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Review: Crazy for You (New Theatre, Oxford)

From the archive, first published Saturday 15th May 2004.

The wonderful songs of George and Ira Gershwin are woven into a story both richly comic and warmly romantic in Crazy for You. The result -- a show you'd be crazy to miss.

Served up with great polish under musical director Jonathan Gill are such all-time classics as Nice Work If You Can Get It, Someone to Watch Over Me, Embraceable You and They Can't Take That Away from Me. Best of all is I Got Rhythm, which provides an eye-popping end to the first half and is reprised with equal gusto in the finale.

The book -- by Ken Ludwig -- is long on wit and plot. At its centre is rich kid Bobby Child (the excellent Darren Bennett) who has ambitions to be a hoofer, to the dismay of his haughty mum (Audrey Leybourne) and heiress fiancée Irene (Jenny Cox). But talented though he is, his skills go unrecognised by the show-biz giant Bella Zangler (Mark Wynter), who runs the hottest revue in town, with a corps of leggy lovelies.

Having failed to make it into their show, Bobby is sent south to Bedrock, Nevada, to assist in the winding up of a theatre with debts to his mum's business empire. This just happens to belong to a gorgeous young woman, Polly -- who is winningly portrayed by former Generation Game star Melanie Stace.

Together they hit on a plan to save the theatre with a big stage success. His eight-strong team of lissome female dancers does come south, providing fine comic scenes as they try to hone the dancing skills of the local rednecks who are to be their stage partners. Various romances arise, including ones between Irene and a tough-nut local bar owner (Karl Moffatt) and Bobby's mum and Polly's dad (Matt Zimmermann).

But it's Polly's own romantic inclinations that lead to most trouble -- and laughter. Spurning the 'absent' Bobby, she falls for the fake Mr Zangler -- then is more than a tad surprised when the real one arrives in town.

Mixed up in it all are a pair of true-Brit guide book compilers, Patricia and Eugene Fodor (Sue Hodge and Christopher Beeny), whose unreasonable demands add another aspect to the comedy.

This is feelgood fun at its best.

CHRIS GRAY

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