ANYTHING GOES

Weymouth Pavilion

BLEND together the music of Cole Porter with a convoluted plot set on an ocean liner, then stir into the mixture lots of dance routines and comedy characters and you have a delicious musical show to savour.

Weymouth Operatic Society members pull out all the stops as they create a lively and colourful production that is enjoyable on every level.

Forget the ridiculous and dated story line with its gangsters, toffs and tarts, just concentrate on the lush costumes, the hit songs, great dances and fine performances and you have a hugely enjoyable piece of live entertainment under the direction and choregography of Martine Burt.

Top of the bill is Stella Brading, a remarkable singer who in reprising her role as the nightclub performer in the Society’s 2002 production, reinforces her wonderful talent both as a vocalist and an actress.

Stepping up to the plate in the leading male role as the lovelorn banker’s assistant is Paul Velya whose athletic energy and vocal expertise are a priceless asset to the amateur group and he takes them to a new level of expertise and professionalism.

In other roles, Hannah Taylor is brilliant as the shrieking gangster’s moll and her boss is the suitably devious Ralph Ricardo while Tom Howden is a hilarious English lord with Laura Greenway as his reluctant fiancée and Jason Hodder as an inept Wall Street financier.

Elegant costumes, an ingenious set and particularly fine nine-piece band accompaniment under the baton of Alastair Dean perform perennial songs like You’re the Top, I Get a Kick out of You and So Easy to Love and thus manage to take the audience back to the 1930s in a show that succeeds in stepping over the barriers of time.

There are further evening performances during the rest of the week as well as a Saturday matinee.

MARION COX