Crazy For You is a frothy hit

If you’re tired of the winter blues, Crazy For You now playing at the Citadel Theatre is the perfect antidote.

The romantic musical comedy delivers a warm-hearted, fast-paced lightness that lifts you out of your seat and thrusts you into a “happily ever after” era – even if it’s only for two hours.

It takes George Gershwin’s bouncy music and his brother Ira’s mesmerizing lyrics, and uncorks a classic mix of music, dance, showmanship and sentimental nostalgia heightened with a fresh twist.

Crazy for You: The New Gershwin is in fact that. It adapts 20 dynamic charts from the songwriting team’s catalogue and with five songs riffed from the brothers’ musical Girl Crazy.

The musical is more than just a tired revival of memorable gold standards. It aims to once more inject the energy that initially inspired the songs.

Giving the musical fresh momentum is director Dayna Tekatch’s choreography. It depicts 1930s New York, a time period that was rich in dance styles – tap, ballroom, comic dancing and acrobatics. Although it reflects the dance architecture of the period, the crack dancers discharge a contemporary vibe.

The smouldering full-cast extravaganza I Got Rhythm as well as the flirtatious Shall We Dance are given the same inspired treatment as Slap That Bass, a witty Stomp-type number where the cast creates a visual jamboree from hardware tools such as a washboard, pickaxe and pot.

Since the storyline is contorted around the songs, playwright Ken Ludwig’s plot completely lacks any heavy content. However Ludwig has a knack for modelling old-school musical comedy and he establishes the perfect lead-in, romantic or comic, for each song.

Bobby Child, a stage-struck New York banker yearning to live life under the lights gets a chance when his domineering mother sends him to Deadwood, Nevada to foreclose on an old theatre long past its celebrity days.

Deadwood is an old mining town that disappeared off the map after its main mine shut down. The only inhabitants left are a bunch of taciturn, siesta-lovin’ hombres who enjoy whiskey shots and a daily shoot-out using fake bullets.

Among them is the clearly defiant and assertive postmaster Polly Baker, a tough woman who takes no crap from any man, yet is clearly vulnerable in matters of the heart.

Bobby falls for Polly instantly. But if he forecloses on her father’s theatre, he loses Polly. In desperation, he concocts a nutty plan to save the theatre by bringing in the Follies girls and pretending to be the famous New York impresario Bela Zangler (a take on Florence Ziegfeld).

Unfortunately in a mistaken identity gag, Polly falls in love with Bela Zangler the imposter and matters come to a head when the real impresario arrives from New York.

The entire cast of triple-threat performers is truly amazing. Ayrin Mackie as Polly has a big voice and works her magic in a variety of numbers. She puts herself out there in two very emotional solos, the tender Someone To Watch Over Me and But Not For Me.

The lanky framed Andrew MacDonald-Smith as Bobby enjoys a coy chemistry with Mackie. Although he slips on the odd singing note, his tapping finesse, comedic timing, athletic stunts and personal charm extend far beyond the footlights.

I swear MacDonald-Smith has rubber legs. In one scene Bobby comes staggering down a set of stairs in a drunken stupor with legs flailing in every direction just seconds from a face plant. Magically, he makes it.

Perhaps the most difficult scene to perform was a perfectly mimed bit between Bobby, the Bela Zangler imposter and the real Bela Zangler (John Ullyatt).

Both men, completely intoxicated, sit across from each other, meticulously mirroring each other’s movements. In their wasted state, they’re unsure if they’re seeing double or a reflection.

St. Albert Children’s Theatre musical director Rachel Bowron as Irene Roth is every inch Bobby’s wealthy, petulant long-standing fiancĂ©. In Naughty Baby Bowron, who often plays the ingĂ©nue, delivers a saucy bad-girl lap dance with Jesse Gervais’ Lank Hawkins, the grumpy, love-frustrated saloon owner.

And of course Susan Gilmour as Lottie Child, Bobby’s mother, is a head-to-toe New York patrician dripping in furs and sarcasm.

Crazy for You is no dramatic masterpiece. But the light-as-champagne-bubbles entertainment is pure whimsy and a one-of-a-kind.