ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995 TAG: 9512070103
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
After some legal wrangling and a delay that may have slightly dampened season ticket sales, Mill Mountain Theatre announced its June production Wednesday.
``Crazy For You,'' a ``42nd Street''-style show billed as a ``new'' Gershwin musical, will run in the main theater June 21 through July 14, 1996. Mill Mountain Executive Director Jere Hodgin calls it ``Gershwin on steroids.''
The announcement was delayed because of a traveling production of the play that hit Roanoke on Tuesday night. Mill Mountain couldn't stump for its own production until that one had come and gone.
But they wasted no time. About 12 hours after the last actor took the last bow at the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium, Hodgin anounced his theater's production at a press conference in the lobby of Center in the Square.
Mill Mountain obtained the rights in May, and was the first regional theater to get the right to produce it. That's a rare privilege, since the show is still running on Broadway. But the rights had also been sold to the travelling company that came to Roanoke Tuesday.
Hodgin says they wanted to release the name right away anyway, and that the civic center had no problems with that, but a producer in Charlotte, N.C., who had bought the production package refused to let the name be released.
So, for months, Hodgin has been going around saying he couldn't say the name, but he was sure it was one "you'll be CRAZY FOR."
Hodgin says he recognized it was a risk announcing their season with a big question mark for June, and no big musical on the bill.
"A lot of people around here consider theater to be big musicals," he said. In fact, season ticket sales are down about 8 percent from last year.
But Hodgin takes it as a good sign that they are only down that much, considering people didn't know exactly what they were buying.
He says it's a sign of loyalty and trust in Mill Mountain Theatre that people bought tickets anyway. He also hopes that now that the question mark has been replaced with ``Crazy For You,'' season ticket sales will come up to projections.
The musical is actually a re-tooling of a 1930 Gershwin show called ``Girl Crazy'' that featured such tunes as ``Embraceable You'' and ``I Got Rhythm,'' sung by 19-year-old Ethel Merman. The new show offers 15 Gershwin standards and four newly discovered Gershwin tunes.
Hodgin figures the production at the civic center won't hurt Mill Mountain's show. Historically, his theater and shows at the civic center don't seem to draw from the same audience.
``Actually, we're pleased with all the publicity,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB