Crazy For You, Gillian Lynne Theatre review: Everything in this spellbinding show is joyous

“You’ll not find show more precisely tooled to give you a great night out!”

By Kate Maltby for The I

Outgoing director Daniel Evans has left the Chichester Festival Theatre with one sparkling seasonal tradition: a new musical revival each summer which always knocks the socks off everything else in the country. This June, it was Polly Findlay’s Trumpified take on Sondheim’s Assassins; last summer it was this spell-binding production of Crazy For You, which finally makes its much-awaited transfer to London’s West End.

A salty critic might call Crazy For You the original jukebox musical. That would be to undersell the originality of this 1992 homage to George Gershwin, though it’s true that part of the delight is waiting for vivacious leads Charlie Stemp and Carly Anderson to break into familiar hits like “I Got Rhythm” and “Someone To Watch Over Me.”

The show’s book was originally developed by Ken Ludwig as an update of Gershwin’s 1930 musical Girl Crazy. It soon evolved into an entirely new story about Bobby (Stemp), a showbiz-mad banking heir exiled from New York to Deadrock, Nevada to foreclose reluctantly on a derelict theatre owned by Polly (Anderson). With the blessing of the Gershwin estate, Ludwig also sprinkled in Gershwin numbers from other musicals – audiences may recognise “Slap That Bass” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” from the Rogers and Astaire movie Shall We Dance.

What’s so witty and enjoyable about Ludwig’s updates is the archness of this 90s pastiche of 1930s sexual politics. As Wild West heroine Polly, Carly Anderson’s combination of poise and innocence are reminiscent of Charmian Carr’s turn as Liesl in The Sound of Music, but there’s a knowing edge that comes out in her catfight with Bobby’s urbane fiancée Irene. (Sample line: “She’s the only woman in Deadrock.” “That explains why she looks so tired.”) Natalie Kassanga is a precisely-pitched Irene; Kayleigh Thadani glows like a lightbulb as Bobby’s can-do assistant Tess. Ludwig’s script looks back at Depression-era Nevada with a few digs at the twists of history. One character rebuffs the idea he open a casino: “Who’d come to Nevada just to gamble?”

The original Broadway production was directed by the late Mike Ockrent, and his original choreographer Susan Stroman steps up here to direct a gently improved version still rooted in her inventive and pictorial dance style. (Look out for the dance routine in which the men fashion musical strings out of ropes to “play” their female partners like double basses, only to find the tables swiftly turned.) Everything in this show is joyous – Stemp’s tap-dancing; Anderson’s clarifying voice; an ensemble cast without flaw – but it’s this level of feelgood choreography that you won’t get anywhere else this year.