Crazy for You is Returning to London

I could not be more thrilled that the dazzling production of Crazy for You that ran to packed houses last summer at the Chichester Festival Theatre is transferring to the West End in 2023. Crazy for You was the first musical I wrote (can it really be 30 years ago?) and I’m overjoyed that there is so much love for it all these years later.

            This is the third West End run for Crazy for You, and it’s been an amazing experience for me to be part of each iteration, to work with each outstanding director and team of artists as they put their own stamps on the show. Crazy for You first played to London audiences in the original production that transferred from Broadway. The brilliant Mike Ockrent brought it to life so memorably that it ran at the Prince Edward Theatre for nearly three years and won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 1993. Every subsequent production owes a debt to Mike’s vision, and we all miss him.

            In 2011, Tim Sheader directed a new production of Crazy for You at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, where he’s long been the Artistic Director.  I first met Tim when he directed the world premiere of my adaptation of The Three Musketeers at Bristol Old Vic, and we’ve been close friends ever since. Tim’s production of Crazy for You was such a triumph that it transferred to the Novello Theatre and won the Olivier for Best Musical Revival in 2012.

            And now this landmark 30th-anniversary revival is coming to the Gillian Lynne Theatre in 2023, helmed by Susan Stroman. Stro’s virtuosic choreography in the original Broadway production set a whole new standard, a standard she’s surpassing yet again in this new production.

            When Crazy for You premiered on Broadway, Frank Rich of The New York Times wrote that Susan Stroman and I were responsible for a moment in which “Broadway finally rose up to grab the musical back from the British,” but the truth is that the British have always shown lasting affection for this quintessentially American musical. I have watched London audiences fall in love with it over and over again.

            When we opened this new production in Chichester in the summer of 2022, all I could think was how lucky I was to be working with the best people in this business—many of them old and dear friends—at one of the finest theatres in the world, once again breathing life into a show I pored my heart and soul into writing. When we opened, I was overwhelmed by the response from the audiences and critics alike, who once again uniformly embraced Crazy for You’s joyful exuberance and unabashed optimism. Now I get to return to London and do it all again.

Who could ask for anything more?