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By JERRY HERTENSTEIN

Staff Writer

“There’s something wrong here!” is an oft-repeated line in “Anything Goes.”

However, for the Cole Porter musical at the historic Pulse Opera House in Warren, the line should be turned around to “There’s something right here.”

One of numerous “rights” is casting Scott Nedberg in the role of Moonface Martin.

Moonface is the character in this sexually charged, comic farce of mistaken identities and double entendre who most uses the “There’s something wrong here!” line.

Nedberg is no newcomer to comedy and his experience glues the fast-paced production.

“There’s no star in this show,” said Nedberg, short of breath after a recent staging.

Yet Moonface is central in making key scene transitions. He is responsible for getting principal love interests Billy Crocker, acted by Huntington’s Kerry Arnold, and Hope Harcourt, played by Kelly Leichty, together.

Moonface, America’s 13th most wanted criminal, believed by passengers and crew aboard the England-bound ship American to be Bishop Henry T. Dobson, is also matchmaker for nightclub singer Reno Sweeney and high-strung Englishman Sir Evelyn Oakleigh. Sweeney is played by Melissa Myers and the role of Oakleigh adeptly handled by youthful Anthony Anderson.

Moonface has a love interest, a blonde bimbo named Bonnie, played by Courtney Elmore. Elmore’s mature stage presence belies her 15 years. She knows how to send her feet into a frenzy when tap dancing.

Nedberg, a regular with a Fort Wayne-based company that puts comical murder-mystery productions on the boards, also sings “Be Like A Bluebird.”

Another number, “Friendship,” features Nedberg, Myers and Arnold.

There’s something right with the trio. The chemistry is there.

There’s something right in assigning Myers the role of Sweeney.

Myers, who calls herself a “high soprano” but shifts to alto for singing “Anything Goes,” carries a heavy vocal load.

In addition to “Friendship” and the title song, she teams with Huntington’s Arnold in singing “You’re the Top,” duets with Anderson in “Let’s Misbehave,” leads the ensemble in a rousing rendition of “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” fronts backup vocalists the Angels — a foursome that emulates the Spice Girls — in “Take Me Back to Manhattan” and is at her best when spotlighted in “I Get a Kick Out of You.”

“Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” “All Through the Night,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top,” and “Anything Goes” were hits for Porter, a record not matched by any of his other songs. Porter, a native of Peru, wrote more than 100 songs for eight Broadway musicals and original scores for three Hollywood movies. “Anything Goes” opened to critical acclaim Nov. 21, 1934, in New York City after a trial run in Boston.

Although the musical and lyrical adaptation of a book by Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse played Broadway nearly 64 years ago, the Pulse production directed and choreographed by Cynthia Smyth-Wartzok is as current as today.

For example, when it’s ‘fess time in the “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” sequence, a sailor played by Brian Osborne of Huntington says, “I had an inappropriate relationship with a young woman.”

Those words are carboned from the mouth of a certain president.

That makes a something right touch added by Smyth-Wartzok as commentary on a White House scandal charged with moral implications with the jury still out.

Smyth-Wartzok and her crew — Charly Dye as musical director, Eileen Dye and Cathy Preston as musical accompanists, Neil Laymon trumpeter, Emily Dye, lights, and Ron Wartzok, set design, — pack loads of electricity into a small space.

When Elmore leads tap dancers Osborne, Ashley Elmore, Madeliene and Sarah Hecht, Loralee Songer, and Tony Sirk to close Act One, it’s a show pleaser.

“Scott (Nedberg) is great to work with,” said Courtney Elmore, a sophomore at Southwood High School near Wabash. “He knows what to do (when something is wrong in a show) and how to fix it.”

That makes for something right.

“Anything Goes” will be staged at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Aug. 27, 28 and 29 at Pulse Opera House, 127 1/2 Wayne St., Warren. Tickets at $8 adults, $5 for children under 12 are available at Handcrafter’s Marketplace, 233 N. Wayne St., Warren, or by calling 219-375-7017 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.