Deconstructing Cole Porter

BY NANCY STETSON nstetson@floridaweekly.com
Nothing says witty and urbane like a Cole Porter song.

PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES Cole Porter (1891-1964), American songwriter and composer.

His tunes are sophisticated fun, with lyrics that delight and surprise, even upon repeated hearing. And the melodies linger in your mind like the memory of someone you love.

"There's a lot of fun in his music, a lot of play, a lot of romance," says Charles Fornara. He knows the music intimately; he's music director for The Naples Players' upcoming production of "Anything Goes," which opens March 4.

The classic musical features many of Mr. Porter's well-known and beloved songs, including: "You're the Top," "It's De-lovely," "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," "Friendship" and the

"Sophistication is number one," says Mr. Fornara. "And it's madcap. Like people say, 'Hilarity ensues.' It's zany. It's vaudeville — vaudeville with sophistication, which is a good example of how he pairs things you don't expect.

"It's a pie in the face, if you were, and yet it's highbrow. It's highbrow and lowbrow, married together beautifully."

COURTESY PHOTO "Anything Goes" opens at the Sugden Community Theatre on March 4.

The show runs through April 4 in Blackburn Hall at Sugden Community Theatre. Tickets are $35.

Mr. Fornara talked with Florida Weekly about what makes Mr. Porter's songs so unique. Here are seven things he thinks are important:

1. The lyrics are very natural.

"His lyrics are incredibly clever, without seeming mannered or overwritten," he says.

He mentions Pytheas, who criticized poets whose works "smelled of the lamp."

"In other words, you could tell they were up until 5 in the morning making it absolutely perfect," he says. "But what this guy does is he writes this ridiculous stuff that you would never expect, and it doesn't seem clunky, it doesn't seem overwritten or overwrought. It's totally natural."

2. Mr. Porter liked to pair unexpected things in his lyrics.

Mr. Fornara says Mr. Porter is known for unexpected rhymes that often pair the sublime with the ridiculous. For example, in "You're the Top," in which the songwriter compares to his love to a long list of varied things, including Garbo's salary, cellophane and broccoli, he rhymes "Strauss" with "Mickey Mouse," and the Italian poet "Dante" with "Durante."

He rhymes "Fred Astaire" with "camembert."

"He pairs the sublime with the ridiculous," Mr. Fornara says, adding his favorite examples of that are in "Anything Goes" where Mr. Porter pairs "old hymns" with "bare limbs."

The entire song is supposed to be sung by the character Reno, but for The Naples Players production, Mr. Fornara decided to follow the example of the 1987 revival. "We took the opening stanzas of 'Anything Goes' and gave those lines to the characters who made the most sense saying those lines.

"So for example, Luke and John, the Chinese converts to the minister, sing 'old hymns,' whereas Erma, the little slut, sings 'bare limbs.' I think it works very well."

In yet more examples of pairing the sublime with the ridiculous, he says, Mr. Porter follows up "Boticcelli, Keats and Shelly" with "Ovaltine." The "Zuider Zee" goes with "broccoli," and "the steppes of Russia" are paired with "the pants on a Roxy usher."

But perhaps the finest example of pairing the sublime with the ridiculous, Mr. Fornara suggests, is in "Easy to Love" when the character of Billy sings, "So sweet to waken with/so nice to sit down to eggs and bacon with."

"I think (that's) just brilliant," Mr. Fornara says.

3. Mr. Porter's rhymes feel natural, but they're not what you'd expect.

Though the rhymes often surprise, they're never mannered or overwritten. For example, in "Anything Goes," he writes, "Though I'm not a great romancer, I know that I'm bound to answer."

"I don't think that would occur to normal people as a rhyme," says Mr. Fornara.

He plays with language to make rhymes happen: In "Friendship," he penned the lines: "When other friendships go up in smoke/ours will still be oke," pronouncing OK as if it were a word, not two letters to be spoken. The same song has these two lines: "When other friendships go up the crick/ours will still be slick."

"I know people say crick, but I'm sure Cole Porter didn't," Mr. Fornara says.

4. Mr. Porter used puns.

There are lots of great puns within Mr. Porter's lyrics. Mr. Fornara's favorite occurs in the beginning of "It's Delovely," when Hope sings "This verse I started seems to me/The Tin-Pantithesis of a melody," combining the words "Tin Pan Alley" and "antithesis."

