout Theatre Company, which ended its run July 8, 2012, after more than 500 performances at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. Marshall earned the Best Choreography Tony for her work on the production, which won the 2011 Best Musical Revival Tony and a Tony for star Foster.
The 1934 musical has songs by Porter and a libretto by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman, who drew on the original depression-era script (by P.G. Wodehouse & Guy Bolton and Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse) for this version of the show, which debuted at the Vivian Beaumont in 1987 starring Tony winner Patti LuPone. That production won the Tony for Best Revival as well.
Set aboard a transatlantic ocean liner, the show features "You're the Top," "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," "It's De-Lovely," "I Get a Kick Out of You," and the toe-tapping title song, among others.
Tickets are now available at AnythingGoes Musical.co.uk.
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