“Crazy for You”

Posted by Gail M. Burns - August 2009

In the Act I finale of Crazy for You, as toes tapped, Wesley Urish flew through the air in a couple of effortless tumbling runs, sequin-clad chorines kicked their legs up over their heads to hit their tap shoes on the metal trays they were holding aloft, and Emily Thompson, hoisted high on the shoulders of a couple of chorus boys, hit the big, famous extended notes above the ensemble belting out I Got Rhythm the final question came: “Who could ask for anything more?”

Short of the dancing cutlery they had in Beauty and the Beast I can’t think of a damned thing.

This is what the Mac-Haydn does best – songs and dance, laughs and fun, all for you. The big American musical tap dance extravaganza is a very particular art form and its not everyone’s favorite – plot and character suffer in favor of music (Gershwin music!), movement (Tralen Doler choreography!), and spectacle (Jimm Halliay costumes!) – but at its best, and trust me this IS the best, it is exhilarating.

It is also an excellent example of the Magic of the Mac-Haydn, which is the inexplicable force that prevents all those singing, dancing, flipping, tapping performers from colliding and collapsing in a mass of sequins and metal-plated Capezio shoes.

I just loved Crazy for You when the Mac-Haydn staged it back in 2002. Then Karla Shook starred as Polly Baker and her sister Kelly L. Shook, was the Choreographer. This time Karla is back in the minor role of Irene Roth because she is also serving as Assistant Director to Director/Choreographer Tralen Doler. Doler made his Mac-Haydn directorial debut in 2007 with Thoroughly Modern Millie, a show he had staged a year earlier to great acclaim for C-R Productions at the Cohoes Music Hall, where he serves as the Resident Director and has helmed hit after hit, making innovative and athletic dance numbers his signature.

While Doler’s translation of …Millie from a proscenium staging to the Mac-Haydn’s unique in-the-round configuration had its rocky moments, it allowed Doler a chance to get familiar with the surroundings. And in Karla he has an assistant who knows the Mac-Haydn thoroughly. The Mac’s 2009 company are particularly strong dancers, and Doler has lost any inhibitions he might have had about unleashing the remarkable, athletic choreography in such a small space and lets these kids loose to do their thing. The only thing better than seeing Doler’s choreography from a distance is seeing it up close. The dance numbers, and there is little else in this show, are truly spectacular.

In my 2002 review I provided a pretty thorough description of how this “New Gershwin Musical” came to be in 1992, almost a decade after Ira Gershwin’s death and more than a half-century after George Gershwin’s tragically early passing, and I refer you back to that piece for the low-down. I referred to it then as “the most fabulous fabricated score of the 20th century.”

I also stated clearly in that review that the plot was not worth mentioning. Suffice it to say that boys get girls as the Zangler Follies (think Ziegfeld) heads to Deadrock, Nevada to put on a show to help save the old thee-ay-ter. There’s a song every two minutes and a big dance number every five. Identities are mistaken, hearts are broken and mended, and incredibly creaking old jokes fill the few gaps between songs.

I loved Karla’s Polly, and I notice that she often lists it as one of her favorite roles in her program bios. With Karla not only firmly embedded in my memory but also standing on the stage, Emily Thompson had very large tap shoes to fill in my view. And while Thompson grew on me, and will undoubtedly charm everyone who never saw Karla in the role, I remain loyal. Thompson is a snappy dancer, but she is not the bravura belter that Karla is.

I don’t think I have ever enjoyed Colin Pritchard more than I did here as Our Hero Bobby Childs. The role really shows off Pritchard’s nimble and seemingly indefatigable dance skills, and, in his scene and number with Ben Jacoby when both are dressed as impresario Bella Zangler (Jacoby is Zangler and Pritchard’s Bobby is pretending to be him for reasons too silly to go into here), proves his solid comedy chops as well.

Jacoby is wasted in the minor character role of Zangler, for which he is noticeably too young, but what the heck, its only a musical. While Jacoby sings divinely, I am not sure his dance skills are up to Tralen Doler standards, so he is best left to the comedy, which he does very, very well. I did notice, in his brief love scene with Tara Tagliaferro as Tess, how meltingly earnest his eyes are. The Mac-Haydn needs to give this guy a romantic leading role where you can see his face!

Karla gets only one notable number, Naughty Baby which calls on her to bind, gag, and seduce Joe Bettles’ Lank Hawkins. It’s a sweet little ode to sado-masochism and the pair plays it well.

Quinto Ott and Kendall Chaffee-Standish get nice cameos as Eugene and Patricia Fodor, guide book authors who stumble in to Deadrock just in time for the Act I finale and decide to stay. Heck, after that dance number I don’t understand why they don’t buy a patch of desert and settle down.

Its hard to do a set in the Mac-Haydn but Matt Ward has devised attractive little faux proscenia to adorn the walls behind sections one and three of the audience. With their curtains down they indicate we are inside the Zangler or Deadrock theatres, and with them raised two lovely desert murals are revealed.

Jimm Halliday has designed the costumes, which are universally fabulous. I especially enjoyed the over-the-top white show-girl outfits for the Act II finale. Who needs breast augmentation surgery when you can enhance your bosom with big piles of ostrich feathers?

I can’t think of a better bit of air-conditioned fun for the whole family before everyone heads back to school. Buy your tickets NOW!

Crazy for You runs through August 23 at the Mac-Haydn Theatre on Rt. 203 in Chatham, NY. The show runs two hours and forty minutes and is suitable for the whole family. For tickets and more information, call the box office at 518-392-9292.

Copyright Gail M. Burns 2009

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