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Teatro En Circulo does Cole Porter
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Anything Goes at the Teatro En Circulo

a review by Eric Jackson

Todo Vale

(Anything Goes, in Spanish translation)

a Cole Porter musical comedy

directed by Don Tull

musical director Reynaldo C. Taylor Hinkson

choreography by Ana Melisa P. de la Guardia

associate director César Robles

based on a play by Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse,

Howard Linday and Russel Crouse

as adapted by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman

songs translated by Victoria Greco

play translated by Eusebio Morales

starring Victoria Greco, Miguel Cuadra, Nicole Puga,

Ingrid de Ycaza, Randy Domínguez, Ricardo Martino,

Maritza Diez de Morales, Enrique Olivela, Jaime Rodríguez,

Félix Gómez, Giancarlo Marine, Abdiel Tapia,

Melisa Moreno, Cristina Romero, Ana Raquel García, Ana Teresa Ferrer,

Octavio García, Jorge García, Fermín Atencio, Saúl Algandona,

Juan Carrillo, Razni Pitti, Carlos Alemán, Rene Irigoyen,

Beatriz Orillac, Yvonne Kilborn, Karla Chang, Connie Valdés

Lupita de Briceño, Gabriel Arosemena, Fernando Díaz, Sonia de Castro,

Gloria de Díaz and Yasemín Raymondo

musicians Reynaldo C. Taylor Hinkson, Francisco Buckley,

Juan Gabriel Cedeño and Luis Zúñiga

producers Isabel de Nachio, Joan de Manfredo, Clarita de Smith,

Rosemarie de la Guardia and Mary Carmen Retally

plus a technical, artistic and business crew of dozens, many of

them also in other roles as mentioned above

Take a spin in the Way Back Machine to 1929, when we find composer Cole Porter in his early 30s, a Yale graduate who had achieved only modest notice on Broadway but avoided the starving artist routine by way of the subsidies of his wealthy maternal grandfather, dividing his time between France and the USA, a member in good standing of the "Lost Generation." In that year, the epicenters of both the American popular culture and its economy were to be found in New York City. But in that year the talkies appeared in movie theaters and that technological advance gave Hollywood the boost that it would need to eventually overtake Broadway, and one day that October the stock market crashed, leading to the Great Depression and its attendant profound economic, social, political and cultural upheavals.

Let us not, however, get mechanistic or ahistorical about what happened to American popular culture in the Depression. Yes, the commie social consciousness films for which people went to prison when they refused to discuss them with the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 40s arose in those years. Yes, the African-American culture that flourished in the Harlem Renaissance of the 20s gained a white following during the Depression, and one symbol of that was when the likes of Benny Goodman proved that one need not be black to blow good jazz.

But the truth of the matter was that amid the misery of the Great Depression, escapist tales about rich people and their high society, often tongue-in-cheek, sold very well. And so it was with the first of Cole Porter's really great musicals, Anything Goes, which appeared in 1934.

This is the tale of a broke stockbroker (Miguel Cuadra) stowing away on a luxury ocean liner, in pursuit of the foxy and wealthy heiress of his dreams (Nicole Puga), who at the outset is more disposed to marry more appropriately for her social class, into flaky English nobility (Randy Domínguez). Ah, but there are this sexually aggressive entertainer (Victoria Greco), along with Public Enemy Number 13 (Ricardo Martino) and his sleazy gun moll (Ingrid de Ycaza) aboard to mix up all plans.

It's campy comedy that worked well with American audiences not long after Franklin Roosevelt ruined many a Roaring 20s gangster by ending Prohibition, and when many of the secretly ruined high and haughty were living lives of false pretenses. Come to think of it, many of these themes strike a chord with what's going on, or about to come down, in contemporary Panama.

This is a much larger production than what we usually see in this country, and the things that especially make it suitable for English-speakers who may not yet have mastered Spanish are the music, the dancing and the opportunity to frequently figure out what's being said with the assistance of the context. Leading lady Victoria Greco, who also translated the songs, as well as Nicole Puga and Ingrid de Ycaza, put on some stellar singing performances in an overall solid musical presentation by the whole cast. Melisa Moreno, Cristina Romero, Ana Raquel García, Ana Teresa Ferrer, Octavio García, Jorge García and Fermín Atencio did some impressive tap dancing routines. Plus, the whole thing was funny.

This show runs at the Teatro En Circulo through August 31. It has been drawing good crowds and if you haven't been part of one of them, it's worth your while to join one of these audiences.

Teatro En Circulo does Cole Porter
Cool Internet Sites