Crazy For You: Gershwin musical triumphs at the Festival!
Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann
STRATFORD, Ont. — “Who could ask for anything more?”
Lyricist Ira Gershwin got it right when he was supplying the words for brother George’s irresistible music for I Got Rhythm.
But you could pretty much apply them to the whole experience of watching the Stratford Festival’s hugely entertaining production of Crazy For You.
The line comes at the climactic moment of one of the great songs in the Gershwin canon — a number that at Stratford erupts into a rambunctious explosion of song and dance in the gun-slinging Nevada town of Deadrock. It’s a feel-good moment, one of many bestowed on us by director choreographer Donna Feore and her wonderful cast. And it wasn’t the only time that you wanted to stand up and cheer at Tuesday night’s opening performance.
Some fastidious and essentially humorless theatergoers may sniffily dismiss Crazy For You as unadulterated nonsense — which, of course it is, but no more so than some of the world’s most hallowed operas. Far better, then, to drop that long face and simply admit that this show is a perfect remedy for chasing the blues away. Indeed, to have it open a day after the gloom and doom of King Lear, and on the same stage, seems an example of perfect product placement.
It’s not unusual these days to create a “new” musical out of old material — to link together a new book out of songs from the existing repertoire. It’s happening right now on Broadway where a stage version of Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway features music from the 1920s. Often, the process seems contrived — but not when it comes to Crazy For You. It’s perhaps the most successful example of this practice — and a deserved 1992 Tony winner.
One of the virtues of Donna Feore’s production is that it reminds us of the merits of playwright Ken Ludwig’s script. Ludwig, best known for the comedy, Lend Me A Tenor, is a very funny man — but he also is deft at creating character with a few swift strokes, and this can be a godsend to an imaginative director and cast.
If Ludwig has a starting point, it is obviously the 1930 Gershwin musical, Girl Crazy, about an easterner suffering culture shock when he ends up in a western town. Its book seems decidedly antiquated today — but not the quality of such classic songs as Embraceable You, Bidin’ My Time and I Got Rhythm.
These vintage numbers all make it into Crazy For You, along with songs from other Gershwin musicals, including two classic Fred Astaire films — Damsel In Distress and Shall We Dance.
But the creators of this show weren’t content to rely on seducing us through the cozy familiarity of the material. They wanted it to re-emerge fresh and gleaming.
Early in Stratford’s production we glimpse a huge gold tassel hanging over the Festival Theatre stage — one of many striking touches provided by Debra Hanson in her economical but visually effective design. It suggests correctly that we’re in for an oversized piece of entertainment, but that’s fine. Feore’s production has a heart as big as the moon that makes its own seductive contribution to the proceedings.
The show’s anchor is supplied by Josh Franklin, a toe-tapping marvel in the role of Bobby Child, a stage-struck New Yorker and product of a wealthy banking family with no tolerance for his performing ambitions. Franklin asserts his credentials at the very beginning when he lets loose with a rendition of K-r-a-z-y For You that is pure spontaneous combustion. And as the show proceeds, he also proves his mettle as a deft comedian and engaging romantic lead.
Bobby’s tyrannical family, determined to force him into a banking career, dispatches him to Deadrock to repossess a derelict theatre. When he gets there, he not only suffers culture shock, but also falls for Polly Baker (Natalie Daradich) the feisty theatre-owner’s daughter. So should we be surprised that he decides he wants to save the theatre and thereby enter Polly’s good graces? Or that his solution is that classic one — beloved of aficionados of old MGM Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musicals? In other words — hey kids, let’s put on a show!
But don’t expect parody here. Crazy For You is more in the pastiche mode, and Feore and her people see it as an affectionate valentine to another show-biz era. The songs, so varied and evocative, are beautifully served by music director Shelley Hanson and her hidden band, and they are generally well executed by the cast. But it’s Donna Feore’s confident direction, attentive to the dramatic possibilities of the thrust Festival Theatre stage, plus the continuing wit and inventiveness of her choreography, which ensures that the fun never flags.
To be sure, there are moments at the beginning that seem brittle and overwrought. There are pratfalls that seem contrived rather than spontaneous. And there’s a saloon fight scene where the comedy and spontaneity are flattened by an excess of stylization. But these are minor quibbles. Let’s feast instead on the bouquet of surprises which Feore dreams u— the sudden emergence of a jitterbug routine into an exuberant ensemble number, the breathtaking acrobatics from some dancers, the rhythmic urgency of the spectacular Slap That Bass number; and the gliding emotional cadences of Bobby and Polly’s footwork in Shall We Dance.
Natalie Daradich’s Polly is a sturdy and likeable stage presence: she and Josh Franklin’s Bobby make an attractive fit. If her intonation seemed a bit wayward opening night with Songs Like Someone To Watch Over Me and But Not For Me, that seems fixable. There’s no denying the emotional integrity of her delivery.
The ever-reliable Keith Dinicol is a delight as Polly’s lovable pop; Shane Harty swaggers convincingly as Lank, the jealous theatre owner; Kayla James, is enjoyably brassy as a showgirl named Tess.
And then there is Tom Rooney, flamboyantly funny as a strutting Broadway impresario named Bela Zangler. Chaos ensues when he arrives in Deadrock, because Bobby’s been impersonating him in order to impress Polly. Not to worry, though: a show like Crazy For You must arrive at a happy ending. But before that happens, there’s a howlingly funny hangover scene in which Bela and the disguised Bobby, both suffering pounding headaches, encounter each other. What follows is an obvious variation on the Marx Brothers classic mirror scene from the Thirties — but it gives the evening its funniest moments.
Who, indeed, could ask for anything more?
(Crazy For You continues to April 12. Tickets at 1 800 567 1600 or stratfordfestival.ca)
