STAGE REVIEW : Morrow Saves ‘Anything Goes’ : Redondo Beach production of the old chestnut provides a platform for the singer’s exquisite voice.

Any old excuse for putting Karen Morrow on a stage to sing Cole Porter will do--and that’s just about what the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities has got in “Anything Goes,” that ancient shipboard musical farce.

In 1987, a Lincoln Center revival of the show revised the book enough that some said it breathed new life into the old chestnut. That version hasn’t played Los Angeles County, but it did venture into Orange County in 1989, when a Times critic said the new book “matches the original one in its stupidity.” So maybe we shouldn’t feel miffed that this production is still stuck with the older version.

After all, it does provide Morrow with a platform. She’s an exquisitely intelligent singer, with a voice of bronze that rolls over the audience, creating a toasty sense of security, but stopping short of slicing through your eardrums like a buzz saw.

She can’t make complete sense out of her character of Reno Sweeney, evangelist turned nightclub owner, but then no one could without massive rewrites.

Vernon Willett is a suave Billy Crocker, the amorous stockbroker who assumes a variety of disguises (don’t ask). He matches Morrow in vocal sophistication, if not quite in sheer power, and Kim Huber, as the ingenue of his dreams, has a sweet soprano that also does justice to Porter. Credit musical director Irv Kimber as well as the actors.

Director-choreographer Jon Engstrom whips up flurries of frenetic tapping from an impressive chorus line; the singing and tapping is almost enough to carry us through the scatterbrained plot and outdated humor.

The clowns who are stuck with most of the would-be comedy are a mixed lot. Lew Horn’s Public Enemy No. 13 has the rubbery face and sharp timing that the role requires, and Sophia Gorton has mastered the adorable bimbo stereotype. But Tom Hatten, as the English aristocrat who’s engaged to Billy’s ingenue, sounds more like an American aristocrat--say, Franklin Roosevelt, the role he has often played in “Annie.” He also fails to make us see what Reno sees in him--but again, blame the book more than the actor.

Mark Morton’s set, most of it built for the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera, is a snazzy two-sided ship deck that easily turns around and provides ample space for all that tapping. The Theatre Company’s costumes are properly glitzy.

* “Anything Goes,” Aviation Park Auditorium, Aviation and Manhattan Beach boulevards, Redondo Beach. Today-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday matinees, 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $18.50-$27.50. (310) 372-4477. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.