Glitz & Glamour ‘Crazy For You’ Promises To Be One Of The Season’s Best

Nothing against Andrew Lloyd Webber, but “Crazy for You” is easily the most promising musical of the Best of Broadway series this season.

There are some good reasons for that:

The tough New York critics gushed over it when it opened in 1992, calling it “riotously entertaining.”

It harkens back to the glory days of the American musical.

It won numerous Tonys, including Best Musical.

Gershwin! Gershwin! Gershwin! Make that 18 “Gershwin!’s,” because that’s how many Gershwin songs are in this show. Expect to hear many of George and Ira’s best tunes, including “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” “Nice Work If You Can Get It” and “Someone to Watch Over Me.”

Also expect to hear some recently unearthed Gershwin tunes, including the title song.

Here’s one other reason to be optimistic: This promises to be a high-quality tour.

It has the same sets and the same Tony-winning choreography as the Broadway show. It is the one and only “Crazy for You” now on tour.

“This is pretty much the Broadway show,” said Noah Racey, who plays Bobby Child, the male lead.

A reviewer with the Des Moines Register called it “a Grade-A road production,” and the Tulsa World said “the cast for this touring production is first-rate.”

Who knows? Maybe this cast will be better than the original Broadway cast, which David Richards of the New York Times said could have used some improvement.

“It may be the first Broadway musical ever that left me eager to catch the replacement cast,” said Richards, who loved everything else about the show.

Colleen Hawks, who plays Polly, the female lead, and Racey, a Seattle product, have been drawing raves for their singing and dancing. The show is loaded with big production numbers by choreographer Susan Stroman.

“The miracle that has been worked here is to take some of the greatest songs ever written for Broadway and Hollywood, and reawaken the impulse that first inspired them,” wrote New York Times critic Frank Rich. ” ‘Crazy for You’ scrapes away decades of cabaret and jazz and variety-show interpretations to reclaim the Gershwin standards, in all their glorious youth, for the dynamism of the stage.”

Hawks puts it a bit more simply: “What’s not to like? It has fabulous Gershwin music, the choreography is challenging, and there’s lots of humor in it.”

The show is loosely based on the ‘30s Gershwin musical “Girl Crazy.” However, it soon became clear to the producers that “Girl Crazy” was “unproduceable,” so they hired writer Ken Ludwig to write a whole new script around the Gershwin tunes. Only five songs survived from “Girl Crazy”; more than a dozen others were added.

Ludwig, writer of the hit comedy “Lend Me a Tenor,” created a classic boy-gets-girl plot. Bobby, a rich young real estate tycoon, is sent out West to foreclose on a theater. There he meets Polly, and instead of foreclosing, he puts on a big show to raise money to pay off the mortgage.

Does he eventually win Polly? Do you have to ask?

Unlike other modern ‘30s style shows, “Crazy for You” is intended without a trace of camp. Nor is nostalgia a goal, although with so many classic Gershwin songs, nostalgia is almost inevitable.

Tour publicist Linda Smith recalled the day when the cast went to a nursing home to sing. Before long, they realized that an extra voice was joining the chorus. It was one of the residents, who knew every word to every song.

However, the show is also suitable for families and children. The plentiful humor is strictly of the vaudeville variety.

According to Rich (who usually doesn’t get this carried away), it may be hard to tell the youngsters apart from the oldsters.

” ‘Crazy for You’ makes everything old seem young again, the audience included,” he wrote.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ‘CRAZY FOR YOU’ “Crazy For You” opens Monday and continues through April 4 at the Spokane Opera House. Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 and $32, available through all G&B Select-a-Seat outlets, or by calling 325-SEAT or 1-800-325-SEAT.