Bucks County Playhouse goes ‘Crazy for You.’
By: Stuart Duncan
If Crazy For You seems like an old-fashioned musical, that’s because it is. It opened on Broadway in mid-October, 1930, just as the Depression was beginning to show its teeth, and its tale of luck and pluck helped a lackluster theater season. It had a different title in those days Girl Crazy and the show led first to a rather disastrous RKO film. Then, in 1943, a very good film starred Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, and such future stars as June Allyson and Nancy Walker, all of them backed by Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra.
It was the start of the famous "let’s rent a barn and put on a show" pictures that carried so much weight in the ’30s and ’40s. So when playwright Ken Ludwig revisited the script, it was decided rather firmly to re-use the George Gershwin music, with brother Ira’s lyrics. The theme has changed only slightly now it’s "let’s foreclose on a theater and put on a show."
But the Gershwin tunes remain, with wonderful songs such as "Embraceable You," "Someone To Watch Over Me," "Bidin’ My Time" and "I Got Rhythm," the tune that first brought Ethel Merman national attention.
Every few years Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pa., brings the show back and audiences cheer. This is one of those years and director Stephen Casey has once again woven his magic around a talented group of youngsters. At the top of the cast list is a veteran, Louis Palena, back for his 12th summer and playing Bobby Child, a role that allows him to show off his superb dance techniques. In fact Crazy For You is really a "tap" show and all the scenes dissolve into tap numbers.
Palena gets plenty of help, first from Anne Barr, who plays the only female in Dead Rock, Nev. (just an hour’s walk from the railroad station). Barr comes to New Hope by way of New York and London, gathering bachelor’s and master’s degrees of fine arts on the way. Patrick Ludt lays down another fine character, this time as Broadway mogul Bella Zangler. And Lauren Brader, probably the best actress in the company, has a delicious time as Irene Roth, Bobby’s would-be fiancée with just a touch of independence in her soul. Peter Martino impresses as Lank Hawkins, a villain in the making and the rough-and-tumble town saloon keeper.
At the performance I saw, Linda Schwandt stepped in adroitly to play the mother’s role, while Penny Larsen was still in the Open Air Theatre in Washington Crossing Park, finishing the mother’s role in The Music Man. Running two musicals only miles apart is no great thrill for some of the technical staff set designs and costuming among them. Next up at Bucks is another "tap show" 42nd Street.
Crazy For You continues at Bucks County Playhouse, 70 S. Main St., New Hope, Pa., through July 1. Performances: Wed.-Thurs. 2, 8 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 4, 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets cost $23-$25; (215) 862-2041; www.buckscountyplayhouse.com

