Not a Book: Crazy For You

I actually saw two shows in the West End in four days last week, so I guess I could have written about either of them, but as Dr Semmelweiss is a limited run ending at the start of October (and has been selling well so if you don’t already have tickes you might not get them) and Crazy for You is under two months into a six month run, I’ve gone for the musical. Also much as I think Mark Rylance is the greatest actor I’ve ever seen live, I just love Gershwin’s music.

So this is a revival of the early 1990s musical, which in itself was based on the 1930 Ethel Merman vehicle Girl Crazy. The original Broadway production won the Tony, the original West End production won the Olivier, and I suspect this one will probably get some nominations this year. It originated at the Chichester Festival (one year I will make it to Chichester, so much good stuff starts there!) and has come into town with the four leads intact (although I saw the Standby Bobby who was performing for the first time and who was excellent).

To the plot – which feels like it could have come straight from a Fred and Ginger film to be honest: Our hero is Bobby,a wannabe dancer who is working in his family’s bank because he hasn’t been able to persuade any one to give him a role on stage. At the start of the show he tries to convince theatre impresario Bella Zangler to give him a chance without any success. Then his mother appears to tell him that he needs to take over her share of the bank and to do this he needs to go to Nevada to foreclose on a theatre in the town of Deadrock. Deadrock is a mining town that has seen better days, filled with cowboys and one woman – Polly – daughter of the theatre owner. Bobby arrives in town, falls in love with Polly at first sight and comes up with a plan to save the theatre, but when she finds out he’s the man sent by the bank, she suspects it’s a trick and won’t give him the time of day. And so Bobby decides to pretend to be Bella Zangler and sends for his friends the Zangler chorus girls to put on a show to save the theatre. It’s all going reasonably well – I mean except for the bit where Polly thinks Bobby is someone else, until the real Zangler turns up in town to see what his dancers are up to.

And that’s a rough outline of some of the key points of the first act, and as much as I’m going to tell you so I don’t ruin all the fun of anyone going to see it. It’s got a bunch of Gershwin’s most recognisable songs – pilfered from all over his catalouge – like Embraceable You, Someone to Watch Over Me, I Got Rhythm and three from my favourite Fred and Ginger movie Shall We Dance – the title number, Slap that Bass and They Can’t Take That Away From Me.

It’s quite an old school plot and it’s a quite old fashioned musical in many ways and there were what sounded to me some fairly ropey American accents , but it’s directed by Susan Stroman so the dance routines are absolutely on point – with some wonderful tap dancing – as well as some great physical comedy and obviously the music is wonderful and they’ve got a nice big band to play it (in West End terms). If you like shows like Anything Goes, or the recent stage version of Top Hat, then this is a show for you.

Have a great Sunday everyone.