July 31, 2025 By Roy Harris
The hit songs keep coming at Hingham Civic Music Theatre, with “Anything Goes” set to fill the Town Hall stage tomorrow and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. for the first of its two weekends.
But rehearsals suggest that it’s the exceptional singing and dancing of the lead actors—as well as terrific choruses behind them—that will make the show a must-see for fans of the Broadway genre.
The Cole Porter classic, about a raucous 1934 New York-to-London ocean-liner excursion aboard the S.S. American, features such hits as “You’re the Top,” “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” and the vaudeville-style “Friendship,” along with the stage-filling title number.
Adult tickets at $25—and $20 for seniors and students–are available now for all shows, including what’s shaping up as an especially popular opening weekend. Purchases may be via hcmttickets.ludus.com/index.php, or by calling HCMT at 339-793-1891. On the closing-weekend, shows are a Saturday 7:30 p.m. performance and a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee.
The delightful, sometimes raucous story—with competing love affairs, wild criminal schemes, and mistaken identities involving shady passengers traveling under aliases—comes together in a way that certainly lives up to the declaration of the title song.
Hingham’s Alexa Hartman plays Hope Harcourt. Hope falls in love with Billy Crocker, played by the terrific Justin Maloney, of Quincy, whose character is a criminal who’s stowing away as a lovelorn Wall Street broker. Kelly Geraghty, as nightclub singer Reno Sweeney, beautifully belts out “I Get a Kick Out of You,” and other numbers, including “Anything Goes,” with its familiar opening: “In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking.”
Other prominent characters include the villainous “Moonface” Martin (“Public Enemy Number 13)”, played by James Sullivan, along with Colman Lynch as Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, and the ship’s captain, played by Danny Hannafin.
And Hingham Civic favorite Nathan Fogg directs with flare, as usual.
Hingham Town Hall’s Sanborn Auditorium is on the second floor at 210 Central St., Hingham. Get your tickets early, if you can.
–Roy Harris, a semi-retired journalist and longtime HCMT performer, lives in the World’s End area of Hingham.