Megan Mullally to star in ‘Anything Goes’ at the Barbican

The S.S. American will dock in London once more.

A London revival of Anything Goes will open at the Barbican starring Megan Mullally, who will make her London musical theatre debut as Reno Sweeney. Performances are scheduled to run from 8 May - 22 Aug. 2021.

The Golden Age musical tells of adventures on the S.S. American, heading from New York to England. There's a variety of characters, including nightclub entertainer Reno Sweeney and her quartet of "angels," Lord Oakleigh and his fiancée Hope Harcourt, as well as stowaway Billy Crocker and Public Enemy Number Thirteen, Moonface Martin.

Anything Goes features a book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. Songs include "I Get A Kick Out of You," "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," as well as the title song "Anything Goes."

Megan Mullally will play Reno Sweeney in the production, best known for playing Karen Walker in Will & Grace. On stage, she's appeared in Broadway productions of Grease and Young Frankenstein, with London performances with her band Supreme Music Program at the Vaudeville Theatre in 2010.

Ahead of starring in the show, Mullally said: "Anything really does go, is the thing, and I'm excited to be coming to London where Robert Lindsay and I will promptly unleash ourselves upon that wonderful town for 15 weeks of farce and frolic. Under the tutelage of the devilishly clever Kathleen Marshall we shall endeavour to do the memory of Cole Porter proud. Meanwhile, I will endeavour to get my a** to a tap class. A brand new rendering of a great old entertainment is on the horizon...something tells me I'll get a kick out of spending my summer in London next year! Tally-ho!"

Robert Lindsay will also star in Anything Goes, last appearing in London in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Savoy Theatre. He's also a two-time Olivier Award winner, honoured for his performances in Me and My Girl and Becket.

Further casting for Anything Goes is to be announced.

Anything Goes was last in London in 2003 at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. In a review for LondonTheatre.co.uk, Amanda Hodges wrote "Cole Porter's Thirties musical is as light as a souffle, but it's performed with such panache, such style and, most importantly of all, with the sort of collective zest that proves well nigh irresistible." 

Anything Goes is at the Barbican from 8 May - 22 Aug. 2021.

^{Photo credit: Megan Mullally (Photo by Maarten de Boer)}