THE GLITZ and glamour of dancing girls in New York and gun-toting rooting tooting cowboys in Nevada in the 1930s was brought to Bromsgrove’s Artrix when Knowle Musical Society staged Crazy For You.
The romantic comedy was delivered by a 25-plus cast who all played their part in this memorable performance.
The story centres on Bobby Child who, despite his dream of performing on the big stage, is tasked with calling in a debt in his banking day job.
The building he needs to repossess being a theatre gives him an idea – and a romantic interest.
As well as terrific toe-tapping numbers and equally tremendous tap-dancing routines, this production also has a smattering of comic farce through misunderstandings and a peppering of lovely one-liners throughout.
The eight-strong Follies were fantastic and faultless throughout with their glitzy glamorous outfits and eye-catching tap-dancing routines. Big up to Louise Keeling, Mickie Brown, Sophie Kowalewsky, Jo Kendrick, Libby Laishley, Annette Nuttall, Joanna Purdy and Claire Thomas for some great performances.
The naive and hapless cowboy trio – well-played by Sarah Furmage, Margaret Lilley and Christine Stanford – had plenty of comedic moments with their almost slapstick performances.
Phil Seedhouse and Jackie Hall were wonderful as the ‘British’ travel writers Eugene and Patricia Fodor, getting plenty of laughs with their upper-class and equally stiff upper lip antics.
Like chalk and cheese (they say opposites attract), Sue Johnson as Bobby’s formidable mother and Vince Holley as Polly’s empathetic father both portrayed their characters well.
Andrew Halliday exuded the bully boy and arrogant anti-charm as hotel owner Lank and Nicky Ginns made the role of Bobby’s demanding fiance Irene her own. She was particularly impressive during the raunchy ‘Naughty Boy’ number.
Steve Hayes zipped about as theatre guru Bela Zangler and was involved in ‘Embraceable You’ the most hilarious duet of the night with Bobby (Michael Green). They magnificently mirrored each other’s movements (you could tell it had taken a lot of rehearsals) which led to loads of laugh out loud moments.
But the performances of the night (it was too tight to pick one) went to Green as Bobby and Chloe Rawson as Polly. Both the hero and the heroine of this show were so lovable they were taken to the hearts of every audience member.
Bobby owned the stage everytime he was on it – whether tap-dancing with the Follies or on his own surrounded by dry ice smoke or singing a sombre song.
As well as her tap-dancing skills, Polly produced the most memorable vocal performances of the evening – from her first ‘Could You Use Me?’ to ‘But Not For Me’ – she hit every note.
The pair were also involved in the most poignant and touching moments as their love blossomed, was derailed and then bloomed again.
The minimal set worked extremely well with the video screen effectively doing the scene-change heavy lifting. This enabled the stage to seamlessly transition from New York to Nevada, to saloon bar, to street, to rehearsal rooms and even a train at one point.
This is a feelgood show (just what we need with everything going on in the wider world).
Never mind ‘Crazy For You’, the audience went crazy for this show and you will too – it is well worth a watch.
At the end of the night, we were all leaving still singing or humming the final song ‘Who Could Ask For Anything More?’ – a very apt number which summed up how we were all feeling.
Crazy For You runs at Bromsgrove’s Artrix until Saturday, March 16.
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