Crazy for You

Synopsis

Whatsonstage.com Award winning Director, Timothy Sheader directs the Open Air Theatre Regents Park annual summer musical Crazy for You.

George and Ira Gershwin’s hit musical comedy Crazy for you is packed full of classic songs including I Got Rhythm, Someone To Watch Over Me, Embraceable You and Nice Work If You Can Get It. The original 1992 production won both the Tony and Olivier Award for Best New Musical.

Sean Palmer, Clare Foster, Kim Medcalf, Harriet Thorpe and David Burt will lead the cast of Crazy For You at the Open Air Theatre

Sean Palmer, recently seen as Prince Eric in the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid, will play Bobby Child, the son of a banking family who dreams of being a dancer. Clare Foster, from the original West End cast of Avenue Q, plays Polly Baker, the girl he meets and falls in love with at first sight.

Harriet Thorpe, whose most recent London credits include Mamma Mia! and Wicked, plays Bobby’s mother, with David Burt, whose credits include Les Misérables, The Woman In White and Cats, playing famed director Bela Zangler.

Kim Medcalf, best known as for Sam Mitchell in EastEnders and last seen as Sally Bowles in Cabaret plays Bobby’s rich fiancée Irene in Crazy For You.

The creative team from the multi-award winning production of Hello, Dolly! reunites, including director Timothy Sheader, choreographer Stephen Mear and designer Peter McKintosh, with Into the Woods musical supervisor, Gareth Valentine.

This is sure to follow the success of the previous Open Air Theatre Regents Park  musicals so book your Crazy for You Regents Park tickets today.

Our Review:

Simon Edge - 9 August 2011

The George and Ira Gershwin song "Slap That Bass", one of the many classics rebundled by Ken Ludwig in his award-winning Nineties musical Crazy For You, includes the lyrics: “The world is in a mess/ With politics and taxes/ And people grinding axes/ There’s no happiness.”

There never seemed a truer verse as Timothy Sheader’s revival opened at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in the second week of August, with the next stage of the world economic meltdown suddenly overshadowed by riots breaking out all over London.

To cap it all the rain started the moment the actors set foot on the stage. But this beautifully crafted, enchanting piece of escapist frivolity still does what it did in recession-bound London in 1993, and what the Gershwins’ original musical Girl Crazy did way back in 1930 – it lifts the spirits and takes you away from all that for a while.

Sheader’s summer musical revi...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 26 August 2011:

Stephen Mear's choreography has played a major part in the success of the annual musical in the park and it has never been better than in this vibrant and exhilerating revival of Gershwin's wonderfully hoky piece of escapism. Thank goodness the rain kept away so that it was possible to fully appreciate the tap routines and the Follies chorus lines. Crazy for You is an early example of a jukebox musical as several Gershwin songs have been brought together from elsewhere and forced into a book by Ken Ludwig which makes Lend Me a Tenor look like Chekhov. It doesn't matter though as a terrific ensemble tackle it with great vivacity and there are a succession of showbiz standards superbly put across by Gareth Valentine's well-hidden band. Sean Palmer has been brought over from Broadway to lead the cast with great charm but we were especially pleased to see Clare Foster as his romantic foil, Polly. Clare's early training was at the same drama schools our daughter attended and we probably first saw her in end-of-year shows. She might not be the best actress in the West End but she sings beautifully and dances like a dream - Miss Wendy and Miss Kyla must be immensely proud. Crazy For You is a terrific end to another excellent Open Air season - perhaps a transfer indoors to the Novello beckons given the sad early closure of Betty Blue Eyes....

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