Crazy For You – Gillian Lynne Theatre

Pictures: Roy Tan

Crazy For You continues at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, London until 20 January 2024.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

If you feel like escaping the horrors of everything from government corruption to economic crisis and being wrapped up in a feel-good blanket of musical theatre delights, then Chichester Festival Theatre’s Crazy For You – now transferred to the West End – is the show for you.

Musical Theatre Review loves to support the nurturing of new and radical work in the genre but that doesn’t mean the revival of a classic musical comedy boasting gorgeous George and Ira Gershwin songs, a witty book and stunning tap dancing, performed by an off the scale talented cast, isn’t just as welcome.

Billed as ‘The New Gershwin Musical Comedy’ back on Broadway in the early 1990s, Crazy For You is based on the 1930 show Girl Crazy, although the score is derived from several Gershwin projects including a couple of Fred Astaire movies.

However, what makes this show stand out from the crowd is the combination of that nostalgia with the work of contemporary creatives. Librettist Ken Ludwig, original director (and co-creator) Mike Ockrent and choreographer Susan Stroman respected the original work but breathed new life into the material for a whole new generation.

Three decades on from that first Tony Award-winning production Stroman, as both director and choreographer (sadly Ockrent died in 1999), accepted an invitation from Daniel Evans at Chichester to revisit the show and now London audiences get to revel in the joy of this song and dance extravaganza too.

Within the rather silly but very entertaining plot, based in the 1930s, Bobby Child’s mother wants him to concentrate on his job as a banker but he dreams of performing in the Zangler (think Ziegfeld) Follies on Broadway. He is sent to sleepy Deadrock, Nevada (the name is not a mistake) to foreclose on a dilapidated theatre but instead falls in love with Polly Baker (her father owns the venue of course) and decides to stage a show there to save the day. When that doesn’t quite work out, Bobby returns – this time disguised as the great producer Bela Zangler. But then the real Zangler arrives…

Stroman ensures the production rattles on at quite a pace, particularly when it comes to the large-scale production numbers (how the cast can still be jumping, spinning and kicking even as they are taking their bows is beyond me), but she also finds time to pay proper attention to some of the most beautiful ballads ever written.

In typical Stroman fashion there is fun, originality and sophistication everywhere you look, whether it be a chorus line of glamorous Zangler Follies showgirls popping up as a kind of Greek Chorus when Bobby is making tricky decisions, to a gold mining-inspired ‘I Got Rhythm’ (which received a standing ovation on opening night) and a show-stopping ‘Slap That Bass’ during which a few lengths of rope create human versions of the double bass. Everything is achieved with staggering synchronicity and incredible attention to detail.

For this intricate choreography and staging to work, everyone onstage, and backstage for that matter, has to be in harmony and this hugely talented ensemble doesn’t appear to put a foot wrong.

It’s easy to dismiss Crazy For You as a fluffy ‘let’s put on a show’ musical a la Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, but an audience has to believe in the central characters and invest in their storylines for any production to be a success. Carly Anderson, as feisty and independent Polly Baker, manages to get us on side in her very first scene. Sure, she might quickly fall for the charms of Charlie Stemp’s Bobby, but she also doesn’t hide her disappointment when he deceives her. There’s an all-round wonderful chemistry between Anderson and Stemp, not least in fabulous numbers like ‘Could You Use Me?’ and ‘Embraceable You’. Anderson also brings a really touching emotional depth to such gems as ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ and ‘But Not For Me’ (scenes beautifully lit by Ken Billington).

There’s also a brilliant rapport between the two Zanglers, resulting in one of my favourite scenes in the whole show – What Causes That? – during which Stemp and the outstanding Tom Edden (the real impresario) mirror each other’s actions. It’s a triumph.

I have to confess that the comedy subplots featuring other characters feel a tad contrived to me, but that doesn’t take anything away from the quality of the performances involved. Mathew Craig is spot on as overwhelmed hotel owner Lank, and there are laughs aplenty as he deals with some demanding visitors; two eccentric travel writers (Sam Harrison and Rina Fatania) and the force of nature that is Bobby’s spurned fiancée Irene (Natalie Kassanga leaving all and sundry breathless with her rendition of ‘Naughty Baby’).

And then there is the talented tornado that is Charlie Stemp. Despite having wowed us all before in Half a Sixpence and Mary Poppins, this is a next level performance from the multi-talented star. My heroes when I was growing up were Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and Stemp embodies the best of both these icons (in fact, you could say his vocals are even better) and adds his own style of physical comedy and infectious personality to the mix. One of the basic premises of musical theatre is that song and dance come along when it’s impossible for words to do the job, and that’s exactly what Stemp demonstrates.

Both designers Beowulf Boritt (sets) and William Ivey Long (costumes) strike just the right note as the action switches from Broadway to Deadrock, always serving the spirit of the piece, the crazy amount of action and choreography, and allowing us to have fun revelling in the glitz and glamour of the Follies too.

It’s also a joy hearing the fantastic Gershwin score played with such vibrancy by a top notch orchestra (which we sadly cannot see), led by musical director Alan Williams. The new arrangements (David Krane) and fresh orchestrations (Doug Besterman and Mark Cumberland) are mighty fine – sound design is by Kai Harada.

I was fortunate enough to catch this production at Chichester but a West End transfer has created something special, something bigger and better. Things are looking up at the Gillian Lynne Theatre.

Lisa Martland