Reviews 2014
Reviews 2014
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music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, book by Ken Ludwig, directed by Donna Feore
Stratford Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
May 27-October 19, 2014
“They Got Rhythm”
If you’re looking for a musical that combines great tunes by George Gershwin with lots of tap-dancing, then you’ll go crazy for Crazy for You. The show is loosely based on George and Ira Gershwin’s 1930 musical Girl Crazy, except that it keeps only five of the original songs and imports fourteen others from various sources, most notably the Gershwins’ film musical A Damsel in Distress (1937). Playwright Ken Ludwig wrote a new book for this confection which premiered in 1992 and won the Tony Award for Best Musical that year. Anyone who thinks the original 1930 musical is just fine as it is may find Ludwig’s souped-up version overlong and verging on too much of a good thing.
The plot of Girl Crazy involved Danny, a young man sent to manage his family’s ranch in Arizona to keep him out of trouble. He turns it into a dude ranch and imports showgirls from Broadway and a famous entertainer. The new enterprise is a success and Danny’s falls in love with the local postmistress. Ethel Merman made her stage debut at the entertainer and the show made Ginger Rogers, as the postmistress, a star.
Ken Ludwig’s new book expands on the idea of a young man and a bevy of chorus girls sent to the West. His hero is Bobby Child (Josh Franklin), a stage-struck son of a banking family, who is sent to Deadrock, Nevada, to foreclose on a theatre mortgaged to the bank. Once there he falls in love with the theatre and with Polly (Natalie Daradich), the local postmistress and the only woman in Deadrock. In this he stands in the way of the local hotel-owner Lank (Shane Carty), who wants to annex the theatre to his property and Polly as his wife. Though Polly first falls in love with Bobby, when she finds out he was sent by the bank, she wants nothing to do with him. Bobby therefore disguises himself as the famous impresario Bela Zangler, who says he can revive the theatre and the town by putting on a show there. Bobby calls up the chorus girls of Zangler’s Follies and has them come out to Deadrock much to the local cowboys’ delight. Unfortunately, no one turns up to see the show. Even Eugene and Patricia Fodor (Shawn Wright and Monique Lund), who arrive to check out Deadrock for their guidebook, don’t attend. Then Bobby’s fiancée Irene (Robin Hutton) arrives from New York, soon followed by the real Bela Zangler (Tom Rooney). Complications and a happy ending ensue.
Despite these reservations, the show is enormous fun even if it occasionally goes over the top. Designer Debra Hanson, never known for restraint, includes far more costume changes than are necessary or even logical. How exactly did Irene fit all those evening gowns into that one small suitcase? Hanson is also notorious for her unwillingness to break down sets and costumes to make them more realistic. Thus, although Deadrock has seen no activity for twenty years and the saloon and hotel have not been kept up, Hanson makes them look brand new. Thus, although a point is made that there is no laundry in Deadrock, the cowboys’ outfits have no signs of dirt or wear.
Director Donna Feore’s choreography combines tap, acrobatics and ballroom, but it tends to be too forward-facing for a thrust stage. The main exception is the game of musical chairs played during the “Stiff Upper Lip” number that takes full advantage of the auditorium’s 185º view of the stage. Though Feore never comes up with anything as unusual as the tap number using mining pans in Susan Stroman’s original choreography, she does make a great impression when she frees herself from the tap-centredness of the original. The number that received the loudest and longest applause was her wild exploration of the lindy hop for “Slap That Bass” (a song originally from Shall We Dance?) featuring so many aerials that it looks much more like the jitterbug of the 1940s.
Feore’s direction of non-song-and-dance sections follows the rule of the characters remaining dead serious no matter how ridiculous their situation becomes. Only the overextended silent scene between the two Bela Zanglers begins to become tiresome. Is it still funny when Tom Rooney falls down behind the bar for the twentieth time?
Speaking of choreography, fight director John Stead deserves special praise for creating the two furious barroom brawls that feature in the musical. They are hilarious, complex and acrobatic and as minutely choreographed as any of Feore’s dances.
What really make the show work is the crackerjack cast Stratford has assembled. The role of Bobby Child is the key. He must be strong, handsome, a fine singer and dancer and convey a touch of looniness about him that would lead to his disguise. Josh Franklin is the ideal man for the job. Anyone who saw his superb performance as Billy Crocker in the touring version of Anything Goes in Toronto last year will know he can play both the debonaire and screwball sides of 1920s and ‘30s shows to perfection. He’s high-powered in tap and graceful in ballroom. As an actor he has great comic timing and as a singer he has a lovely voice, shown to its best advantage in lyrical classic like “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”.
As his partner Natalie Daradich is a wonderful find. She is as much a triple-threat as Franklin with a winning personality and a bright stage presence. She can belt out the six-bar held note in “I Got Rhythm” as well as caress a tune as she does in an endearing account of “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me”.
Yet, Crazy For You is so focussed on Bobby and Polly that the third-billed character of the show is not an individual at all but the Cowboy Trio of Marcus Nance, Steve Ross and Stephen Patterson. Their signature tune about the joy of doing nothing, “Bidin‘ My Time”, setting the scene for how dead Deadrock is, receives several reprises, the close harmony of their singing always a delight. It’s too bad music director Shelley Hanson takes the last reprise of their song too fast for us enjoy the novelty of them singing it in French.
This is a musical where the cast seems to be having as much fun performing as the audience does in watching. The joy and energy of the troupe of singers and dancers roll out in waves from the stage and lift up our spirits with theirs. As Ira Gershwin says, “Shall we dance, or keep on moping? / Shall we dance and walk on air?” With some of the Gershwins’ greatest songs performed with such vivacity, by the end of Crazy for You, you too will be walking on air.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photos: (from top) Cast of Crazy for You; Josh Franklin and Natalie Daradich; Marcus Nance, Steve Ross and Stephen Patterson. ©2014 Cylla von Tiedemann.
For tickets, visit www.stratfordfestival.ca.
2014-05-28
Crazy for You