History YMMV / AnythingGoes

** Evelyn's UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} heritage, while a very minor part of the overall show, is very reliant on stereotypes in its potrayal. The outdated-at-best term "gypsy" is used exclusively, including in the title of his solo. He refers to this heritage as "the Oakleigh family secret" and describes it as "something dark and savage in our blood,"[[note]] as of the 2022 revision available for liscencing, this line is changed to "something wild and passionate in our souls,"[[/note]] making him transform from a dorky Englishman to a [[HotGypsyWoman passionate, romantic, exotic lover.]]

** Evelyn's UsefulNotes/Romani heritage, while a very minor part of the overall show, is very reliant on stereotypes in its potrayal. The outdated-at-best term "gypsy" is used exclusively, including in the title of his solo. He refers to this heritage as "the Oakleigh family secret" and describes it as "something dark and savage in our blood,"[[note]] as of the 2022 revision available for liscencing, this line is changed to "something wild and passionate in our souls,"[[/note]] making him transform from a dorky Englishman to a [[HotGypsyWoman passionate, romantic, exotic lover.]]

** Both of the Chinese converts are thrown into the brig by the Purser. Luke is understandable because he's caught gambling and fleecing the other passengers' money, but John is slightly more innocent in that throughout the show, he's trying his hardest not to give into his old sin of drinking and ratting out Luke's gambling to Moonface. It's quite possible that the only reason John is arrested is because the Purser is secretly racist and assumes John is an accomplice.

** Moonface's speech at the service.

* SignatureSong: The titular number
** "Blow Gabriel Blow" is another contender
** "Friendship" is also quite popular

** Both of them alongside Reno earn their happy ending by assaulting one Chinese person and scamming another to steal their clothes, and then win the day by doing racist impersonations of Chinese people. [[ValuesDissonance This is all played for laughs]], though more recent updates to the script make the impersonations more palatable.

** Both of the Chinese converts are thrown into the brig by the Purser. Luke is understandable because he's caught gambling and fleecing the other passengers' money, but considering John's actions in the show, trying his hardest not to give into his old sin of drinking and ratting out Luke's gambling to Moonface, it's quite possible that the only reason he was arrested is because the Purser is secretly racist and assumes John is an accomplice.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Evangeline quite obviously only accepts Eli's proposal due to his money. Is Eli truly ignorant of this or does he know and just not care? Supporting the former view, he's fallen victim to his fair share of tricks throughout the show. Supporting the latter view, his whole proposal was based around offering Evangeline financial comfort, showing he's at least somewhat aware of what she really desires. And it's worth noting, he occasionally showed an awareness that something was off with earlier hijinks, so it can be assumed he could've known what's going on without vocalizing it here.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Evangeline quite obviously only accepts Eli's proposal due to his money. Is Eli truly ignorant of this or does he know and just not care? Supporting the former view, he's fallen victim to his fair share of tricks throughout the show. Supporting the latter view, his whole proposal was based around offering Evangeline financial comfort, showing he's at least somewhat aware of what she really desires. And it's worth noting, he occasionally showed an awareness that something was off with earlier hijinks, so it can be assumed he could've known what's going on without vocalizing it here.

** Sure, [[{{Wangst}} she whines a lot,]] but Hope doesn’t do so without good reasons. She’s in love with Billy, but is being forced to marry Evelyn, something she’s not happy about, but willing to do in order to help her family pull through in tough financial times. Then Billy shows up on the boat, things just get worse, as her fiancé, mother, and herself are repeatedly harassed by him. Despite this, she still loves him, but can’t find the strength to defy her emotionally manipulative mother. She only truly realizes her feelings for him once it all seems too late, causing Hope to lose all hope.

* WTHCastingAgency:
** While Moonface has been played by older actors to strong results, a few people thought the nearly 80-year-old Creator/JoelGrey was pushing it in the 2011 revival.
** Also in the 2011 revival, Sutton Foster playing Reno initially had some backlash with complaints that she was too much of a fresh-faced {{Ingenue}} for the part. Once the production started, though, most detractors were silenced.
** Creator/MeganMullally was originally planned to headline the 2021 revival as Reno, which confused many given the role seemed outside of Mullally's wheelhouse, not to mention complaints of her being too old and not being a strong enough dancer. Ultimately, though, an injury caused her to leave the production before it started, and Sutton Foster instead reprised the role.

** “Blow Gabriel Blow” gives Reno the opportunity to belt her face off and by God is it glorious. The song is so good that every character, regardless of their current happiness, has joyfully joins in, singing and dancing their hearts out.

** Sure, [[{{Wangst}} she whines a lot,]] but Hope doesn’t do so without good reasons. She’s in love with Billy, but is being forced to marry Evelyn, something she’s not happy about, but willing to do in order to help her family pull through in tough financial times. Then Billy shows up on the boat, things just get worse, as her fiancée, mother, and herself are repeatedly harassed by him. Despite this, she still loves him, but can’t find the strength to defy her emotionally manipulative mother. She only truly realizes her feelings for him once it all seems too late, causing Hope to lose all hope.

