Crazy For You, Gillian Lynne Theatre, London
Prodigiously talented Charlie Stemp dances up a storm and sings (and acts) as stagestruck dreamer Bobby Child in this musical about puttin’ on a show in Deadrock, Nevada, (population 52-ish).
Bobby Child is rich and louche and just wants to be on the stage. Thwarted by not being taken seriously by producers, directors, his mother or his long affianced fiancée, Bobby runs off to a Hicksville town in the Nevada desert, with a dilapidated theatre, arriving as himself (a despised banker foreclosing a mortgage on the theatre) and soon switching to impersonating the impresario of the Zangler Follies to prove his love and himself to Polly, the theatre owner’s daughter. Tangled romance ensues and a lot of comedy as the townsfolk are drafted into all the singing and dancing. There are also English tourists on the scene who are restaurant critics! And then his fiancée arrives in town too, sparring with the local hotelier…
Delivered with tremendous humour and aplomb (including Bobby Child collapsing in the road on arrival), it was lovely to see how the cast supported each other — whether getting each other in the line for high kicks or having a giggle as someone on the floor comically slipped and fell (without hurt, just a ‘what just happened there’ moment?’) The choreography is epic and the audience extremely warm-hearted as they just wouldn’t stop clapping after ever number. Deeply deservedly so. (Plus ALL the Gershwin)…
My favourite moments are the dream sequences when pink clad Follies emerge from the floor or the side of the set and perform a song and dance routine with Bobby. (Also to be commended are his mother and fiancée for holding a freeze frame for so long)…Carly Anderson as Polly, sole female resident of Deadrock, performs a terrific back bend in the moonlight and gets a Ginger Rogers moment atop a raised platform at the end. (I wish she had a little more dancing here — but the focus for her character is the singing). Tom Edden as the real Bela Zangler is formidable as a mirror image for he and disguised Bobby Child encounter each other and the two Zangler’s (somewhat hungover) mirror each other for quite sometime. Superb!
The songs, the glamour, the complex and appealing choreography, the tap dancing (even in ballet shoes en pointe at one moment), the romance, the shimmery set, the two Zanglers (!) It’s delightful, delicious and delovely as the Follies double up as basses at one point in a gasp worthy moment and train up the local townsfolk. Perfect characterisation and moves from the supporting cast too — every man gets his moment! Thrilling!
Really like the trend for celebrating the musicians too. They got their own enthusiastic applause and their conductor got to pop up and take his own bow. (Roman Holiday celebrated their musicians in the same way recently and it’s wonderful because the music and musicianship really makes this show).