"I think that's pretty extraordinary," Mr. Fornara says.

5. Mr. Porter looked at words from different angles and turned language on its head.

"In his lyrics, he does these unexpected sort of switcheroos, looking at things from another angle," Mr. Fornara says. The lyrics for "Anything Goes" begin: "Times have changed/And we've often rewound the clock,/Since the Puritans got a shock,/When they landed on Plymouth Rock./ If today,/Any shock they should try to stem,/'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,/ Plymouth Rock would land on them."

"It seems like a switcheroo, where he's looking at language a different way, getting a double meaning out of land," Mr. Fornara says.

6. Mr. Porter often used internal rhymes.

Rather than waiting until the end of a line to rhyme, he would put rhymes in the middle of his lines. In "All Though the Night," for example, he writes: "All through the night/I delight in your love" and "When dawn comes to awaken me,

you're never there at all/I know you've forsaken me til the shadows fall."

A prime example occurs in "Buddy Beware," when Erma — "again, the little slut," Mr. Fornara says — sings "During Christmas holidays I develop taking ways/And I'm not at all anti pretty things Santy brings from Cartier's."

"Actually, there's a double rhyme, not only 'ways' with 'Cartier's' but 'things' with 'brings' and 'anti' with 'Santy.' That's a gold mine right there!" Mr. Fornara crows.

7. Mr. Porter wrote risqué lyrics. "He was very forward-looking," Mr. Fornara says.

For example, in "Anything Goes," he writes: "Good authors too who once knew better words/Now only use four letter words/Writing prose, anything goes."

He also claims that "most guys today/That women prize today/Are just silly gigolos."

Mr. Porter described a world where "grandma, whose age is eighty/In night clubs is getting matey with gigolos" and "When mothers pack and leave poor father/Because they decide they'd rather be tennis pros/ anything goes."

And in "I Get a Kick Out of You,"

he mentions that alcohol and cocaine don't affect him as much as the object of his love does. Pretty adventurous, considering the musical was first produced in 1934.

As much as Mr. Porter is known for his sophisticated lyrics, he's also known for his risqué, double-entendes. After all, this was the man who wrote "Let's Do It," though that tune isn't a part of the score of "Anything Goes."

"Yeah, he's pretty dirty," Mr. Fornara says. "He really was.

"The key is, he's so natural. My whole life, I've always viewed the word clever as kind of a negative. Someone who's clever to me is working too hard: too clever by half. But he does it without being annoying. It's just so free and easy and natural.

"The big appeal for this show is his music. Incredible songs.

"Everybody knows these songs. These are roles that everyone wants to play. Luckily, the people we have in these roles really have the ability to bring out the words. They know what words to hit, to bring it across to the audience."

One of Mr. Fornara's most difficult challenges, though, is to find a balance where the tempo is lively enough, yet slow enough so the cast can articulate the words clearly, so the audience understands them. "I don't want to fly through these numbers so quickly that any of the good jokes are lost," he says. "He doesn't waste words. Everything is a highlight.

"He married text and music brilliantly. There's nothing weak. The pieces fit. It's right. The show is right. Of all the shows I've ever done, it's certainly among the shows where the music and lyrics are paired the best."

"Anything Goes" was one of the first musicals Mr. Fornara ever saw on Broadway, with Patti LuPone and Howard McGillis. It was the 1987 revival, the same version of the show The Naples Players will perform.

"It knocked me out," he says.

Mr. Fornara is especially excited because the music was re-orchesrated for that revival.

"We had the first orchestra playthrough on Sunday, and it is so sweet. It's really a very beautiful and very subtle and classy arrangement. I think people are going to be knocked out by the band. It's simple and then at the same time, it's complex. I'm using four reeds, which I don't usually get to do.

"It's meaty, it's delicious, it's great," Mr. Fornara says, almost sounding like a verse from "It's De-Lovely."

If you go

>>What: "Anything Goes" >>When: March 4-April 4 >>Where: The Sugden Community Theatre, 701 Fifth Avenue South, Naples >>Cost: $35 >>Information: Tickets are available at the Sugden Community Theatre box office, by phone at 263-7990, or at www.naplesplayers.org