Anything Goes.Anything Goes premiered in 1934, after a hasty rewrite: The original plot concerned a shipwreck, and shortly before the scheduled opening night, a fire broke out on a cruise liner and 137 passengers were killed. By then the writing team, which included P. G. Wodehouse, had moved on, and Timothy Crouse and John Weidman came in to rewrite the script, tossing it together so fast and creating such a hodgepodge of improbable plot events, corny jokes and juvenile fun that at some point someone exclaimed, "Anything goes" — and the title became a description of the process of putting the thing together. But the plot wasn't the point. Anything Goes is about songs, and those songs are by that elegant genius of musical theater, Cole Porter. Almost all of them are now classics: smart, tuneful, touching, funny, silly or sophisticated. The minute an audience of almost any age hears the first notes of "I Get a Kick Out of You," "You're the Top," "It's De-Lovely" or "Anything Goes," they can hum what comes next. There are also huge, exuberant numbers like "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" and some lesser-known gems, including the brief, wistful "Goodbye, Little Dream" — and all of these are performed with joy and skill by the talented cast at Littleton Town Hall. The action takes place on a luxury liner bound for London. Among those on board are evangelist-turned-nightclub-sensation Reno Sweeney and the man she loves, Billy, one-time Yalie Elisha J. Whitney, pretty debutante Hope, Lord Evelyn Oakley and gangster Moonface Martin. The humor hasn't aged well, and some of the comic acting is a bit heavy-handed, too. But there's a lot of exuberant singing, and overall, the show is a fluffy, fizzy helium giggle, a whirl of no-thought-required sound and color in a fantasy world where indeed, anything goes. Presented by Littleton Town Hall Arts Center through December 28, 2450 West Main Street, Littleton, 303-794-2784. townhallartscenter.org. Reviewed November 27.
Lucky Me. Sara in Lucky Me suffers from self-diagnosed EHS — that is, electromagnetic hypersensitivity. She can't handle technology — and not just technology, but objects in general. Her lightbulbs flicker and fizz out; her roof leaks, and the leaks somehow always find her fish tank, no matter where she places it, contaminating the water and killing the fish. She falls a lot. She hasn't had a hot meal since 1989 because she can't handle the stove, a knife or the microwave. Wineglasses shatter in her hands. Her window attracts kids' errant balls. Her cat disappears. Sara also endangers those around her, and on top of all these problems, she lives with her blind, cantankerous father, who spends all his time making more tsuris for her. She has resigned herself to this state of things, but then a stranger comes into her life: Kindly new neighbor Tom, who rescues her after a fall from the roof where she was trying to plug a leak, takes her to the hospital and brings her home leaning heavily on crutches. He's a protective soul in general — he works at the airport for the TSA — so once he's fallen for Sara, he sets out to rescue her, at some risk to his own mental and physical well-being. The author's originality is refreshing, and the running joke of inexplicable, minor yet devastating destruction gets faster and funnier as the evening progresses. The play does go on a little too long, and the second act loses some of the fizz of the first. There are passages of explication that feel unnecessary, a belated attempt on the playwright's part to explain everything and add a bit of pathos. But overall, this is a very satisfactory evening of theater featuring meticulously conceived and constructed tech and performances by four seasoned actors with highly developed individual comic chops and perfect timing as an ensemble. Presented by Curious Theatre Company through December 6. 1080 Acoma Street, 303-623-0524, curioustheatre.org. Reviewed November 13.
