I Get a Kick Out Of You

Musical Theatre Friday

Hello, friends!

I thought I’d revive this old chestnut (at least for this week!)

Lately, I’ve been teaching my Reading Like a Writer: Poetry class for Ninja Writers, which is just a fancy way of saying that I take some brave students through a variety of poems each week.

Being me, my definition of poem is pretty varied. Sometimes it includes song lyrics, and even Princess Margaret’s dirty limericks from that episode of The Crown.

But a couple of weeks ago, those poems included some of Cole Porter’s lyrics.

Anything Goes was my second-ever musical, and the first one I did outside of school. (Still, it was with a lot of my schoolmates, but it was through the community youth theatre). I didn’t have a major role, but I did have an absolutely fun one. I played main character’s boss, Mr. Whitney, who spends the entire voyage on the ship getting progressively more and more sloshed.

Anything Goes, Whittier Junior Theatre, Summer 2009. Dir. Kate Barrett

The show was such a special experience, and the memories were wonderful. But more and more, I find myself coming back to the music over the last few years. Most of it is bawdy, half of it is full of double-entendres, and all of it is catchy. But all of that aside, it does have its true moments of loveliness.

This number, for one.

Even when it manages to be droll and understated, there’s an underlying tenderness that shines through, an undercurrent of vulnerability that runs beneath.