Crazy for You

Having been lucky enough to work with Clare in other Drama groups including at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre I was very interested to see how she had made the move into directing musical theatre and I am happy to say I was very impressed with the characterisations and stagecraft she brought from her talented cast and crew.

Crazy for You is a musical I have seen on many occasions with its excellent score and lyrics by the Gershwins and Erewash certainly brought their own distinctive interpretation and energy to the Saturday Matinee performance.

Zak Charlesworth shone musically as Bobby Child with a natural command of his material that appeared effortless (but I’m sure it wasn’t).  Meg Tapp gave life, energy and vulnerability to Polly Baker with Richard Dawson injecting just the right degree of humour into his portrayal of Bela Zangler. Gemma Blake and Kheenan Jones provided excellent support throughout the performance with Maria Lawrence and Sue Hagan providing ‘laugh out loud’ over the top comic support as the Fodor sisters. Lyndsay Mould is always fun to watch and his interpretation of Everett Baker was no exception.  Margaret Butcher gave a very enjoyable characterisation as Lottie Child and James Bowden, Martin Lewis and Andy Honman provided considerable energy throughout the performance in their roles of Mingo, Sam and Wyatt.

The choral and solo singing were a particular strength of this production and Charlotte should be particularly proud of the work she had obviously put into the rehearsal room for the many months prior to show week.  The movement around the stage throughout the performance were seemless as were the large ‘set piece’ numbers involving cars as stages for tap numbers.  This leads me on to the congratulations that are due to both Laurie and Steph who certainly brought the most from their cast with their fun and sympathetic choreography.

This was a very strong performance all round from the Erewash team, lighting, back projection and sound provided great support to the performers as did the balance of sound between the stage and the band.  Stage management kept the action moving making this one of the best musicals I have seen EMS deliver in many years.

I look forward to seeing you again for your production of Annie Get Your Gun next March.

 

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