I can’t recommend this Cole Porter musical highly enough: Anything Goes, at the Barbican, reviewed

The Barbican’s big summer show is billed on the website as ‘the sold-out musical sensation, Anything Goes’. The term ‘sold-out’ is a strange way to describe a production that’s keen to get your business. You’d be forgiven for clicking away and hunting for a show with seats available. What the Barbican means is that this is a revival of an earlier production that did great business. And that may explain why tickets aplenty are available even on a busy Friday night. This version stars Kerry Ellis as the showgirl, Reno, who falls in love on a transatlantic cruise ship. Virtually every number is a classic. If you read any couplet from the title song you’ll be humming the melody all day.

‘In olden days a glimpse of stocking/ Was looked on as something shocking/ But now God knows …’

Cole Porter was one of the few composers who wrote the lyrics and the music for his shows, and he enjoyed mocking his rivals Rodgers and Hammerstein: ‘It takes two people to write a musical?’ Several hands contributed to the book, including P.G.