The Wanda L. Bass School of Music is preparing to put up its next mainstage production, Crazy for You.
Crazy for You will be performed at 8 p.m. April 12-13, and 3 p.m. April 14 in Kirkpatrick Auditorium in Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Center.
Set in the 1930s, Crazy for You follows “Bobby Child,” who, despite his family’s banking business, wants to be a dancer. His mother sends him to the small, western town of Deadrock, Nevada, to foreclose a rundown theater. When Bobby arrives, he falls in love with “Polly Baker,” who resents him for closing the theater, and he decides to try to save the theater by producing a show under a false identity.
“It’s a lot going on. You’ve got cases of mistaken identity, you’ve got love triangles and rivalry between people, and you’ve got the scorned fiancé on one hand, and the cute cowgirl enticing you to stay in Nevada. It’s just all kinds of craziness,” said Jordyn Younger, music theater/vocal performance sophomore. “Plus, the dancing, I feel like that in itself is going to be an amazing spectacle.”
Younger is portraying “Irene Roth,” Bobby’s fiancee.
Jan McDaniel, music professor, is the music director and conductor of the show.
The score is entirely George Gershwin songs. The music also was updated and adapted to allow for dance breaks and modern understandings of music, McDaniel said.
David García, music theater/vocal performance junior, is portraying “Lank Hawkins,” the show’s antagonist. He said, though the show is more recent, it has the same feeling as classic musicals.
“I think it’s a really, really cool piece of music theater because it takes all of that charm that the Golden Age era of music theater had, way in the early days of Broadway, and brought it back into a more modern time,” he said.
Katie Allsup, music theater/vocal performance sophomore, is also playing “Irene Roth.” She said several classic Gershwin songs including I’ve Got Rhythm and Someone to Watch Over Me are included in the show, and the audience will recognize these hits.
“It’s so high energy. It’s fast-paced, and it embodies the classic music theater show. Gershwin shows are standards, but Crazy for You is a standard that still has a lot of twists and turns, and the tapping in it is astounding,” she said.
Younger said she’s enjoyed working with the director, Dan Fishbach, and is excited for people to see the show.
“We’ve been working with a guest director, Dan, who’s been wonderful, and I feel like he’s been really great at allowing us to harness our creativity and he’s really allowing use our creativity to bring our own ideas to the table. This cast feels like a team,” Younger said.
Blake Sauceda, acting junior playing “Bela Zangler,” said the show involves a large cast.
“I would say the show relies heavily on the ensemble. They are called almost every rehearsal and are there the entire time, learning choreography, brushing up on choreography, and making things clean. But they always come prepared, it’s always really impressive to watch them,” he said.
Sauceda also said Fishbach knows how comedic moments should be orchestrated, and he has a clear image of how the scenes, acts and show need to develop.
“A lot of it is about timing. A lot of it is about delivering the very funny lines, and dialogue that’s been written, in the best way. A lot of it is about working on characterization,” Fishbach said.
Fishbach said the show is escapist comedy, and he wants the audience to enjoy themselves and the work the company has done.
Sauceda said he thought the fun of the show was part of why it was chosen.
“It’s nothing to be taken too seriously,” he said.
Collin O’Neill, music theater senior playing “Bobby Child,” said the show is about community and following one’s dreams.
“A community can really do anything, and establishing one is really powerful. And not to be corny, but sort of ‘follow your ambitions,’” he said.
Tickets are available online or at the box office for $14, $20, or $28, depending on seat location. Vouchers for student-priced tickets will be available the week of April 8 before opening weekend.
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