Review of Anything Goes by the Island Savoyards at Shanklin Theatre

Directed by Sarah Scotcher, with musical direction by Andrew Woodford, the cast delivered confident and assured performances throughout.

A cut above regular “am-dram”, all the leads had undergone some form of professional training and it showed.

A musical lives or dies by its well-known numbers, and there was no disappointment here with You’re the Top, I Get a Kick Out Of You, It’s De-Lovely and Anything Goes given five-star treatment.

The cast of Anything Goes (Image: Rodger Hooper)

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But one of the real highlights was the impressive choreography by Joanna Adams.
The tap-dancing finale of Act One was fabulous. The whole cast made it look easy but hours of rehearsals would have gone into this. It was great.

As was Blow, Gabriel, Blow, another superb song and dance number at the start of Act Two.

Heading the impressive cast was Nathan Stubbings as hapless Wall Street broker Billy Crocker, what a voice!

Laughs a-plenty were provided by the excellent Daniel Farmer as Moonface Martin and Alexis Mackness, who showed great comic timing as Erma LaTour.

Andy Kay as Lord Evelyn also hammed it up to great effect with his number The Gypsy in Me.

Bryony Bishop made a charming and believable Hope Harcourt, staying totally in character even at times when she had no dialogue and was acting as a foil for Nathan.

But the star of the show was Holly Gardiner as sassy nightclub singer Reno Sweeney. She really lit up the stage every time she appeared and belted out the big numbers with style and aplomb. A stand-out performance.