Review: We’re Crazy for Susan Stroman’s West End Crazy for You

In spring 1993, Tony Awards in tow, Crazy for You opened in the West End to thunderous reception – steered by the powerhouse duo of director Mike Ockrent and his future wife, choreographer Susan Stroman. Six months later, in seemingly unconnected circumstances, actor Charlie Stemp was born in the same city. Three decades hence, the significance of these two events has finally been realized: this new revival of the Gershwin classic proves that Stemp and Crazy for You are a match made in heaven.

First seen in the quaint countryside town of Chichester last summer, this new staging of Ken Ludwig’s musical, featuring the seemingly bottomless well of catchy Gershwin tunes, is now ushered into the West End with Stroman inheriting the directorial duties on top of her choreographic ones, picking up the baton from her late husband following his death from Leukemia in 1999. Stroman and producer Joey Parnes have been trying to shepherd the musical back to the stage — particularly the New York stage — for the better part of a decade, and now we have the stepping stone that might just get it there.

Ludwig’s gag-riddled plot is a portmanteau pastiche of recognizable feel-good musicals of old: a talented dancer Bobby Child, desperate to make it in show business (à la 42nd Street) moves to a remote location where he decides to help revivify the fortunes of a down-and-out theater (à la White Christmas, et al) while coaxing the remote townspeople into discovering their creative side (à la The Music Man). Don’t expect novelty, but do expect dollops of charm and wit.

That charm is thanks, of course, to a coterie of top-tier performers. Among them is Drama Desk winner and One Man, Two Guvnors alum Tom Edden as Broadway impresario Bela Zangler, a thinly veiled reference to one Florenz Ziegfeld. He’s joined by the top-notch Carly Anderson as Child’s romantic foil (though more steel than tin) Polly Baker, firmly cut from the same cloth as Marian Paroo and note-perfect throughout.   

No stranger to Broadway after a stint opposite Bernadette Peters in Hello, Dolly! in 2018, Stemp truly excels, catapulting himself into superstardom territory here. Rarely off the stage, he launches into each successive dance sequence as effortlessly as I’d launch into the bowl of popcorn on the table in front of me. Edden and Stemp’s utterly mesmeric “Duck Soup,” where the duo mirror each other for many, many minutes, should be available on prescription.

But this is a show that lives and dies on its dancing, and that’s Stroman’s trump card. She seems to be on slicker form here than she was with New York, New York, her other musical staging of the last year, keeping the pace tight, breezy, and, most importantly, never losing sight of the need to constantly entertain. This is echoed across all aspects of the production: lighting (Ken Billington) and set designs (Beowulf Boritt) all work perfectly well, with New York, New York Tony winner Boritt’s various Deadrock buildings leaving the space just in time for the next major dance moment.

Obviously, the production has Broadway hopes, and I’d eat my top hat and cane if Crazy for You wasn’t nestled somewhere on the Great White Way before the end of 2024. British audiences rarely give out standing ovations before the interval – but Crazy for You had them surging to their feet before they’d even had their intermission vino.