Anything Goes Analysis

1. ANYTHING GOES
Fraser Dart

2. ANALYSIS OF ANYTHING GOES
Anything Goes is a 1934 musical with music and lyrics written by Cole
Porter (a famous and well renowned composer of the 1930s).
The show is set on board the S.S.American – an American cruise ship
bound for London, from NewYork, and follows the story depicted here:

3. ANALYSIS OF ANYTHING GOES
A youngWall Street broker, BillyCrocker, ignores his boss, Elisha
J.Whitney, and follows his love, Hope Harcourt, onto the ship in
order to win her heart.Trouble soon ensues.With Hope being
engaged to a wealthy Englishman, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, Billy’s
old friend, Reno Sweeney, and new accomplice, gangster
Moonface Martin, aid Billy in his quest to win Hope’s heart.

4. ANALYSIS OF ANYTHING GOES
The story follows Billy as he constantly changes disguises in order
to go unnoticed by his boss, other passengers and also the FBI –
since an incident on board the ship leads the authorities to believe
Billy is in fact Snake-Eyes Johnson (public enemy number one).

5. ANALYSIS OF ANYTHING GOES
The main themes within Anything Goes are:
Themes
Love - The story follows Billy in his attempt to win Hope’s hand in marriage.The
majority of the plot continues to push this theme forward.
Class and Status - The reason Hope is engaged to Lord Oakleigh is for the
raise in wealth and status he would bring to the Harcourt family.
Crime - Billy forms an alliance with an infamous gangster, and is continually
mistaken for public enemy number one.

6. ANALYSIS OF ANYTHING GOES
This formula of a hopelessly romantic, male protagonist defeating the odds in a bid to win his lover’s heart is a classic
storyline in many 20th century hit Broadway and Hollywood musicals – take Singin’ in the Rain, Kiss me Kate or High
Society for example.

7. ANALYSIS OF ANYTHING GOES
This meant that Anything Goes was essentially a sure success in 1930s America – in addition to the fact that Porter’s
work was highly regarded at the time.The saturation of this style of storyline, however, in the 21st century may be a
factor that draws people away from our product – since there is a higher demand for more intricate, involving and
powerful storylines – for example Les Miserables, Jesus Christ Superstar or SweeneyTodd:The Demon Barber of Fleet
Street.
It is therefore a creative decision that must be made in the marketing process if, whether we present the musical as
nostalgia-filled production, reminiscent of the ‘golden age of Broadway’ – or if we overlook this fact and continue to
market the show as its own product and present its selling points as their own enticing features, still present in society
today.

8. THE USP OF ANYTHING GOES
Perhaps the most obvious selling point of Anything Goes is the fact that the entire show is set on an American
cruise liner – the SSAmerican – which is an unusual feature for musicals of the period, and also for musicals in
today’s society.Other rare examples of musical performances set on ships are; an opera called HMS Pinafore and
the musical adaptation of the 1912 event called Titanic, but Anything Goes is probably the most famous of these
titles.This means that the nautical theme of the show is a clear selling point that should be utilised when
marketing the show.

9. THE USP OF ANYTHING GOES
Another suggestion of a selling point for the show is – perhaps less unique to Anything Goes
and is more common in 20th century musicals, in reference to the repetitive formula
previously mentioned – is the fact that the show focusses on upper class, wealthy characters,
and so the props and set must also reflect this – as can be seen here in an alternative
Anything Goes poster.The use of expensive and luxurious staging and scenery is a well
received and favoured style of musical in today’s environment, both in Ringwood and in
London – take the success of the revival of 42nd Street on theWest End for example.This is
therefore another factor that can be focussed upon when marketing the show.

10. TARGET AUDIENCE
The audience for Anything Goes will differ between Ringwood’s own
production and other possible productions in theWest End and
likewise.
For our production, the majority of audience members are likely to be
parents, carers, friends and family of students within the cast and
production crew.This gives a wide range of age, genders, interests and
characteristics of the people who are likely to watch our show, and
means that there is a distinct lack of regularity between people who
will choose to see the show and those who will not.

11. TARGET AUDIENCE
The only linking factor that is apparent throughout these audience members, will
be the fact that they have attachments to students involved in the show.This
could therefore be something that is picked up on in the marketing of the product
– perhaps a written line that states that the show includes Ringwood students, or
perhaps using photos of the students involved to publicise the show to people that
know these students, as of course they should recognise the cast members.
For a West End or professional production of Anything Goes, however, the target
audience for the show will be vastly less dependent on cast members’ friends and
families, and will be more reliant on the show’s marketing to attract these
audiences. In contrast to this statement, however, some cast members may
attract a fan following (for example, when John Barrowman played BillyCrocker,
this would have attracted Barrowman fans to the show as he is a well-known
figure).Therefore, publicising cast members is definitely a benefit, however these
cast members may not be the reason that the majority of the audience attend.

