 CRAZY
FOR YOU
Theatre Under the Stars
Malkin Bowl, Stanley Park
July 14 - August 21
604-257-0366
http://www.tuts.bc.ca/
Large-scale, Broadway-style musicals are among the great pleasures
of the modern theatre. But because they require large casts, live
music, and substantial production values, theatrical economics militate
against them. In a medium-sized market like Vancouver with its notoriously
fickle audiences, they can be a killer. One need look no further
than The Centre. Or the Playhouse. Last season’s Hello,
Dolly nearly bankrupted the Playhouse, which subsequently
announced that it would no longer program a musical in its season.
And yet, paradoxically, Broadway is thriving in Vancouver. The
Canadian College of Performing Arts on Vancouver Island is producing
trained young musical theatre artists in abundance for the local
market, and performers from elsewhere in Canada continue to gravitate
here. This influx of talent is evidenced in the musicals produced
by the Arts Club and, until recently, the Playhouse, by slick semi-pro
organizations like Uncle Randy Productions, by the many co-op musicals
that play the city. And by Theatre Under the Stars.
Crazy for You, with book
by Ken Ludwig and music by the Gershwins, requires a large cast
with good voices, excellent dance skills (especially tap), first-rate
choreography, imaginative set design and stylish, expensive-looking
costumes, plus the acting talent to make a deceptively difficult,
corny vaudeville comedy style work. (She: “Can you give me
a room and a bath?” Saloonkeeper: “I can give you a
room but you’ll have to take your own bath.”) Well,
does this production ever deliver the goods.
The story is self-parodic Broadway kitsch: New Yorker Bobby, who
wants to sing and dance with Bela Zangler’s Follies, ends
up in Deadrock, Nevada, trying to save the town’s little theatre
for Polly, the feisty local gal he immediately falls for. The debonair
Bela himself eventually shows up, along with the Follies chorus
girls, and all team up with the local yokels to sing, dance, save
the day, and pair off into couples.
So much about this production is impressive, beginning with its
size: nine principals, an ensemble of 20 men and women, and a 20-piece
orchestra under Wendy Bross Stuart. The principals are extremely
effective, especially Patrick Lambier as Bobby and Lalainia Lindbjerg
as Polly. Lindbjerg is the stronger singer, but both meet the challenge
of splendid Gershwin tunes like “Someone to Watch over Me,”
“They Can‘t Take That Away from Me,” and “Nice
Work If You Can Get It.” As Zangler, Michael Walker is probably
the strongest actor in the company. The scene where he and Bobby-disguised-as-Zangler
face off is one of the best in the show.
Full credit to director and choreographer Scott Drewitz for the
ensemble numbers, where this production really shines. In one a
leggy chorus girl in blonde wig and skimpy pink outfit climbs out
from under the hood of Bobby’s mother’s limousine to
dance with him, followed by nine more identically clad babes who
pile out of the back seat for the big production. In another, to
the tune of “I’ve Got Rhythm,” the ensemble does
a series of spectacular dance-and-rhythm manoeuvres including a
sequence where the girls hold gold-mining pans above their heads
and high-kick them in unison followed by the guys tap-dancing on
them. Throughout, Rachel Berchtold’s dozens of costumes provide
spectacular eye-candy.
The comedy is sometimes too corny, the playing at times a little
too cartoonish, and the show feels long in places, too slight for
two plus hours. But if your taste runs to big, brassy, silly, tuneful,
colourful musical comedy done with talent and panache, this show
gives you your money’s worth and more.
Jerry Wasserman |
