Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P. Wodehouse , revised considerably by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.
Since its debut at the Alvin Theatre now known as the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway , the musical has been revived several times in the United States and Britain.
It has been adapted for film three times in , and a filmed version of a stage production in , and adapted for television also three times in , and The musical has long been a popular choice for school and community productions.
The original idea for a musical set on board an ocean liner came from producer Vinton Freedley , who was living on a boat, having left the US to avoid his creditors. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton, and the star, Ethel Merman. The original plot involved a bomb threat, a shipwreck, and human trafficking on a desert island, [ 4 ] but, just a few weeks before the show was due to open, a fire on board the passenger ship SS Morro Castle caused the deaths of passengers and crew members.
According to one version, [ 5 ] Freedley judged that to proceed with a show on a similar subject would be in dubious taste, and he insisted on changes to the script. However, theatre historian Lee Davis maintains that Freedley wanted the script changed because it was "a hopeless mess". Four versions of the libretto of Anything Goes exist: the original libretto, the off-Broadway revival libretto, the revival libretto, and the revival libretto.
