Theatre Trip: Crazy for You

CRAZY FOR YOU

Gillian Lynne Theatre

Date: 13 October 2023 (Friday), 7:30pm

Seats: Stalls C 1-3 (Front Row!)

(Seen with Jess!)

Notes: Another Friday night at the theatre! I do love a post-work theatre trip, even if it's a pain taking the train to work at 7am on a Friday. I saw this with Jess after picking up tickets for a super price, with restricted view seats on the edge of Row C. We did our usual pre-show routine - meet at McDonalds, eat dinner, head over to the theatre.

We had issues getting in, as once we got to the theatre. I lost my phone signal and couldn't load the tickets. I was plenty happy about that because I knew we could just go to the box office and ask for printed ones (which go in my diary), but they just let us in anyway using the written seating plan on my email. Mildly disappointing, but we needed time to get ourselves organised - program, drinks and bathroom before the start of the show.

When we got to our seats we realised that our seats were not restricted at all. We were right on the edge of the row - and C was the front row! The only thing restricted about it was that it was slightly lower than the stage, so I had to sit up REALLY straight to be able to see the best part - which was watching the dancers feet.

I didn't know a huge amount about this show other than it was from the 1990s. In fact it is, but it is a rewritten version of a musical from the 1930s which also entirely uses music by George and Ira Gershwin. This means that despite only being 30 years old or so, it feels more like 100. It had a really classic musical old-school feel which I really liked. It also means that the music has a really coordinated feel and all the songs are super coherent - nothing is new but the Gershwin's have a huge back catalog which they could pull from to make it fit together as well as possible.

One of the highlights of this show was definitely the choreography. Now that I am learning tap, I was so excited to see a classic musical with BIG chorus numbers and they did. Not. Disappoint!! The coordination was incredible and the steps were amazing. The chorus as a whole was great to watch and worked together amazingly as a team. Of particular note was the guy who played Moose, who was very funny.

In more major character news, there were 3 great leads. Bela Zangler was played by Tom Edden, who was wickedly funny and over the top. The beautiful Polly Baker was played by Carly Anderson. She moved incredibly gracefully, danced like an angel and made a perfect partner to the real star of this show. Charlie Stemp played Bobby Child. I've never seen someone so perfect for a role. He practically floated across the stage, his footwork was impeccable, he looked so graceful and he was the perfect partner. And the comedy routine with Bela Zangler, and his impressions? So amazing. He's only just 30 but Charlie Stemp is a really rare talent and now I want to see absolutely everything he does for the rest of my life.

This is only on until January, and while it is currently December already I really want to see this absolute classic again before it closes!