★★★★☆
In an attempt to follow his theatrical dancing dream, bank clerk Bobby (Charlie Stemp) tries to restore a Nevada theatre in Susan Stroman’s winning Gershwin revival. Here’s our Crazy for You review.
When the action of Crazy for You shifts to the old mining town of Deadrock, Nevada, after a glitzy opening number, the slats on the classic Western swinging doors look painted on rather than panelled. It’s not long before Carly Anderson’s Polly has wrapped her arms around a porch post, singing wistfully at the sunset.
In truth, watching Crazy for You feels rather a lot like time travel. Both earnestly traditional and finding novel joy in its music hall roots, the whole show is a delightful transportation to the 1930s. There’s little modern pizzazz here, just meticulously choreographed dancing, exceptional prop work and a profound sense of fun. So much so that when the show’s closest nod to the 21st century happens, and a smoke-dispensing platform rises out from the stage (hardly a modern invention at all), it’s hard not to be swept up in the old Broadway glamour of the thing.
Not that the stage-craft matters that much, of course. Stroman’s revival of the show she first choreographed back in 1992 is so utterly charming it could be happening in a car park and you’d scarcely notice.
credit: Johan Persson
Hailed during its first run for properly reviving the tradition of the dancing musical, Ken Ludwig’s book took the loose plot of the Ira and George Gershwin musical Girl Crazy and a best-of compilation of the duo’s 400 songs to make something entirely fresh. 31 years later, Crazy for You takes over the Gillian Lynne theatre from Sam Mendes’ revolving-stage financial cautionary tale The Lehman Trilogy and a starker new vs old contrast is harder to imagine.
But then Crazy for You has an astonishing ability to make you forget its age. With a gloriously upbeat songbook and choreography which genuinely astonishes with its inventiveness in every number, it’s unlikely audiences will ever tire of watching exceptional casts strut their stuff very, very well.
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And speaking of exceptional casts, take a bow, Charlie Stemp. Fresh from the show’s run at the Chichester Festival Theatre and from playing Bert in the Prince Edward Theatre’s Mary Poppins, he takes to Crazy for You’s starring role like a duck to water. An all-singing, all-tapping and all-hilarious comic and charismatic tour de force, in Stemp, it feels like the glamour of the Hollywood Golden Age never died. Around him, the rest of the cast clearly relish the chance to whip out their thirties-Americana accents, lending the whole production a sense of fun that’ll have you grinning from ear to ear.
Despite a charming Les Misérables reference in the second act, Stroman’s Crazy for You revival is anything but revolutionary. But then, it’s hard to imagine asking for anything more. For an unbeatable night of 24-carat escapism, head down to the Gillian Lynne Theatre; you’ll be tap-dancing all the way home.
Crazy for You is playing at the Gillian Lynne Theatre until 20 January 2024.
