Crazy For You, Lincoln Center 2/19

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

http://www.lincolncenter.org/show/mcp-presents-crazy-for-you-a-25th-anniversary-concert-performance

 

Anyone else seeing this tomorrow night?

[+ WilliamM]

I am certainly not old enough to have seen "Girl Crazy" (1930) with Ginger Rogers and Ethel Merman. So I regret not knowing about this concert sooner.

[bostonman]

I am certainly not old enough to have seen "Girl Crazy" (1930) with Ginger Rogers and Ethel Merman. So I regret not knowing about this concert sooner.

 

Aside from sharing a very bare-bones plot similarity and using some of the same songs, there is very little of Girl Crazy in Crazy For You. They are very, very different shows. (Crazy For You also borrows a whole slew of songs not from Girl Crazy to round out the score.)

 

This is also a very strange choice of musical for a company that has made their mark over the last few seasons doing straight concert performances with a more formal choral setting. (In fact, the score's vocal ensemble work is negligible, especially compared to The Secret Garden and Titanic which this company has done in the last few years, which are musicals that define themselves by their big complex vocal ensembles. Crazy For You mostly relies on solo turns and huge dance pieces, but very little impressive choral singing.)

 

I suppose one of the unique reasons to see this would be to see Harry Groener in the role of Bela Zangler. Groener was the original juvenile lead (Bobby Childs) when the show debuted in 1992. The twist is, of course, that Bobby spends a good deal of the show disguised as Zangler (with bookwriter Ken Ludwig essentially revamping the same mistaken identity schtick he had used just 3 years earlier in his hit farce Lend Me a Tenor) - and of course mayhem ensues when the two characters wind up in the same remote Nevada town to try to bring the life back to a defunct old theatre (one of the best lines in the show, said by Zangler as he sees his double - "I am beside myself!"). So even though Groener did, in essence, play Zangler during his run in the original production, now he finally gets to play the REAL one.

[+ WilliamM]

Aside from sharing a very bare-bones plot similarity and using some of the same songs, there is very little of Girl Crazy in Crazy For You. They are very, very different shows. (Crazy For You also borrows a whole slew of songs not from Girl Crazy to round out the score.)

 

I am old enough to have seen Merman in "Gypsy" twice and Rogers in summer theater in "Annie Get Your Gun." I saw Mary Martin in person many times. So my memories of Merman and Rogers are those of a teenager. I am much more realistic about Mary Martin's strengths and weaknesses.

[bostonman]

I am old enough to have seen Merman in "Gypsy" twice and Rogers in summer theater in "Annie Get Your Gun." I saw Mary Martin in person many times. So my memories of Merman and Rogers are those of a teenager. I am much more realistic about Mary Martin's strengths and weaknesses.

 

Yes - but what does this have to do with a concert performance of a 1992 musical which neither Merman nor Rogers nor Martin had the least connection with? ;-)

[+ WilliamM]

Yes - but what does this have to do with a concert performance of a 1992 musical which neither Merman nor Rogers nor Martin had the least connection with? ;-)

 

Now you know how I feel when I read some of your political comments.

 

Serious answer: A revival concert version of "Girl Crazy" with Rogers and Merman had to be cancelled when doctors discovered Ethel was stricken with a brain tumor. Martin was either still having vocal problems (evident at "Together on Broadway" with Merman about five years earlier) or decided not participate in deference to Merman.

 

We are always going to disagree to some extent because I am looking at musicals only as a fan.

 

If I lived in NYC I would see the concert even though I am seeing "Sunday in The Park with George" and perhaps an opera at the Met a few days later. However, I live in Philadelphia.

[bostonman]

I didn't know about the cancelled Girl Crazy concert - that's interesting. And sad.

 

But I think you're under the mistaken impression that Crazy For You is a revisal of Girl Crazy. It's really not. The shows have very very little in common. (4 songs, to be exact - and one of them, "Bidin' My Time," has no ladies in it. And any trace of the character Merman originally played is gone. The other 13 or so songs in Crazy For You have nothing to do with Girl Crazy's score.)

 

Encores did do a concert version of Girl Crazy in 2009. I think that's the event you missed. Not this one.

 

No disagreement here, at least none intended. Just that I think you're looking for a different musical.

