As a musical, “Anything Goes” is like a big, goofy grin. Substantive ideas? Nah. Complex emotion? P’shaw. Depth of character? Come on!

What it does offer: Wisps of daffy plotlines. Amusingly silly dialogue. Breezily farcical situations. And songs — oh, those songs!

The latter is really what makes “Anything Goes” worth all the revivals it’s had over the years, including the chipper new Goodspeed Opera House production directed by Daniel Goldstein. Some of Cole Porter’s most robust tunes surface here — “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “Friendship” and “You’re the Top” among them.

It’s during the songs that the Goodspeed version really blossoms. Rashidra Scott, in the lead role of Reno Sweeney, possesses a voice that feels like sumptuous velvet. Just gorgeous. And in numbers like “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” she proves that she can also, well, blow. Her range flits high and reaches low, and every bit in between is lush. (Scott took a break from playing Janelle on Broadway in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” to take this role; lucky us.)

The other “Anything Goes” performers boast impressive pipes, too. David Harris and Hannah Florence duet with strong-and-sweet vocal chemistry on “It’s De-Lovely,” and Harris uses his estimable chops and his traditional-leading-man vibe on “Easy to Love.”

And the “Anything Goes” number brings the proverbial house down, not only because of the musical side of things but also because choreographer Kelli Barclay has whipped up a tap bonanza, with Scott ably leading a corps of dancers.

So here’s the narrative deal: “Anything Goes” gathers a gaggle of eccentric characters on a 1930s luxury liner and lets burgeoning romances and crisscrossing relationships and hidden identities unfold. Nightclub singer Reno Sweeney is crushing on friend Billy Crocker (played by Harris). He, though, pines for socialite Hope Harcourt (Florence) — who is engaged to wealthy Brit Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. And hiding out onboard, not-so-convincingly disguised as a man of religion, is “Public Enemy No. 13,” Moonface Martin.

The opening scene is a subdued, dialogue-heavy enterprise, something unexpected for a musical comedy. Things, though, get into more of a groove from there.

The humor in “Anything Goes” runs along the lines of this exchange:

“Liquor has never touched my lips.” “You know a short cut?”

And this one:

“Give me one good reason to live.” “Cherry cheesecake.”

(The new “Anything Goes” book is by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman, based on the original by Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.)

As far as the actors, the comic gold comes particularly from Benjamin Howes, who plays the aforementioned Evelyn Oakleigh. Howes’ Oakleigh enjoys guileless enthusiasm for everything, especially learning American slang, which he invariably mangles; at one point, he purrs, “I think you’re the absolute rat’s pajamas.” Howes works the physical humor, too. In one bit, he dances with legs wiggling like wet noodles. In another, after he slugs back some hooch, he lets his body quake and convulse.

Stephen DeRosa, meanwhile, hams it up as Moonface Martin, luxuriating in every laugh-getting moment he can mine. He loves toying with the juxtaposition of playing a gangster pretending to be a minister; when someone complains about a rival, DeRosa’s Moonface blurts out that he could kill them before he catches himself, puts prayer hands in front of his mouth and gazes solemnly up to the heavens. DeRosa, too, had a moment during the performance I saw when a joke didn’t land, and, after the audience’s non-reaction, he ad-libbed, “That killed in Moodus.”

Meanwhile, Scott makes a great dame, acing Reno’s wisecracking confidence.

For “Anything Goes,” Goldstein has done some nontraditional casting, bringing together a multiracial group of performers. That mere fact is the statement here, and the production doesn’t address it beyond that. (Although, when Scott, who is African-American, sang the lyrics “the Puritans got a shock ... ‘stead of landing on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock would land on them,” I flashed to Malcolm X’s use of that Plymouth Rock imagery in discussing black nationalism.)

“Anything Goes” looks like a dream. Scenic designer Wilson Chin has conjured a luxury liner on Goodspeed’s famously small stage. He smartly goes upward to establish a sense of scale, building a second-story deck toward the stage’s back wall. That’s where the orchestra members sit, and the stage has been built out over what is usually is the orchestra pit. It’s a genius idea and serves the production fabulously, not to mention the fact that it’s nice to see the musicians perform.

Flights of stairs circle up to the left and right of the deck, and characters use those freely. They move trippingly up and down the steps, and they rotate in and out of the multiple doors in the set.

Other cool set moments: For certain scenes, sections of the bright-white ship are pulled out like puzzle pieces and turned around to create cabin interiors. And there’s a dramatic moment when a sparkling red curtain unfurls — whoosh! — from the ceiling to establish the background for the ship’s nightclub.

Ilona Somogyi has designed some of the most purely beautiful dresses to grace the Goodspeed stage — and that’s saying something. The champagne gown that Florence wears for “It’s De-Lovely” flutters and flows through every lissome dance move, and, under the stage lights, it twinkles like sunshine glittering off a river. Reno favors tops and pants, highlighted by a white, satiny ensemble that moves like liquid. There is one surprisingly tacky element, though, when the female dancers wear skin-toned tops emblazoned with a blue anchor for the “Anything Goes” number, but that is an anomaly. For the most part in “Anything Goes,” glamor rules.

If you go

What: "Anything Goes"

Where: Goodspeed Opera House, 6 Main St., East Haddam

When: Through June 16; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wed., 7:30 p.m. Thurs., 8 p.m. Fri., 3 and 8 p.m. Sat., and 2 p.m. Sun.; also, select Thursdays feature a 2 p.m. show, and select Sundays a 6:30 p.m. show

Tickets: Start at $29

Contact: (860) 873-8668, goodspeed.org