Rigby High School Theater to stage ‘Anything Goes’

Photo by Adam Forsgren
RIGBY — Rigby High School Theater is inviting you out for an evening of fun and music with their production of the musical “Anything Goes.”
The play, a Depression Era tale of romance set aboard an ocean liner, is full of fast-paced, witty dialogue, laugh-out-loud humor and lots of catchy songs. (Click here for tickets.)
“‘Anything Goes’ revolves around two different romantic couples on a cruise ship,” theater teacher and director Jesse Arnold told EastIdahoNews.com. “Each of the characters gets mixed up in their own entanglements and throughout the course of the show, they get themselves into deeper trouble and then they get untangled and move towards a happy ending.”
Arnold said he picked the play after performing the heavy, less-jovial “Hunchback of Notre Dame” last year.
“I wanted to go for something that was light and happy,” Arnold said. “My colleagues and I discussed several different shows and at the end of the day, we decided that this play was the best fit.”
While “Anything Goes” was the best fit for this year’s play, it was not without challenges that Arnold and his students had to overcome.
“With this show being originally written in the 1930s, the language is more old-fashioned and at first a lot of it doesn’t make sense to teenagers these days,” said Arnold. “It’s a few steps above reading Shakespeare. So delving into and discovering the meaning and the humor of the words and helping the students understand that was the biggest challenge.”
“Since this show is really old, there are a lot of terms that I didn’t understand and have had to research and learn what they mean,” added Liberty Porter, who plays Reno Sweeney in this production.

Courtesy RHS Anything Goes Facebook event page
The actors also had quite the task of learning their lines and the lyrics.
“The lines are probably the hardest part,” said Logan Davis, who plays Billy Crocker in the show. “Getting the characterization down has been pretty easy but memorizing the lines and what comes after what was pretty tough for more.”
Along with learning the dialogue, the cast had to learn a lot of choreography to make the show work.
“A lot of us have been to tap classes out of school and learning how to tapdance so we can make this show as authentic and amazing as possible,” Porter said.
“I think dancing’s really fun,” added Davis. “I think dancing is probably one of my favorite parts of being in the musical. I’ve really enjoyed working with people and learning all the dances.”
The dancing in “Anything Goes” is all set to songs written by legendary composer Cole Porter. Arnold said the music adds to the fun, happy energy of the play.
“(Cole Porter) had a very prolific career writing musicals in the 1930s and 40s,” Arnold said. “His style is known for a lot of great wordplay and a lot of great and clever rhyme schemes, which inspired the next generation of composers Rogers and Hammerstein and Stephen Sondheim. Overall, his songs are very upbeat. There are very few ballads in this show. The music is very jazzy and very catchy, with some very clever and creative lyrics.”
You can catch Rigby High School Drama’s production of “Anything Goes” from Friday, March 10, through Tuesday, March 14 at Rigby High School in Rigby at 7 p.m. You can click here to reserve seats and buy tickets at the door.

Photo by Adam Forsgren
The post Rigby High School Theater to stage ‘Anything Goes’ appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com