** John is rather pitiable. Unlike Luke, he truly tries to resist his prior addiction and is terrified at sinning again when left without the minister. He then winds up in the brig with due to Luke's gambling. His clear sadness there is then cut short when he's knocked out for trying to stop Reno, Billy, and Moonface from stealing his clothes.

** While Moonface has been played by older actors to strong results, a few people thought the nearly 80 years old Creator/JoelGrey was pushing it in the 2011 revival.
** Also in the 2011 revival, Sutton Foster playing Reno initially had some backlash with complaints that she was too much of a fresh faced {{Ingenue}} for the part. Once the production started though, most detractors were silenced.
** Creator/MeganMullally was originally planned to headline the 2021 revival as Reno, which confused many given the role seemed outside of Mullally's wheelhouse, not to mention complaints of her being too old and not being a strong enough dancer. Ultimately though, an injury caused her to leave the production before it started and Sutton Foster instead reprised the role.

** Moonface is a LovableRogue, but that doesn’t mean he’s not guilty of everything that Billy does, and has [[MurderIsTheBestSolution zero qualms with murdering innocent people.]] Thankfully he’s a HarmlessVillain.

* FirstInstallmentWins: {{Averted}}. There are three versions of this show and the first is the least popular and not performed today. The second has it's fans, but the third has emerged as the most popular and the next major revival, while not without a few alterations, was mostly the same show, helping to establish this reputation.

* {{Padding}}: “Buddie Beware” is a perfectly fine song, but it comes right near the end of the show, and adds nothing to the plot. This is especially noticeable in the 2011 revival. Much like many of the other numbers, it’s dance break was expanded, which caused the SuperfluousSolo to drag the final scene on even longer than it already does.

* TheScrappy: While Hope isn't universally hated, it’s not uncommon for audiences to find her unlikable due to her StopHavingFunGuys attitude, constantly going back and forth on whether or no she wants to be with Billy, and for having very little in the way of jokes in a an otherwise light hearted comedy filled with them.

** In a show where a lot of numbers don't exactly affect the plot "Buddie Beware" still stands out as as having no narrative impact, seemingly only being there to give Erma a solo. This makes it's placement as the second to last song song quite odd, especially because it could've been snuck in at an earlier point without too much in the way of revising.

** Hope's solo "Goodbye, Little Dream, Goodbye" somewhat falls into this too. Though it impacts character and is linked to the overall story, it's still somewhat redundant given Hope sings another similarly sad song just one scene later.m, only that time accompanied by others.

** A common complaint is that [[TheIngenue Hope]] isn’t an interesting character. Early on in the show, Reno builds Hope up as a debutante who “came out on a zeppelin and chases foxes on the cover of Life”. Despite this description making her sound adventurous and exciting, the character in actuality comes across as more of a [[StopHavingFunGuys buzzkill]]. She's also the only main character whose mostly lacking in jokes, which is unfortunate since everyone else's dialogue is packed with them.
** While she does have her own impact on the plot and is a decently sized role, Erma is much more detached from the plot than all the other principle characters, and even the clearly smaller roles of the Captain and Purser have a more consistent impact on the narrative. Her own solo number, while fun, [[SuperfluousSolo is clearly only there to give the actress her own big moment]].

** Billy due to the reasons listed under DesignatedHero, and Hope for her {{Wangst}} and constantly flip flopping over whether she wants to be with Billy or not.

** The AsianSpeekeeEngrish bit in the finale. ''Good Lord''. It took some time, but it's finally seen some major changes in the last revival where the racial stereotypes are downplayed and the actual Chinese characters play along rather than just being the butt of other's jokes.

** Eli loves Evangeline despite her rather [[{{Jerkass}} contemptible personality]] to the point where he proposes marriage twice before they’ve even go on a legitimate date. Even when it's made clear that [[GoldDigger she's only into him for his money]], he either doesn't notice, or doesn't care.

** Both of them alongside Reno earn their happy ending by assaulting one Chinese person and scamming another to steal their clothes, and then win the day by doing racist impersonations of Chinese people. [[ValuesDissonance This is all played for laughs]], though more recent updates to the script make the impersonations more palatable (see AuthorsSavingThrow).

* AuthorsSavingThrow: While slight progress had been made in prior productions, the 2021 West End revival made alterations to the Chinese characters so that they wouldn't come across as so stereotypical anymore. Additionally, they now help the main characters by willingly switching clothes and posing as Plum Blossom's lawyers.

* HoYay: There's a little bit between Billy and Moonface; some productions take it UpToEleven for "Be Like The Bluebird" and end the song with Moonface jumping into Billy's arms.

** Both of them alongside Reno earn their happy ending by assaulting one Chinese person and scamming another to steal their clothes, and then win the day by doing racist impersonations of Chinese people. [[ValuesDissonance This is all played for laughs.]]

* FairForItsDay: Believe it or not, the
1987/2011 version is actually an improvement in terms of Asian representation, as Luke and John were originally even more stereotypical and named Ching and Ling.