Scottish-American musical actor John Barrowman plays the role of Billy Crocker. Sally Ann Triplett has the starring role of Reno Sweeney, and Martin Marquez is Moonface Martin. The entire ensemble numbers nearly 40 people. Stephen Mear handles the choreography. Barrowman is known to Broadway audiences for his turn in the Sondheim revue, Putting It Together, and to the Kennedy Center crowd for his performance as Bobby in Company, part of 2002's Sondheim Festival at the center.

Anything Goes opened at the National's Olivier Theatre on Dec. 18, 2003, during Nunn's last year as the institution's artistic director. Prior to his staging of the Cole Porter classic, Nunn's tried his hand, with outstanding commercial success, to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and South Pacific, Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady and Berstein's Candide. The revivals became the hallmark of his tenure at the National, and a lightening rod for critics who said his taste in shows was too commercial, too American and too popular for England's most important and highly subsidized nonprofit theatre.

Oklahoma! eventually made its way to Broadway, where its success with audiences and critics was less than it had been in London. My Fair Lady has been mentioned for New York.