Crazy for You

A musical transported seemingly from a different age, never mind a different theatre, Ken Ludwig‘s Gershwin musical Crazy for You transfers to the West End’s Novello Theatre following an acclaimed run as the final instalment of this year’s summer season at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park.

Ludwig was given free rein of George and Ira’s back-catalogue by the Gershwin estate when tasked with rewriting the 1930 musical Girl Crazy. What he has managed, even though writing in the early 1990s, is to craft a colourful, escapist musical where his easygoing comedy – liberally splashed with slapstick and farce – is combined with a selection of Gershwin’s greatest hits.

The humour of Ludwig’s book is carried over wholeheartedly into Stephen Mear‘s choreography, which is brought to life by the gorgeous nine-strong ensemble of Zangler’s Follies and a posse of cowboys – they make for something of a motley ensemble.

The large-scale tap number, “I Can’t Be bothered Now”, at the top of the show sets the tone and ambition for proceedings and introduces us to a bevy of showgirls still in their native New York. This energy is carried through to the whole-company extravaganzas built from songs which have now slipped into standards, such as “Slap That Bass” and, to close act one, “I Got Rhythm”.

Sean Palmer as Bobby Child – the banking heir who just wants to tap dance and finds himself sent by his disapproving mother to foreclose on the Gaiety Playhouse in Deadrock, Nevada – looks every bit the knight in shining armour he was cast to play as Prince Eric in Disney’s Little Mermaid on Broadway.

Palmer excels both in duet with the wonderful Clare Foster (who manages to look elegant even in dungarees, and is clad in plaid seemingly for the duration) and David Burt whose performance as the real impresario Bela Zangler is the night’s stand out comic turn.

It is also great to watch Kim Metcalf as abrasive fiancé Irene, who gives local saloon owner Lank (Michael McKell) a run for his money before finding herself won over.

For all its frivolity and heart, some of the Gershwin numbers can feel slightly over-coaxed into this compiled show, and incidents such as a pair of English tourists arriving on the scene appear almost totally unexplained. But there is also a pronounced geo-political relevance to this piece, with Bobby’s mother using her son as an instrument, apparently taking pleasure in foreclosing the mortgages of those who have borrowed from her family’s bank against the backdrop of Depression-era America.

Open Air artistic director Timothy Sheader has staged a joyous revival of this old-fashioned, delightful show. He ensures every punchline – and it occasionally feels like every exchange of dialogue possesses a gag – is landed. Care has also been taken over the physical comedy and slapstick. The saloon’s staged gunfights are a particular delight – as a the smell of the cordite clears, the stage the laughs remain strong in the auditorium.