12. TARGET AUDIENCE
I believe that the majority of audience members for a professional production of Anything
Goes would be middle age to elderly men and women (predominantly women) who enjoy
attending theatre already. I do not believe that Anything Goes would be many people’s first
theatre experience as something like Lion King at the LyceumTheatre may be.Therefore,
the publicity for the show should probably be tended more the experienced theatre
audience members, and should draw upon the show’s story and luxurious nature, rather
than advertising the show as a family-friendly, accessible theatre performance – which of
course hopefully it shall be as well, but perhaps to a lesser extent.

13. MARKETING STRATEGIES
For a large, professional production of Anything Goes, there would be a considerable sized budget that would allow for
extravagant and lavish advertising to be implemented for the show.This could include publicity strategies such as:
• Posters – on billboards or along tube network walls
• TV and Radio adverts
• Flyers in local shops, cafes, and other public places
• Ads on phone apps and external websites
• Televised interviews (eg cast members onThe One Show or Good Morning Britain, for example)
• Advertisement on the external of buses
Each of these strategies would ensure that a vast array of people would see these advertisements and would, even if only
momentarily, consider attending a performance of the show.This would therefore mean that eventually members of the
target audience would see these adverts and be likely to attend a show.

14. MARKETING STRATEGIES
For a professionalWest End production of Anything Goes, I would look at mainly advertising the show on billboards located
in and around London, including in the tube network and on the sides of buses. I feel that positioning the adverts alongside
public transports ensures the widest range of people will see them and be more likely to attend the show. Additionally,
buses travel all around London and so would increase the footfall of people that view the advertisements.
However, with such a large advertising budget, I would also consider arrangingTV and radio interviews with cast members
on major stations, for example with BBC or itv networks.This would be an exceptionally effective marketing strategy if the
production had a well-known figure or celebrity in it (which is likely inWest End theatre).
These forms of advertisement would probably need to be implemented a week or two before ticket sales went out to the
general public. Depending on the preproduction process for the individual show, this may be after rehearsals have mostly
finished, or during the main bulk of rehearsals for the show. Naturally, the advertisement posters and billboards should be
kept up as long as possible in various locations to ensure the footfall of possible audience
members is maintained. And, the majority of interviews would probably stop soon after
the show run begins, but this strategy may be considered again once new cast member
join the production.

15. MARKETING STRATEGIES
For our Ringwood production of the show, however, our budget may not extend to the cost of some of these strategies.We
may be able to achieve more cost-effective solutions like flyers or posters in the local area, howeverTV interviews and radio
adverts may exceed the current budget for marketing. It would therefore be crucial to utilise the creativity of the marketing
students in order to produce the most effective marketing possible on the tighter budget available to us.
One suggestion for this strategy may be an advertisement video that could include cast and crew members from our own
show, that can be uploaded for free on a video sharing platform such asYouTube, and publicised through the school’s pre-
existing accounts on social media outlets such asTwitter.This would then attract the target audience for our show, without
the lavish resources needed for more expensive promotional techniques used by professional production teams.
Using the nautical theme to our advantage, this video could take place aboard a ship – perhaps from the local Southampton
dock – where cruise ships are regularly situated.This would promote the show’s theme and unique selling point, as well as
using the fact that students are in the show to our advantage to sell tickets to the show
to people who know each students. Having the video based upon a ship may also be
effective advertising as it will contrast the plainer school environment that may be expected
from a school production, and the lavish nature of a cruise ship may attract more people to
the show than would want to come if the advertisement was more standard of a school
production.

16. MARKETING STRATEGIES
I would also suggest the use of posters and banners that could be either physically displayed within the local area on notice
boards and such, or even posted on social media outlets such asTwitter and Facebook that can be shared to parents and
carers digitally.
Similarly to if the advertisement was for a professional production, these strategies would need to be released to the public
a week or so before public ticket sales were available. However, for our school productions, we tend to release tickets
through a tier system, meaning that many parents and carers may be offered tickets before general sale is available,
meaning that the adverts may be more beneficial being released earlier to ensure that the interest from these potential
audience members is sparked prior to the tickets themselves being released.