Source: Observer/Eccentric

Author: Joanne Maliszewski / John Stormzand

Definitely the music and lyrics of Cole Porter were a draw, but the Mercy High School cast of Anything Goes has fallen in love with tap dancing.

"I could not dance at all," said Mercy junior Lucy Devine, who plays Hope Harcourt in the musical comedy.

Same goes for Lia Korzeniewski, a Mercy senior. "I learned to tap dance."

As the curtain is about to open on the high schools' production of Anything Goes, the 47-member cast is tap, tap, tapping like pros across the stage.

"A lot of them know this show," said director and Mercy teacher Kathy Sill. "I love the classics. I like to introduce them to Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hammerstein."

Get ready because the voices on the teenaged cast are bound to snap the audience to attention when the show runs Friday through Sunday, March 13-15, in the school auditorium at 11 Mile and Middlebelt in Farmington Hills.

"This brings me so much joy," said Korzeniewski, who last year took the lead in the school's production of Mame. "I just love working with Mrs. Sill and the whole cast. This is the best part."

Devine's character has two loves aboard the cruise ship that serves as the set and the location for Cole Porter's musical. "All of the issues in this show relate to the present day. The human issues are the same. That's why it's timeless," she said.

Anything Goes originally was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse and then heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.

The story tells of madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London in the 1930s. Billy Crocker is a stowaway in love with heiress Hope Harcourt, who is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Nightclub singer Reno Sweeney and Public Enemy No. 13 Moonface Martin aid Billy in his quest to win Hope. The musical introduced American favorites, such as Anything Goes, You're the Top and I Get a Kick Out of You.

The males roles in the Mercy production are played by students from University of Detroit-Jesuit High School and Catholic Central. The show also includes plenty of students who play dancers, angels and sailors, as well as passengers aboard the ocean liner. Sill has also included five children in the production.

The ocean liner set boasts subsets, which represent cabins on the ship. The whole thing was built by 16 Mercy students and it's about as real looking as can be on stage.

Sill praised the cast that has rehearsed since December. Jake Zelinski, a U-D student, stepped in only a week ago to play the role of Billy the stowaway. "These kids are amazing," Sill said.

The student actors will take the audience back in time when gangsters were part of society, American business was booming and love was innocent. "The kids wanted to do this show for a long time," Sill said.

Despite their musical and dance talents, Devine and Korzeniewski see their future careers in other areas. Devine wants to be a middle school science and math teacher, while Korzeniewski plans to study hospitality management, with a minor in vocals, when she starts at Central Michigan University next year.

"I think one of my favorite parts is the bond you make with your classmates," Devine said. "It is a bond forever."