Crazy For You

Crazy For You is a two act tap dancing musical comedy for stage written by Ken Ludwig featuring music by Ira and George Gershwin. Opening at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway on February 19, 1992, it originally ran for 1622 performances.

The new Gershwin extravaganza is filled with song and dance and Ken Ludwig's hilarious dialogue. This is an artfully constructed tale of boy meeting girl in the Wild West, where they spread goodness and ultimately fall in love.

Plot

The curtain opens in the most magical of places, backstage at the Zangler Theater in New York in the 1930s. The last performance of the Zangler Follies is wrapping up for the season and Tess, the Dance Director, is dodging the advances of the married Mr. Zangler. Bobby Child, the rich son of a banking family, is backstage hoping for an audition with Zangler. Bobby performs "Crazy for you," but fails to impress Zangler after landing on Zangler's toe during the final flourish of his dance routine. Dejected, Bobby heads outside.

Bobby is met by Irene, the wealthy woman to whom he has been engaged for five years, and then by his mother who demands that Bobby carry out her piece of banking business for her. Bobby is told to go to Deadrock, Nevada, to foreclose on a rundown theater. As the women argue over him, Bobby imagines dancing with the Follies Girls and joins them in a rousing rendition of "I Can't Be Bothered Now." Brought back to reality, Bobby decides to escape to Nevada.

When Bobby arrives in Deadrock, it is clear that the coal-mining town has seen better days. The men, who are cowboys, sing "Bidin' My Time" in a long, slow drawl. Everett Baker receives a letter from New York warning of the bank foreclosing on the Gaiety Theater. The only woman left in this forlorn town is Everett's daughter, the spunky Polly Baker, who vows to get even with Bobby Child if she ever meets him.

Bobby enters the town, almost dying of thirst, and falls in love with Polly at first sight, not realizing who she is, and expresses his excitement in "Things Are Looking Up." Lank Hawkins, the owner of Deadrocks Saloon, and ardent suitor of Polly, is not pleased to see a rival for Polly's affections.

Bobby finds himself in quite a bind. If he forecloses on the theater he will lose the girl of his dreams. Inspired, he comes up with the idea of putting on a show to pay off the mortgage. Polly agrees to this plan until she finds out who he is-- that banker from New York! Bobby is heartbroken, but he decides to put on the show anyway, disquised as Zangler. Polly, deeply hurt, expressed her loneliness in "Someone To Watch Over Me."

A few days later, ten Follies Girls on vacation from The Zangler Follies appear like a mirage in the desert. Bobby has asked them to help stage a spectacular show in Deadrock. When the men of Deadrock see the girls, the sleepy town becomes very lively. Meanwhile, to Bobby's dismay, Irene arrives, threatening to expose Bobby's charade, and Polly has fallen in love with Bobby's impersonation of Zangler. She expresses her love for Zangler with the song "Embraceable You."

Opening night arrives, but everyone is disappointed to find that the only people to arrive into the town, are the Fodors, and they didn't even come for the show. They came to write a guidebook on the American West. What starts out as a disappointment changes into the realization that the show has galvanized the once-sleepy town. They celebrate with a spirited rendition of "I Got Rhythm" while the real Zangler stumbles un-noticed into the town.

Act Two opens in Lank's saloon where Bobby is professing his love to Polly. Unfortunately, she is still in love with the man who she thinks is Zangler. Bobby is about to convine Polly that he has been impersonating "Zangler" when the real Zangler stumbles into the saloon looking for Tess.

Zangler finds Tess, but refuses her requies to produce the show. Tess storms off, Zangler, now drunk after being disgusted by the town, bemoans his fate. Bobby, dressed like Zangler, reels in to drown his sorrow over losing Polly. The two men act as mirror images of each other, and lement their lost loves in "What Causes That." The next monring, Polly sees the two Zanglers and realizes what happened, and falls for the real Bobby.

The entire show was received as extremely contrived and a somewhat dim excuse to put together some of the Gershwin's more beloved tunes (such as the title song, "Embraceable You" and "Nice Work if You Can Get It"). The show was based on the 1920s play "Girl Crazy", which featured extensive ethnic humour and low brow wit.

External link

• Fan page (http://www.geocities.com/JoeCable1996/CRAZY/crazy.html)