Reviews

Cole Porter in 1934, the year in which Anything Goes was composed

Andrew Lamb reviewed the album on CD in Gramophone in December 1989, comparing it with recent cast recordings of stagings on Broadway^[2] and in London.^[3] John McGlinn's disc, he wrote, was wholly different from its rivals. They were recordings of a production (common to both CDs) in which the musical's book had been reworked and its score reorchestrated, and into which numbers from other Cole Porter shows had been inserted. As in his version of Jerome Kern's Show Boat [see Show Boat (1988 cast album) for details], McGlinn had followed a philosophy of historical authenticity, striving to produce "[as] complete as possible a representation of the original material, with some interesting deleted material in an appendix." As he explained in the lengthy booklet accompanying his CD, his disc was the fruit of musical archaeology in which he had dug up orchestrations from the show's birth in 1934 that had been lost for several decades. So intent was he on doing justice to the musical that when he came across a number which had been discarded before an orchestration of it had been undertaken, he had persuaded one of Porter's colleagues to orchestrate it from scratch, even though the musician in question, Hans Spialek, was 88 years old and afflicted with cancer.^[1]

McGlinn's efforts had created an album that sounded radically different from the comparison discs. For one thing, his orchestra was bigger than theirs, with less prominent brass. More conspicuously, although his readings of "Bon voyage", "Where are the men?" and "There'll always be a lady fair" were animated, his tempos were usually slower than modern audiences were used to. This was not because of some whim of his - he had imitated the pacing of the show's earliest cast recordings. His musicians were almost all satisfactory. Kim Criswell was in no way inferior to Broadway's Patti LuPone or London's Elaine Paige, and Cris Groenendaal likewise was the equal of his counterparts. McGlinn had been "inspired", too, when he had turned to the elderly Jack Gilford for the character part of Moonface Martin (although Pinnacle's Bernard Cribbins also deserved praise for his "clearly projected" version of the role). And "the Ambrosian Chorus sing and the London Symphony Orchestra play as though they were born to music such as this". The album's only defect was its casting of Frederica von Stade as Hope Harcourt - "Her soprano does really seem a shade too operatic for the piece". In sum, the RCA and Pinnacle discs were rewarding mementos of the production that they documented, and people who had last heard Porter's show in theatres in London or New York might find McGlinn's way with it initially disconcerting. But anyone who cherished vintage recordings of the work or who took the view that the orchestration of a musical was essential to its quiddity would "find this McGlinn version irresistible".^[4]

P. G. Wodehouse in 1930

Lamb revisited the album in Gramophone in October 1990, withdrawing the only criticism that he had levelled at it ten months earlier. "Frederica von Stade", he conceded, "is appropriately cast in a role originally assigned to an opera singer."^[5]

Roy Hemming reviewed the album on CD in Stereo Review in January 1990. John McGlinn, he wrote, had given listeners the chance to hear what vintage recordings of Anything Goes would have sounded like if their producers had had access to digital technology. Unlike the recent staging at Lincoln Center, his album was loyal to what Cole Porter had written. Transplants from other Porter shows were eschewed, and "Buddie beware" and "What a joy to be young", sometimes victims of the blue pencil, were included. His soloists had both strengths and weaknesses. The best of them were the "splendid" Cris Groenendaal as Billy and Frederica von Stade as a "gorgeously and unaffectedly" sung Hope. Their duet, "All through the night", and her "What a joy to be young" were without question the best two tracks on the album. As Reno Sweeney, the musical's most important role, Kim Criswell sang with "verve and clarity, but also with tones that too often become strident and whiny". Jack Gilford's great age had enfeebled his voice beyond the point where he could sing Moonface Martin's music adequately. Conducting, McGlinn was "the clear star of this production, holding everything together with a winning blend of light-handed snap, dash and genuine lilt." His "spine-tingling" album was a "vivid, authentic superbly recorded" CD that was an example of how the classics of American musical theatre should be recorded.^[6]

The album was also reviewed in Opera Now in April 1991: "Cole Porter addicts, look no further. You have died and gone to heaven."^[7]

Accolade

The album won the Gramophone Award for the best musical theatre recording of 1990.^[5]

Musical

• Kim Criswell, Reno Sweeney
• Cris Groenendaal, Billy Crocker
• Frederica von Stade, Hope Harcourt
• Jack Gilford (1908-1990), Moonface Martin
• Judy Green, 1st Girl
• Rebecca Caine, 2nd Girl
• Simon Green, Evelyn
• Bryan Landrine, Sailor
• Michael B. Wailing, Sailor
• Bruce Hubbard (1952-1991), Sailor
• Del-Bourree Bach, Sailor
• Phil Ossafee, Captain
• Dustin Stacks, Purser
• Ambrosian Chorus
• London Symphony Orchestra
• John McCarthy, chorus master
• John McGlinn (1953-2009), conductor^[1]

Other

• John Fraser, producer
• John Kurlander, recording engineer
• Morris Miller, editor
• Alison Fox, production assistant^[1]