Jochebel Ohene MacCarthy and Christian Andrew in Trinity Laban’s production of Crazy for You at Stratford Circus, London. Picture: Lidia Crisafulli
Crazy For You was performed by Trinity Laban Musical Theatre students at Stratford Circus, London.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Director Sarah Redmond certainly knows how to get the best out of her young cast. The 24 graduating students in this highly enjoyable production of Crazy for You are fizzing with energy and there’s plenty of talent on show.
Crazy for You, which dates from the early 1990s is a rather good musical. Partly based on the Gershwins’ Crazy Girlwith a new book by Ken Ludwig and lots of glorious Gershwin music borrowed from elsewhere, it did well both on Broadway and in the West End.
It needs a magnificent orchestra and in this production it gets it. Twenty-five players, under MD Tony Castro are upstage under an on-stage platform (set by Amy Yardley). A mixture of professionals and Trinity Laban students, they do an outstanding job.
We’re mostly in a Nevada backwoods town where some of the locals would like to save their theatre. Bobby Child (Christian Andrews) a banker and wannabe dancer arrives from New York with a mixed agenda, disguises himself as someone else and falls in love with a local girl – to cut a long story short.
As with all shows about theatre, it celebrates the transformational power of the performing arts. It also affords plenty of scope for vibrant ensemble numbers which don’t have to relate too strongly to the plot because they’re part of the show(s) within a show.
And this cast really runs with every bar, word and nuance. ‘I Got Rhythm’ at the end of Act I is a real showstopper, ‘The Real American Folk Song is a Rag’ is deliciously witty and ‘Nice Work If You Can Get It’ is slickly entertaining.
At the centre of this show are two big roles, played by two stunning performers. Jochebel Ohene MacCarthy (who alternates the role with Ella-Jane Thomas) has oodles of personality as Polly. She sings with wistful beauty and near perfect intonation, dances with arresting lightness and does wonderfully expressive things with her eyes. No wonder Bobby falls in love with her. We shall see much more of Ohene MacCarthy very soon, I am sure.
As Bobby, Christian Andrews is rueful and funny especially when badly disguised as Bela Zangler (David McNair – good) in unconvincing wig and beard. He is also a very fine dancer and singer. His tap is terrific.
At one point Andrews falls “accidentally” almost into splits and then turns a mini somersault over a chair – and he’s very good at fainting with shock. He too is definitely one to watch.
There’s a lot of gentle humour in this show and the cast makes the most of it. The “pretend” horse and car are good and so is the deadpan delivery of lines such as “Build a casino? Whoever would want to come to Nevada to bet?”
This was the second of two Trinity Laban 2018 graduate shows (last week’s Betty Blue Eyes was the other). Promising work all round.
Susan Elkin
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