Sailors suits and tap shoes rule the day and Andrea McArdle rules the stage in the Ogunquit Playhouse revival of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” running through July 9 at the Ogunquit Playhouse. Andrea McArdle is magisterial in the lead role of Reno Sweeney. She is blessed with a strong and beautiful voice and a potent command of the stage. However, she was not blessed with good luck recently. She suffered an accident that broke her arm days prior to opening night. In addition to the ravishing array of costumes, sequins and furs, she wore a cast on her left arm throughout the proceedings. Undaunted, her performance was a staggering achievement, giving a new twist to the good luck theatrical maxim “Break a leg!”

McArdle is surrounded by a high spirited cadre of athletic dancing sailors. There is a welcomed burst of theatrical energy whenever they take stage. Attired in their dress white uniforms, their rhythmic black military tap shoes drum the floor with ballistic gusto punctuated with acrobatic big air leaps. These dudes are muscular hunks and their naval maneuvers are a vigorous exercise of tricky syncopation.

Cole Porter’s witty songs first hit the stage in 1934 with the original production of “Anything Goes,” starring Ethel Merman. It was the year after Prohibition ended and the story joyfully celebrates big time boozing, along with tommy gun toting gangsters that were capturing the news of the time. The script has been revised numerous times, most notably the 1987 Lincoln Center version that starred Patti LuPone. Despite the many revisions the story remains a mish-mash of goofy convolution. The setting for this comic conflagration is a luxurious trans-Atlantic ocean liner setting sail from New York. The captain and crew on this voyage welcome a menagerie of guests, including wealthy patrons, Wall Street tycoons, nefarious gold-diggers, stowaways and a well-intentioned minister attempting to instill wholesome Christian morality to a group of Chinese men who would much rather spend their time in the casino than the church.

Sally Struthers made her much anticipated return to the Ogunquit stage as the brain-addled socialite Evangeline Harcourt. Struthers always manages to put her unique comic stamp on the kooky characters she portrays each season. In her current incarnation, Evangeline Harcourt, she desperately tries to ensure the marriage of her young daughter to a wealthy English lord in an effort to avoid financial ruin.

Struthers and her loyal dog share many moments of hilarity. However her fondest bit occurs when she is duped into believing that the ship is about to sink. She rushes to her state room to save her jewelry and returns with her entire jewel box around her neck and her midriff bedecked with not one, but two enormous blue and white life preservers. She vainly searches for her lifeboat as the audience erupts in laughter. To comment that Struthers is adored by Ogunquit theatergoers is an understatement. She reigns supreme in Ogunquit and the Playhouse is her Buckingham Palace.

The evening brings us the well known classic Porter tunes of “You’re the Top,” “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” “It’s De- Lovely,” “I Get A Kick Out of You” and “Anything Goes.”

There are two scenes of glorious big Broadway bravura. The close of Act 1 sets the stage ablaze in song and dance as the performers bring the title song to life with spirited exuberance. In the middle of Act 2, religious fervor and sexy sensuality combine to make the number “Blow Gabriel Blow” a truly memorable highlight. The combination of great music, dashingly clever choreography, rip away costumes and high octane dancers lead to a thrilling theatrical adventure.

A special note of quirky wonder is due actor Ian Knauer’s remarkable rendition of the song “The Gypsy in Me” as the stuffy, goofball Lord Evellyn Oakleigh. His physicalization of this odd duck reveals the savage romantic passion that secretly lies in the soul of a prim and proper English gentleman of distinguished lineage. It is a total hoot.

The show is directed by Jayme McDaniel and the stellar choreography is staged by Jason Wise. The cast also features Steve Brady as Elisha Whitney, Josh Canfield as Billy Crocker, Patti- Lee Meringo as Hope Harcourt, Seth Lerner as Captain, and Alex Domini as Purser.

The typical single ticket ranges from $47 to $82, depending on the night of performance and the seating section. A three-show subscription starts at $129. For more information call the box office at 646-5511 or visit the website OgunquitPlayhouse.org

— Greg Morell is the director of the Antic Arts Center and columnist at Artscope Magazine. He can be reached at Morell.gregory@gmail.com.