Crazy for Gershwin
With its heady a mix of romantic comedy, irresistible, tunes and killer choreography, it’s not surprising that Crazy For You has been stealing hearts for three decades
Not all musicals are game-changers, but when Crazy For You opened on Broadway in 1992, it signaled a sea change on the Great White Way. Following a decade dominated by the likes of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, the American musical had finally returned home. In his New York Times review, Frank Rich wrote: ‘When future historians try to find exact moment at which Broadway finally rose up to grab the musical back from the British, they just may conclude that the revolution began last night.’ In a sense the show – which Rich described as ‘righteously entertaining’ – was both new and old, as it reimagined George and Ira Gershwin’s 1930 musical Girl Crazy.
When producer Roger Horchow approached Ken Ludwig to write the Crazy For You book, he was turned down – twice! As a highly successful playwright (his 1989 comedy Lend Me a Tenor scored three Tony Awards) Ludwig felt that writing a musical was too far out of his comfort zone. But after being offered free rein with the Girl Crazy script and the entire Gershwin catalogue put at his disposal, the opportunity ultimately proved too tempting to resist. With acclaimed British director Mike Ockrent at the helm and rising star Susan Stroman taking on choreography duties, the core team was finally set.
Quickly discovering that the Girl Crazy libretto was too old and creaky to satisfy the needs of a modern audience, Ludwig retained the central conceit of the easterner heading west whilst creating a brand-new story and characters. He also ensured that the new show was an integrated musical in which the songs tell the story, unlike its more revue-like predecessor. The one stipulation made by the Gershwin estate was that only material jointly written by George and Ira could be used – a total of around 400 songs. As well as utilising a clutch of numbers from Girl Crazy, Ludwig borrowed from several of the Gershwin’s hit films, including a couple from the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers vehicle Shall we Dance (as an interesting aside, it was her role in the Broadway production of Girl Crazy that first brought Rogers to the public’s attention.) Ludwig’s determination to restrict himself to songs that served the story meant losing some of his own personal favourites and tweaking the script to incorporate others (for instance, the character of Irene became more of a vamp in order to fit in ‘Naughty Baby’). But even with these restrictions, the show includes a treasure trove of Gershwin classics, including ‘Someone to Watch Over me’, ‘I Got Rhythm’, ‘They Can’t Take That Away from Me’, ‘Embraceable You’ and ‘Nice Work if You Can Get It’.
Despite the wealth of talent on board, the Crazy For You journey wasn’t without its bumps in the road. Ahead of the show’s pre-Broadway tryouts, Ockrent and Ludwig decided that the second half wasn’t working, so a swift rewrite was made on the train to Washington DC. The song ‘By Strauss’ was dumped in favour of ‘Stiff Upper Lip’, with the new number being orchestrated, choreographed and learned by the cast in one afternoon ahead of that evening’s performance. Stroman told The Interval: ‘Rewriting that second act on that Amtrak train saved the show.’ Stroman’s own innovative choreography – which found a fresh dance vocabulary to reinterpret the past – played a huge part in that success, and changed the trajectory of musical theatre.
Whether the production would have received its rapturous reception without the last-minute tweaks, we will never know. But the combination of punchy dialogue, masterful melodies and groundbreaking choreography proved an irresistible cocktail for Broadway audiences. The show picked up three 1992 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and the show opened in the West End the following year, starring Ruthie Henshall and Kirby Ward, where it also won the Olivier Award. It has since been performed all around the world, enjoying countless US and UK revivals.
Asked last year why he thought the musical continues to strike a chord with audiences, Ludwig told Concord Theatricals: ‘I think it has endured because it tells a truly heartfelt story. It’s about two lost souls who are trying to find their centres and they find them in each other.’ In an era where theatre budgets are constantly being squeezed, the show’s central message about the importance of the arts in saving lives and communities also packs a prescient punch. Ludwig concluded his interview with this observation: ‘It’s blazingly clear to me that we’ve never needed comedy, romance and joyous music that lifts us out of our seats more than we do at this moment. We have been through an agonizing two years. What we all need is some relief and high good humour. I think there has never been a better moment for Crazy For You than right now.’
Who could ask for anything more?
