Crazy for You

A Society celebrating its 75th anniversary might have chosen a show which uses a wartime theme to recall those dark days of 1940 but instead Ripon prefer something which weaves together some of the glorious Gershwin songs which were no doubt very popular at the time.  Furthermore, its story about putting on a show in somewhat difficult circumstances is no doubt appropriate in reflecting the thoughts of those founder members.  Indeed, as one of the characters reminds us, “Mickey Rooney does it all the time”.   

Sadly, the great man left us last year but, happily, this Society continues to maintain the tradition with an enjoyable production of this excellent show.  Sometimes it’s one which can be rather awkward for amateurs in that one of the lines tells us that, apart from the leading lady, there are no other women for miles. There are some chorus girls from New York who provide the glamour and much of the choreography but elsewhere some stalwart members have been known to find themselves surplus to requirements.  There was little of this here as the addition of a single word into the script (“there are no single women for miles”) enabled more of the ladies to be involved, whilst the Society’s Youth Theatre provided several of the girls from “the Follies”. Another innovation was to change the travelling Fodors into sisters rather than brother and sister, thereby releasing another of the gentlemen to join the cowboys.  All of this contributed to our greater enjoyment of the show.

The principals worked hard with the song and dance, which this show has in abundance and particular credit must go to Rob Hastings (Bobby) whose work commitments had restricted his attendance at rehearsals. His difficult duet with Khal Shahjahan (Zangler) was well executed. The cast were supported by an excellent Band which made a good sound, despite the limitations on numbers which this theatre imposes.    

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