THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996 TAG: 9605160042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
IF YOU CAN'T tap dance, the next best thing is to trot on over to Chrysler Hall and get a gander at the energetic cast of the Gershwin musical ``Crazy for You.''
They can tap, and as long as this somewhat truncated and cut-budget ``Crazy for You'' keeps dancing, it's fine. When the dancers stop moving, it's unfortunately strident and overwrought.
Deanna L. Dys has recreated Susan Stroman's clever, Tony Award-winning choreography from the Broadway original - right down to every tap. Stroman, who is currently represented on Broadway via her choreography for ``Big'' and ``Show Boat,'' does things like turn her chorus girls into bass fiddles, use pickaxes to support the same shapely lasses, turn chairs into a barricade-like ``Les Miserables'' spoof and even use trash-can lids as a rhythmic device.
This, plus the invitation for an evening of standards by the brothers George and Ira Gershwin, is all but irresistible. The Gershwins wrote lyrical love songs the way no one else ever did. ``Crazy for You,'' rather than a show unto itself, is a concoction of Gershwin tunes from other shows blended together into a ``new'' plot that is meant to reflect the escapist, screwball comedy of its Depression-era setting.
``I Got Rhythm,'' the dazzling first-act closing, is from ``Girl Crazy,'' the show that marked the debut of Ethel Merman. Also lifted from that 1930 show is ``Embraceable You'' and ``But Not for Me.'' ``Someone to Watch Over Me'' is taken from the 1926 musical ``Oh, Kay!''
The result is a musical that is a return to what many theater patrons want - the kind of toe-tapping, sock-it-to-'em old fashioned Broadway musical that was in vogue before ``Les Miz,'' with its balletic miseries, and ``Phantom,'' with its chandelier spectacles, took over the Great White Way. ``Crazy for You'' clearly fulfills the need for such a carefree romp.
Unfortunately, though, this is not a ``Crazy for You'' with which you can relax and get comfortable. Terribly over-amplified, you eventually get the idea that you're being screamed at for two hours.
The cast is intent on being heard at all costs. The worst offender is Peter Yonka's performance as Lank, a Nevada country boy who seems in need of a tranquilizer.
No less abrasive is Colleen Hawks' version of what should be the sweet, ingenue lead: Polly, a nice girl from Deadrock, Nev., who has inherited a theater and a bottle of garish-hued hair coloring from the big city. Hawks is a belter, not a subtle interpreter of Gershwin lyrics. She is a better dancer than singer - and better at both than she is at acting.
The show's real stand-out is Noah Racey's lithe and boyish dancing and singing as Bobby Child, the rich boy who goes to Nevada, falls in love, and, finally, learns to do something that was not inherited via his bank account. He masquerades as a Broadway producer, wins the leading lady, and, of course, puts on a show.
The scene may be Nevada but, just as in Oklahoma, the corn is as high as an elephant's eye. The way to play this is with a wink. Under John Neville-Andrews' direction, it is handled more with a sledge hammer than with any degree of campy fondness.
Racey's fleet-footed routines, though, almost single-handedly save the show. It is with him that the show most nearly reaches the intended comfort level. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
[Box]
THEATER REVIEW
What: ``Crazy for You''
Where: Chrysler Hall in Norfolk
When: Tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 7:30 p.m.,
matinees at 2 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets: $27 to $39.50 at box office and Ticketmaster outlets.
By phone: 671-8100.
by CNB