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Anything Goes was based on an idea by a producer, Vinton Freedley , who was living on a boat in Panama, having left the USA to avoid his debts. He selected the writing team, and the star, Ethel Merman. As the show was in preparation, a passenger ship, the SS Morro Castle , sank and over 125 passengers were drowned. The plot, which concerned a shipwreck, was deemed insensitive, and the show was largely rewritten.

The resulting story was that of a nightclub singer, Reno Sweeney, played by Merman. The show opened at the Alvin Theatre , New York City, on 21 November, 1934 and became the fourth longest-running musical of the 1930s. It was filmed in 1936, starring Ethel Merman and Bing Crosby.

The song "Anything Goes" achieved a minor revival when it was used in the famous Monty Python's Flying Circus "Courtroom sketch". The Pythons also introduced a completely different (no pun intended) song called "Anything Goes" by "the other Cole Porter". ("Anything goes in, anything goes out, fish, bananas, old pyjamas, mutton, beef and trout...")

For the 1987 Broadway Revival, which starred Patti Lupone in the role of Reno Sweeney, John WeidmanJohn Weidman is an American librettist. He is the son of Librettist and Novelist Jerome Weidman. Libretti Pacific Overtures 1976 Anything Goes 1987 Assassins 1991 (revived on Broadway in 2004) Big 1996 Contact 2000 Anything Goes 2002 Weidman, John. and Timothy Crouse (Russel's son) updated the book.

Anything Goes! is also a retail chain of discount stores operating in North West LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri, United Kingdom.