Part of the difficulty of running a Musical Society is the choice of musical. Productions need to be able to display the talents of as many of the members as possible, without hiding too many in the back rows of the chorus. Preferably with musical numbers most people will have heard of and hopefully a fairly believable storyline.

Perhaps “Anything Goes” does not totally fit the above criteria and it is not one of the better-loved classics, but Rosyth & District Musical Society do put on a rather super show. Despite first night technical problems (mainly sound) the audience are treated to a 1930’s spectacular.

The most outstanding thing about this production is the quality of the principal performers, Frances Sutherland, Leigh Grieve, Nicola Rafferty and Brenda Thompson being the ladies. David Mutch, Kevin Reed, Mark Grieve and Malcolm Gilfillan being the gentlemen (loose term only). Each of these individuals bring some special trait to the show and overall performances.

David Mutch as Billy Crocker, the upstanding handsome hero gets the chance to show off his musical ability as well as getting the chance to display different aspects of his acting abilities. His love interest, relative newcomer Nicola Rafferty as Hope Harcourt, took on her first major role with relative ease and looks good alongside David.

Mark Grieve as Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, Hope’s fiancé, stays in character of a foppish spoilt English lord extremely well. It begs us ask if this could be part of the real Mark. He may not get to sing much in this show but when he does he makes the most of it.

Mark is joined by his wife Leigh as Bonny, one half of the comedy duo along with Kevin Reed as Moonface Martin. public enemy no 13. This duo provides the majority of laughs they are both superb performers with great voices and strong stage presence.

The majority of the glamour and further love interest is provided by Frances Sutherland (Night-Club Singer Reno Sweeney) a stalwart of the society whose tiny package packs a huge punch.

Keeping it very much in the family we have several couples performing together obviously having fun. There are times you wonder just how many people you can pack on the stage and one or two major numbers do not seem to work at the moment but I am sure these things will settle down and the whole show will run beautifully by the end of the week.

Rosyth & District Musical Society Present

Monday 24th to Saturday 29th March 2008   at  The Carnegie Hall  Dunfermline