Talking to The Cast Members of Anything Goes
AROUND AND AROUND: The cast dances in LVA’s performance of Anything Goes.
March 23, 2023
Las Vegas Academy’s most recent show, Anything Goes, has been on stage all throughout February.
The Plot
Anything Goes is a romantic comedy set on the S.S. American, traveling from New York to London. On this ship are nightclub singer Reno Sweeney (Kamille Johnson); stowaway Billy Crocker (Will Haley); Billy’s boss, Elisha Whitney (Dominic Jones); Billy’s love and debutante, Hope Harcourt (Peyton Peterson) her mother, Evangeline Harcourt (Harper Scout Misegades); Hope’s fiance, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (Billy Hules); and two criminal stowaways, Moonface Martin (Gael Contreras) and Erma (Jennifer Rangel).
Preparation
The performance has been in production for several months, and the people involved have been working hard. “The best part about Anything Goes [was] honestly the show process.” Kamille Johnson said.
Preparing a musical can be difficult. Learning to work with dancing, singing, and acting was a new thing to do for Jennifer Rangel. “Usually, we tend to focus more on one thing; dance is not my forte, but singing is,” Rangel said. “Thinking about only doing one of them or both of them at the same time is usually very difficult. But once you rehearse it a lot and practice it every day like we did, you get better and better at it, and it comes easy to you.”
Connecting to Characters
Each and every one of the characters were unique in their own way. “She is very energetic and always happy to be there,” said Rangel about her role as Erma. “She loves attention and boys and she’s just silly and happy all the time.”
Originally, Johnson got a callback for Reno and Erma. Johnson ended up enjoying playing Reno.
“Something I enjoy about Reno is how easy it was for me to connect with her,” said Johnson. “She seems like this crazy over-the-top girl, but she’s really just a hopeless romantic. And she has a crazy past, but still somehow puts on an amazing show and makes amazing friends.” Johnson said that she enjoyed using a method by Stanislavski to help her get into character.
“Putting myself in the headspace of my own character and imagining myself as him [helps me get into character],” said Gael Contreras about what helps him become Moonface Martin. Being in Anything Goes has helped Contreras learn how to deal with his emotions while acting.
Favorite Parts
Each cast member had their favorite parts about experiencing the show. “The part that I will always remember is every single show we got to do. Honestly, one of my favorite parts is the fact that we did have understudy shows and I did get that experience of being a cruise ship passenger in Anything Goes rather than standing center the whole time,” said Johnson. “[I got] to learn those different moves [with] different choreography, different spacing. But every single show was different; every single show had an amazing audience and I think that’s an amazing opportunity.”
Throughout the show process, there was always something to look forward to. Contreras found that connecting with the cast and crew was a fun experience for him. “[Working with the] cast; that was probably one of the best things. Not just with the cast themselves, [but also with] the tech and orchestra.”
