Students stage musical where 'Anything Goes'

A comedic musical about friendship and love, Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" will be staged by students at Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts beginning Thursday at the Marysville Community Auditorium.

"'Anything Goes' has a very crazy plot line," said director-choreographer Candee Parker. "There are about three or four different love stories involved, and it has some crazy antics."

Set in the 1930s, the musical is about a stowaway, Billy Crocker (Max Jeffrey), who boards an ocean liner — the SS American — to pursue his true love, Hope Harcourt (Courtney Perdue), who is sailing from America to England to marry her fiancé, Sir Evelyn Oakleigh (Chase Armstrong).

Billy is aided in his quest to win Hope's heart by Moonface Martin (Cameron Day), a second-rate gangster who is Public Enemy No. 13 — but is trying to move higher on that list — and Moonface's girlfriend Bonnie (Stephenie Rodwell) as well as Reno Sweeney (Mariah Kuhn), an evangelist-turned-nightclub singer.

"They are trying to help get Hope and Billy together, and there are many, many crazy antics along the way. And a lot of tap dancing," Parker smiled.

"We started implementing tap at the school maybe seven years ago. My tappers have all started dancing at different times, but it's fun to see them up on stage knowing how far they've come," she added.

If you think it seems that MCAA already performed "Anything Goes" recently, you are almost correct. The students performed the title song for the ninth annual "Way, Way, Way Off Broadway" fundraiser in November 2011.

The full pit orchestra for "Anything Goes" is conducted by Rebekah Hood of the Veridian Symphony. "She has many of her charter academy students playing as well as some additional volunteer professional adult musicians, and they sound fantastic," Parker said.

When asked if she has a favorite number in the show, Parker said, "I think a lot of the musical numbers are really amazing. It's all music by Cole Porter, so you'll find yourself tappin' your toes to many of the different numbers.

"'Anything Goes,' the title song, is very fun. There's 'Friendship,' 'You're the Top,' 'It's De-Lovely,' 'I Get a Kick Out of You' — you'll find that a lot of the numbers are very well known and really make you feel good," Parker said.

The large cast includes Lauren Bartlett, Shelby Broderick, Samantha Chizek, Charlie Day, Dakota Delaney, Molly Enderton, Aricka Espinoza, Tamara Gresham, Efrain Gonzalez, Bethany Harris, Gabrielle Hayes, Angel Hernandez, Sarah Kuhn, George Land, Caraya Lende, Marisa Lopez, Anastacia Mathews, Rebekah Mattson, Casey McCurry, Benjamin Olsen, Derek Olsen, Inoa Spyres and Jason Spyres.

"'Anything Goes' is very entertaining. So if you're ready for a feel-good musical — where anything goes! — then you'll want to come see this production that features some very talented teenagers and a lot of hard-working parents and adults in the orchestra," Parker said.

CONTACT Susan Benitez at sbenitez@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4773. Find her on Facebook at /ADFeatures or on Twitter at @adfeatures.