[+ WilliamM]

But I think you're under the mistaken impression that Crazy For You is a revisal of Girl Crazy. It's really not.

 

I know it's not a revisal of "Girl Crazy." On a daily basis, I read all the Broadway chat boards, especially TalkinBroadway/all that chat. I know all about revisals as opposed to revivals.

 

I graduated Boston College and saw as many Broadway tryouts as possible, including "Funny Girl," "Subways are for Sleeping," "Flora the Red Menace" "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" and many others. I saw the OBC of Miller's "After The Fall' in NYC although it was playing off Broadway, but missed Kim Stanley in "Three Sisters" I have seen nearly every Sondheim musicals, including the original cast of "Merrily......"

 

@Benjamin_Nicholas , I am sorry for moving your thread in this direction.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Way to overthink this one guys...

 

This is a silly tap-dance musical with a fantastic cast, original director/choreographer Susan Stroman at the helm and truly beautiful music. Who could ask for anything more?

[bostonman]

[sigh emoticon...] - I dunno what's wrong with a discussion. Isn't that what this board is all about? I guess I'm just confused, William, as to your initial mention of Girl Crazy. That's all. I'm still confused as to why you would bring that show up. But let's just leave it alone at this point as I'm obviously ruffling all sorts of feathers that I didn't mean to.

 

Way to overthink this one guys...

This is a silly tap-dance musical with a fantastic cast, original director/choreographer Susan Stroman at the helm and truly beautiful music. Who could ask for anything more?

 

True, lol. And I do think the score has some clever moments, especially the way they sneak in some other Gershwin melodies (the Concerto in F, the "Rialto Ripples Rag" etc). I do think the choral arrangements could have been much richer, and I do think Ludwig's book is extremely weak. But yes, it is a fun Gershwin tribute for sure, and it did launch Stroman's career.

[Marlfox]

In answer to the OP's original question - I'm going.

[+ WilliamM]

I dunno what's wrong with a discussion. Isn't that what this board is all about?

 

Yes. This conversation is in the ballpark of what Lucky wanted when he asked for this forum. I do realize I was guilty of going way off Benjamin's topic

[bostonman]

No worries, William - I always enjoy your posts on this forum, even when we don't seem to be quite on the same page.

 

BTW - a fun bit of Gershwin trivia - "I Got Rhythm" (which is one of the few songs that is in both shows being discussed here lol) was a landmark in many ways, one of which was the memorable lyric "who could ask for anything more." But Ira Gershwin would use this lyric in 2 other songs - what were they? And bonus points for identifying the other song by a theatre composer/lyricist who quoted the same lyric in one of his own songs. (Which ironically enough, provides a very different connection to the musical phrase "Crazy For You" lol.)

[+ WilliamM]

BTW - a fun bit of Gershwin trivia - "I Got Rhythm" (which is one of the few songs that is in both shows being discussed here lol) was a landmark in many ways, one of which was the memorable lyric "who could ask for anything more." But Ira Gershwin would use this lyric in 2 other songs - what were they? And bonus points for identifying the other song by a theatre composer/lyricist who quoted the same lyric in one of his own songs. (Which ironically enough, provides a very different connection to the musical phrase "Crazy For You" lol.)

 

I would have to listen to all four CDs from the Ella Fitzgerald George and Ira Gershwin Songbook to give an answer. And even then, it is possible Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics for another composer. Since you mentioned "theatre composer/lyricist," Irving Berlin would be my guess.

[bostonman]

I would have to listen to all four CDs from the Ella Fitzgerald George and Ira Gershwin Songbook to give an answer. And even then, it is possible Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics for another composer. Since you mentioned "theatre composer/lyricist," Irving Berlin would be my guess.

 

Not quite. The other composer/lyricist wrote his song in question much later on - it's someone who is still very much with us. The hint is that the song was written for a film - something this particular writer has not done a whole lot of. (Again, the phrase "crazy for you" is a clue, unexpectedly so perhaps.)

 

As for the other 2 George/Ira songs that contain the lyric, one is a huge huge classic, the other would really only be known to someone who knows their stage works very well. But the particular show would be extremely ripe for revival right now given world events. ;-)

 

Oh - and the other huge classic song actually appears in Crazy For You (though not Girl Crazy), and the title also became the title of another less successful Gershwin "revisal."

