CASTLE PUSH THE BOAT OUT WITH ANYTHING GOES.

COLE Porter took centre stage at The Castle School just before half-term with a slick and well-dressed production of ‘Anything Goes’. The superb set which at once accommodated and included an orchestra pit, an ocean-going cruise liner and individual cabins, showed the school’s design team at their most imaginative and innovative. It looked like something from the West End.

The music, as always, under the competent baton of Sandra Sutton, resonated with the high class atmosphere and sophistication of the first quarter of the last century. Familiar favourite numbers that we had all grown up with were given a makeover by the energy and youth of the cast who were obviously enjoying it as much as the wrinklies in the audience. The musicians and vocalists need look no further than this summer’s cruise companies if they want to earn a few bob in the holidays. I’d snap them up!

In particular a mention must be given to Camellia Sinclaire who played Reno Sweeney, the singing sermoniser. This girl is a natural entertainer whose voice would fill a stadium but whose sense of the lyrics would challenge Ella Fitzgerald in a nightclub. She was well-matched by her troupe of ‘Fallen Angels’ who made the whole concept of falling from grace a rhapsodical delight.

This was one of the best dressed productions I have seen at the school, where standards have always been high. The elegance of the period suited the tall and svelt and emphasised the vulgarity of the ersatz. The confidence with which the transatlantic twang ricocheted around the stage added a verisimilitude due, perhaps, to the global colonisation by our cousins across the pond of the media today.

Director Steve Mitchell cannot, of course, produce anything without adding a veneer of gold leaf to it. This was no exception and his own humour beefed up a script which never lacked strength; though I’m not sure anyone could easily forgive the one about the Russian ballet choreographer Yputcha Leflegin!

And what a pleasure it was to see good tap dance, just to add that Ginger Rogers zest. This was glitzy and gorgeous. A great evening’s entertainment.