ACCESS ALL AREAS with Carly Mercedes Dyer ✨ Last year, even before Anything Goes opened at the Barbican Theatre, I spoke with Carly about doing some backstage shots. Sadly because of covid restrictions it couldn’t happen, but luckily the musical came back and we could finally do our behind the scenes shoot. Carly is the funniest and nicest person to be around and I had the best time following her around for the day. She took the title ‘Access ALL Areas’ very seriously and literally showed me around the entire building. She shares a dressing room with Nicole-Lily Baisden, but both of them have their own separate parts and wardrobes. During the show Carly has a fair amount of breaks. Some breaks are long enough, that she is able to squeeze in a fierce game of uno in wardrobe village with the female ensemble members (and this time she won). The backstage area and the wings at the Barbican are massive. I have never seen anything like it before, there’s so much space for EVERYTHING from costume changes, set pieces, waiting for entrances and even photographers. At the end of the first half, during the title song ‘Anything Goes’ Carly and Nicole-Lily sometimes watch the performance from the wings, and it was wonderful to see them dance along/support the entire cast. The cutest moment ever. Near the end of the second half of the show, she has her big 11 o’clock number, ‘Buddy Beware’. She starts off hidden from the audience in a little boat and it was so cool to see how she gets into it and covered over before she starts the song; all of this happening on stage when one of the curtains is down. Carly was such an amazing and hilarious part of the huge ensemble cast of ‘Anything Goes’, and I cannot wait to see what she will do next!