Cole Porter’s marvelously zany Anything Goes, with an original book by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, aided and abetted by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, was a festive adventure that sailed the high seas the moment it premiered at the Alvin on November 21, 1934. Initially planned as the story of a shipwreck and the effects it has on its passengers, that plot was scuttled when a real sea tragedy occurred just as the show was going into rehearsals, and it was hastily rewritten as a madcap story of a former evangelist turned hostess, a pair of star-crossed lovebirds, and a meek gangster (Public Enemy #13) on the lam, all on board a luxury liner sailing to England. With its hilarious nonsensical script and Cole Porter’s brilliant collection of “ribald and sentimental songs,” it became to many the quintessential ’30s musical and made a star of Ethel Merman as Reno Sweeney. Though rarely staged – few actresses dared step into Merman’s formidable territory – it received a welcome revival in 1962, when Eileen Rodgers starred as Reno with Hal Linden, Mickey Deems, Kenneth Mars and Barbara Lang in the cast. The show, directed by Lawrence Kasha and choreographed by Ron Field, opened on May 15, 1962 at the off-Broadway Orpheum Theatre, where it played 239 performances.