[+ WilliamM]

@bostonman, it's no use. Who is the gentleman who does the quizzes sometimes mentioned on All That Chat? I remember posting how much I hated them. He invited to lunch because of my honesty.

[bostonman]

Go listen to a recording of "Nice Work If You Can Get It" and wait for the bridge. ;-)

 

The other is from the presidential satire "Of Thee I Sing" - when the First Lady saves the president from iminent impeachment by announcing her pregnancy (the senate rules they can't impeach an expectant father) as she sings in waltz time, "I'm about to have a baby...to love and adore. Who could ask for anything more?"

 

And - Sondheim wrote the song "More" for the film of Dick Tracy - the song being a wonderful bit of Gershwin pastiche which also quotes from Porgy And Bess as well as the lyric in question (and a bit of Berlin too). The song was sung by Madonna, who of course recorded the hit song "Crazy For You."

[body2body]

This is addressed to both @bostonman and @WilliamM, I heard many years ago that Rogers was the Lead in Girl Crazy

and Merman was the ingenue. Is this true?

[+ WilliamM]

This is addressed to both @bostonman and @WilliamM, I heard many years ago that Rogers was the Lead in Girl Crazy

and Merman was the ingenue. Is this true?

 

Yes, it was her first Broadway show. She became a star on opening night.

 

[bostonman]

This is addressed to both @bostonman and @WilliamM, I heard many years ago that Rogers was the Lead in Girl Crazy

and Merman was the ingenue. Is this true?

 

I wouldn't probably use the word "ingenue" as we tend to think of it (in terms of character type, that is - I tend to think that probably describes Rogers' role better) - she was more or less a gambler's moll turned brash entertainer (perhaps a foreshadowing of her role as evangelist turned nightclub singer 4 years later in Anything Goes?) - but yes, it was the role that made her an overnight sensation.

[+ WilliamM]

but yes, it was the role that made her an overnight sensation.

 

Eight years later the same thing happened to Mary Martin on opening night of Cole Porter's "Leave It To Me!" The song was "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." Strangely "Girl Crazy" and "Leave it To Me" were both produced by Vinton Freedley.

 

Martin was coy, likable and rich; she and her husband owned part of the right to "The Sound of Music." And her son, Larry Hagman of "Dallas" because as famous as Mary.

[+ WilliamM]

 

"Crazy for You" Paper Mill production in full.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

The nearly fully-staged concert last night was brilliant. How can you not love Gershwin music paired with triple-threat performers?

 

Based on the heavy hitter audience, I smell a revival. With Stroman staying with the show, I'd guess Mel Brooks would be an easy investor.

 

http://www.broadwayworld.com/videoplay/BWW-TV-Go-K-ra-zy-for-Them-Watch-Highlights-of-Tony-Yazbeck-Laura-Osnes-More-in-CRAZY-FOR-YOU-20170220

[bostonman]

The nearly fully-staged concert last night was brilliant. How can you not love Gershwin music paired with triple-threat performers?

 

Based on the heavy hitter audience, I smell a revival. With Stroman staying with the show, I'd guess Mel Brooks would be an easy investor.

 

http://www.broadwayworld.com/videoplay/BWW-TV-Go-K-ra-zy-for-Them-Watch-Highlights-of-Tony-Yazbeck-Laura-Osnes-More-in-CRAZY-FOR-YOU-20170220

 

If they went for a revival, it would be very fun if Groener stayed as Zangler.

 

However, with the recent American In Paris, and the rather pale Nice Work If You Can Get It from a few seasons ago, is it the right time for yet another Gershwin remake, lol? (Not to say Gershwin isn't always welcome, but...)

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

If they went for a revival, it would be very fun if Groener stayed as Zangler.

 

However, with the recent American In Paris, and the rather pale Nice Work If You Can Get It from a few seasons ago, is it the right time for yet another Gershwin remake, lol? (Not to say Gershwin isn't always welcome, but...)

 

Actually, the timing is perfect. Girl Crazy/Crazy For You will fall into public domain within about 8 years. I'm sure the Gershwin estate would more than push for a revival, especially if the right group of producers stepped forward. Mel Brooks looked pretty pleased last night.