4.5 STARS, March 7-10. A musical about how theatre can make magic out of nothing doesn’t disappoint
Bobby Child just wants to dance. Unfortunately, no one else agrees. His mother wants him to become a banker, his fiancé wants him to settle down, and Bela Zangler, an eccentric Hungarian theatre owner, wants Bobby nowhere near his stage.
Everything changes for Bobby when he takes a trip to Deadrock, Nevada. Here, he meets the beautiful Polly and befriends the lazy locals. Desperate to impress Polly, he disguises himself as Zangler and stages a show to save the local theatre. But when Polly falls in love with Bobby’s impersonation of Zangler, things get complicated. And they get even more complicated when Zangler turns up in person at the end of the first Act.
To be honest, I’m not sure why I’m bothering to recap the plot – it’s a paper-thin comedy of mistaken identities that no one’s paying close attention to. What really matters here is the music. Crazy for You contains such immortal bangers as ‘I got rhythm’, ‘Stiff upper lip’ and ‘They can’t take that away from me’. This Watermill Theatre production does them full justice.
I remember that I saw the same company perform Twelfth Night last year, and called them ‘almost nauseatingly multitalented’. I’d say that assessment still holds. Everyone on stage can sing, dance, act, AND play an instrument. An announcement before the show informs you that all the music you’re about to hear is live, produced on stage. And it’s true – the actors regularly nip off and return with a saxophone or a violin, which they manage to play while dancing riotously. Sometimes, they even swap instruments.
Richard Davenport/The Other Richard
And if that wasn’t enough, the production is a feast for the eyes. There are colourful ‘30s costumes, lashings of glitter, and an enormous golden moon on which the happy couple descends from the ceiling in evening dress. The stage is gorgeous – a slightly run down theatre, all gilt and velvet. Several extraordinarily limber characters clamber up and down it, adding acrobatics to their lengthy list of talents. I wasn’t even surprised.
It’s hard to pick out individual performances in what is essentially an ensemble piece. I would say that Charlotte Wakefield, as Polly, has an immensely powerful voice, and that Tom Chambers makes an agile, goofy Bobby. But really the power of this show comes from the versatility of the large cast, who breathe new life into familiar songs and make them fresh.
I’m not going to claim it will please everyone. It has very little depth or shadow, and it’s not going to impress you if you go to the theatre for slice of life realism. Instead, it’s a maximalist, colourful ode to the stage, utterly in love with the joyous power of theatre. It certainly brought a little magic to a chilly, damp Wimbledon evening.
For tickets, visit: atgtickets.com
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