The story follows a cast of characters on a cruise ship. The main plot has stowaway Billy Crocker and rich debutante Hope Harcourt fall in love. As Harcourt tries to get out of her arranged marriage to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh and Crocker evades detection by security, hilarity and music ensue.

Local actor Matthew Lloyd is serving as the assistant director for the play. He said while the play does follow its source material closely, the cast has had the freedom to throw ideas around.

“We’ve taken some liberties,” Lloyd said. “We’ve had some fun; we’ve added little bits and stuff. Some comedy wasn’t originally in the script, but we took the chance to put it in.”

The main stage piece for the play is the deck of a cruise ship, complete with clean white paint and red and white buoys. While local productions often have to make do with recycled materials, Lloyd said much of the set dressing this year is brand new.

Billy Crocker (Jared Gleisner) breaks into song as he professes his love for Hope Harcourt (Helen Fischer) during dress rehearsals for the play “Anything Goes”. The show is bittersweet for Gleisner and Fischer, as they are among the four seniors doing their last school play.

“It’s a fantastic set designed and designed by Phil Fischer,” he said. “It’s the earliest in my experience we’ve ever had a set built for rehearsal. It poses a lot of great, unique opportunities when it comes to staging and what we can do. We have all the levels and many different doors. It presents a lot of unique opportunities.”

For Landon Klawitter, Helen Fischer, Kaitlyn Furth, and Jared Gleisner, this is their last show at Cathedral High School. Gleisner has acted in plays since he was five years old, with “Anything Goes” being his 27th so far. With all his experience, Gleisner said the size and scope of this play have outdone the plays he has been in previously.

“We’ve been expanding what we could do with every show,” he said. “This year was a huge leap forward in terms of the set we had and the size of the cast. We have a lot of people and the scale of this show in general is much larger than other stuff we’ve done.”

Gleisner plays Billy Crocker, the stowaway who is one-half of the main love story. While Crocker’s character is mainly focused on winning Hope Harcourt over, Gleisner said his favorite part of the play is more comedic.

“There’s so many good spots in this show,” he said “Me and this other character Moonface Martin, played by Landon Klawitter, have a lot of little shenanigans. We’re trying to pull pranks on other people. They’re all funny and a lot of fun to do because we wear disguises and all sorts of stuff.”

It’s a bittersweet moment for the seniors who have been in theater from the start. Gleisner said he is sad it’s ending but is proud of what he has accomplished.

“I’ve had a nice career here,” he said. “I’m happy to have done all these shows. I feel like I can leave Cathedral satisfied with all the cool stuff I’ve done.”

Performances will be held at the Holy Trinity Auditorium on Friday, November 10th at 7:00 PM, Saturday, November 11th at 7:00 PM, and Sunday, November 12th, at 2:00 PM.Tickets can be purchased at the Cathedral High School office from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Reserved seating is $12 and general admission is $10. For students, the price is $7 and $5 respectively.

Cast List

Elissa Ries Reno Sweeney

Jared Gleisner Billy Crocker

Helen Fischer Hope Harcourt

Anton Pyan Lord Evelyn Oakleigh

Landon Klawitter Moonface Martin

Raegan Krueger Erma

Brennan Glawe Elisha Whitney

Chloe Beranek Evangeline Harcourt

Jack Griebel Captain

Camden Berg Purser

Jase Christiansen Luke

Logan Klawitter John

Elijah Bolduan Habakkuk

Maddie Schreyer Purity (Angel)

Alaina Blomberg Chastity (Angel)

Tillie Klawitter Charity (Angel)

Emma Hoffmann Virtue (Angel)

Teresa Fischer Constance (Angel)

Emilee Krueger Prudence (Angel)

Kate Furth Patience (Angel)

Emmet Gaalswyk Rev. Henry T. Dobson/male sailor

Levi Bailey Fred (Bartender)/male sailor