ARTS COMMENTARY

If you're a regular theatergoer, odds are good you've seen "Anything Goes" — perhaps more than once.

After all, there was a moment when it seemed to be playing here almost every year: The Naples Dinner Theatre put on a production, as did the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre in Fort Myers. A national touring company even came through with a production.

This season, The Naples Players throw their sailor hat into the ring, presenting "Anything Goes" as their mid-season musical extravaganza.

And this production does not disappoint.

The community troupe has obviously gone all out, with a cast of more than three dozen and a nine-piece orchestra.

Even before the curtain rises, you know this is going to be a big production: Scenic designer Matt Flynn created a screen filled with Art Deco mermaids and mermen and the hull of a ship bearing down upon the audience. While the orchestra plays the overture, show credits run on the ship's sail, which acts as a movie screen. (Note the film sprockets at the top of the sail.)

The show, of course, is a vehicle for Cole Porter's delightful songs: "I Get a Kick Out of You," "It's De-Lovely," "You're the Top," "Friendship," "All Through the Night," and "Anything Goes."

COURTESY PHOTO Jim Corsica as Moonface Martin, public enemy #13, is happy to be surrounded by lovelies.

The plot, which has gone through at least three rewritings and is the cumulative work of six people, is ridiculously flimsy and non-essential. It's mainly one-liners, in the style of vaudeville. Some hit their mark, some don't.

Many of the lines have been around forever yet still coaxed laughs from the audience at the Sugden the night I attended. Some of the best lines, however, seemed to fly over the heads of the audience. (I laughed alone when one character said to another, a gangster dressed up as a priest, "Thanks, you're one hell of a Christian.")

And it must have been an audience filled with Midwesterners, because no one seemed to find the name Murray Hill Flowers — even when it's explained it's a name taken from the phone book — funny. Murray Hill is a neighborhood in Manhattan, and it's the name of a business, not a person. (Though now it's also the name of a New York drag king.)

If you care to know the plot: Billy (James Little) stows aboard the S.S. American because he's in love with Hope (Laura Needle). But Hope is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (Mark Vanagas) and denying her feelings for Billy. Billy's boss (Bill Ziff-Levine) is onboard, as are two gangsters in disguise, Moonface Martin (Jim Corsica) and Erma (Jessica Walck). The latter two try to keep Billy from his boss and from being recognized by the crew. Reno Sweeney (Mary Anne McAvoy McKerrow), a nightclub singer/ evangelist, is also onboard, and even though she's in love with Billy herself, she decides to help him.

There are also chorus girls (the hilariously misnamed Purity, Virtue, Chastity and Charity), sailors, FBI agents and passengers, who all run about the ship in a perpetual state of frenzy.

But the musical numbers are exquisite. Director Dallas Dunnagan and musical director Charles Fornara obviously took great care in casting the show and in making the music and lyrics its most prominent feature.

The spoken lines might be thrown away, and not always delivered with the best comedic timing, but the songs! Oh, the songs are divine.

This cast lovingly sings the lyrics, putting across every clever Cole Porter line as if it had never been sung before.

Ms. McAvoy McKerrow is an excellent actress, playing the role of Reno with perpetual bemusement and sophistication. Though she has a great voice, however, she lacks the physical and vocal heft of a belter. It would've been wonderful to see someone plant their feet and belt out "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" with a voice that could raise the dead.

(And in fact, when her microphone wasn't turned on for a couple of lines, Ms. McAvoy McKerrow's voice was lost in the sea of other voices.)

But the slim actress knows how to put across a song, whether it's a love song with Mr. Little ("You're the Top") or a silly song such as "Friendship," sung with Mr. Corsica. It takes a certain comedic talent to present such songs, and Ms. McAvoy McKerrow and Mr. Corsica do so with perfect goofiness.

Almost every musical number brings the house down. Ms. Needle is touching in "It's De-Lovely" and "Goodbye, Little Dream, Goodbye," and Ms. Walck is full of sassy sexiness in "Buddie Beware."

Mr. Vanagas has wowed in previous productions, especially as the emcee in The Naples Players' recent "Cabaret." In "Anything Goes," he plays a foppish British lord fascinated with American sayings. In all previous productions of this musical, I've found this character annoying and cringe-inducing. But Mr. Vanagas understands the character and plays him with perfect pitch and believability, seducing the audience with his silliness.

And in his duet with Ms. McAvoy McKerrow, "The Gypsy in Me," in which he stomps his feet, dances a tango and pretends to be a bull, he has the audience eating out of his hand.

From the very beginning, Mr. Little, with old-fashioned movie star looks and boyish vulnerability, has the audience cheering for him to win the girl. His high tenor notes on "Easy to Love" tug at the heart.

And kudos to choreographer Dawn Lebrecht, who has somehow made these non-dancers almost as graceful as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in some numbers and transformed them into spirited, tap-dancing fools in others. (I especially liked Frances Maslowski's surprising turn in the spotlight.)

Dot Auchmoody's costumes are also noteworthy, with variations on a redwhite and-blue theme. Mr. Flynn's ship is sturdy, and his sets of individual cabins are perfect, with stripes of deepening blues, a rounded silver outline to suggest a hull, and even choppy waves outside. And for the "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" number he's created a simple, yet sophisticated Art Deco set.

Special care has been taken with this musical, and it shows in the details: the cut of the costumes, the ship's logo repeated on the sailor outfits and on the food carts.

However, the performance I saw contained numerous small glitches. More than one character's hat fell off. A handkerchief was accidentally dropped (and picked up by another dancer). And a male character developed an unfortunate split in the crotch of his pants right before a big dance number.

The show also had sound problems throughout the night. The mics faded in and out; the person behind the soundboard was consistently late with turning on actors' microphones. The volume was also not loud enough; people around me complained of not being able to hear all the dialogue or lyrics.

And with Cole Porter's wonderfully witty lyrics, you don't want to miss a single word.

Regardless, "Anything Goes" is a big love letter to a time of class, sophistication and urbane wit.

Yes, it's the top, it's de-lovely, it's not to be missed.

If you go

>>What: "Anything Goes"

>>When: through April 4

>>Where: Sugden Community Theatre, 701 Fifth Avenue South, Naples

>>Cost: $35 ($10 for students)

>>Info: 263-7990 or www.naplesplayers.org