CRAZY
FOR YOU
CAODS
at the Civic Theatre
28.09.13
Cowboys,
chorus girls and all those Gershwin tunes ! Who could ask for
anything more … ?
Sallie
Warrington's tremendous production for CAODS didn't miss a trick: the
comedy, the glamour, the backstage clichés, all immaculately brought
to life on our Civic stage, with Patrick Tucker's pitful of musicians
adding extra gloss.
Two
excellent players in the leading roles. Christie Hooper as Polly,
born with vaudeville in her blood, and entrusted with many of the
best numbers, including a superbly sung Someone To Watch Over Me.
She's rescued from Nevada obscurity by Bobby Child, sent to repossess
the Gaiety for his New York bank. He was played with a bouncy,
puppyish enthusiasm by Young Gen veteran Henri de Lausun, who clearly
has musical theatre in his genes, too, hoofing and delivering his
duets with confidence and charisma. Their on-stage affair was a
delight from the first coup-de-foudre, through the dewy-eyed
dance-off to the lump-in-the-throat moment when he finally gets his
girl before the Art Deco finale.
His
mirror number with his impresario alter ego Bela Zangler
[Kevin Richards] was neatly done, too. Another obscure song to emerge
sparkling was Stiff Upper Lip, initiated by the Fodors [Angela Broad
and Justin Oakley] and developed with imagination and style.
Among
the many polished performances: Karen Kelleher as a svelte Irene,
Jonathan Lloyd-Gane as the saloon owner, and John Cox as Moose.
But
it's the ensembles that make the show, from the brain-dead drifters
of Deadrock to the infectious tap-dancing energy of I Got Rhythm,
with its tin trays and its pick-axe swings.
production photograph: Christopher Yorke-Edwards
