CRAZY FOR YOU (@ Reagle Music Theatre through August 14th)
is one of those joyous musicals which pleases from every angle. Ken Ludwig’s
valentine to the lavish musicals of the ’30s marries George and Ira Gershwin’s
heavenly songs to a wacky “hey-kids-let’s-put-on-a-show” plot featuring laconic
cowboys and high stepping showgirls. If you love those old Gershwin tunes,
you’re happy. If you love tap, you’re in for a treat and if you love to laugh,
there are enough chuckles to keep you in stitches all the way through. Broadway
was so thrilled with Ludwig’s clever tribute to Song and Dance that CRAZY FOR
YOU won the 1992 Tony for best new musical.
Broadway power duo Beverly and Kirby Ward, who have appeared
many times at Reagle, are back in the roles they performed to rave reviews in
the London
production and the national tour, with Kirby directing this one. The Wards make
it look easy and Eileen Grace’s re-staging of Susan Stroman’s wildly extravagant,
original choreography makes the Reagle production pop with energy. Of course,
it’s the dancers, many from Boston Conservatory, who give their all to the
production. Witness the “I Got Rhythm” showstopper at the close of Act I.
If you’ve never seen the show, the number is a phenomenon, with dancers hitting
and tapping on anything and everything made of metal – and that’s only the half
of it!
Beverly Ward lights up the stage as the gal with the broken
down theater that needs saving. She gives a tour de force as the object of affection
of both Kirby as the banker sent to foreclose and Leon Axt as the barkeep who
wants to expand his saloon. What she doesn’t know is that the banker would
rather sing and dance… which leads to a little lie that gets bigger and bigger
until the banker has passed himself off as the famous Broadway producer of the
Follies, no less.
You know the real producer is going to show up, right?
Matthew Zahnzinger gives an inspired comic performance as the man mightily
surprised to find he has a doppelganger, not to mention delighted to find
himself kissed by mistake, while pursuing yet another chorine, played by Rachel
Abbate. Aimee Doherty gets laughs as the femme fatale who tames the gun toting
saloon owner with the hilarious “Naughty Baby” shtick.
CRAZY FOR YOU is packed with gorgeous Gershwin tunes (niftily
music directed by Dan Rodriguez), especially Beverly Ward’s sweetly melancholy
“Someone to Watch Over Me” and the romantic duo’s lovely, ethereal “Embraceable
You.” It’s “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” as Ira Gershwin quipped – and boy, do
they ever.
