My Favorite Broadway Performance

Anne Lamott says that a story is simply a character traveling to a bad place--then traveling to a good place (home, once again). In "Anything Goes," Reno Sweeney is briefly troubled by romantic chaos; she thinks she wants Billy, and Billy does not want her. But in fact Reno is meant for Lord Evelyn, whose sexual dynamism is just waiting, waiting to be discovered. Happy ending. It's not exactly "King Lear."

Reno describes her own journey in Biblical terms:

Once I was headed for Hell.

Once I was headed for Hell!

But now that I have seen the light--

I'm good by day and I'm good by night.

So I said, Satan? Farewell.

And now I'm all ready to fly--

Yes, to fly higher and higher.

'Cause I've gone to the brimstone--

And I've been through the fire.

And I've purged my soul--and my heart, too--

So climb up the mountaintop--

And start to blow, Gabriel....Blow!

A happy ending can be a religious awakening--but it can also be sexual fulfillment. When Sutton Foster tells us that she is "good by night," she is delivering at least two messages (at once).

I know Foster is somewhat controversial in this role--but her version of "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" is my idea of happiness. I admire that she is not needy--she knows she has our attention. She sort of reminds me of Rihanna.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Ql-fduIdM

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