Tap dancing enthusiasts may just overdose during the Goodspeed Opera House’s current revival of the Tony Award winning musical, Crazy For You. In addition, you may find yourself with a deliriously silly grin throughout this polished production – who could ask for anything more?
Featuring a busy book by Ken Ludwig and an iconic score by George and Ira Gershwin, Crazy For You follows Bobby Child (Will Burton), a stage-struck New York banker during the Depression, who is sent to Deadrock, Nevada, to foreclose on a theater. It is there he falls for Polly Baker (Brittany Zeinstra), the theatre owner’s daughter and, in order to save the day, decides to put on a show. Taking a page from Mickey Rooney’s playbook, he manages to put together a musical in record time using the local talent as well as a chorus of lady friends from Broadway. Of course complications ensue that find Bobby in disguise, as producer Bela Zangler (Edward Juvier) arrives in Deadrock at just the wrong time to chase a chorus girl.
The plot, naturally, is ludicrous but that hardly matters when you have that glorious Gershwin songbook on hand that includes such classics as “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”. The talented company of singer/dancers, under the direction of Michael Fling and choreographer Kelli Barclay, are non-stop and demonstrate clearly the absolute joy of performance. A highlight is the act one show-stopper, “I Got Rhythm”, where Barclay has utilized frying pans, hoes, pick axes, shovels, bells, whistles and literally anything at her disposal to put her dancers through their paces. It’s an exhilarating finale to a breathless first act.
A tall, talented and very sweaty leading man, Will Burton is an energetic presence on stage who meets the dance demands effortlessly and seems to be in constant motion. Zeinstra is a fine and able partner to Burton, and they share a sexy chemistry together. In a superb supporting cast, David Andrew Morton is continually hilarious as a local businessman hot for Polly, and Michele Ragusa is a hoot as Bobby’s haughty mother who, late in the show, sets her eye on Polly’s tap-dancing dad (a delightful Jeremy Davis).
Choreographer Kelli Barclay deserves mountains of praise here for the inventive and often death-defying dance creations she has put her cast through. And they all deliver in spades. Scenic designer Ann Beyersdorfer creates numerous clever set pieces that fit perfectly on the tiny stage, and designer Joseph Shrope’s period costumes are eye-catching, especially those he provides for the chorus girls.
Crazy For You may go on too long in the second act, which doesn’t quite live up to the fabulous first, but no matter. This is the kind of musical that used to make critics sing, “Boy, do we need it now!” Truth!
Crazy For You has been extended at Goodspeed Musicals, 6 Main Street, East Haddam, Connecticut through August 16. For further information or ticket reservations call the theatre box office at: 860.873.8668 or visit: www.goodspeed.org.
Tom Holehan is one of the founders of the Connecticut Critics Circle, a frequent contributor to WPKN Radio’s “State of the Arts” program and the Stratford Crier and former Artistic Director of Stratford’s Square One Theatre Company. He welcomes comments at: tholehan@yahoo.com. His reviews and other theatre information can be found on the Connecticut Critics Circle website: www.ctcritics.org.
