Crazy for You
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend on Sea
26th - 30th September 2017
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend on Sea
26th - 30th September 2017
The Crazy for You Tour is stopping off at Southend’s Cliffs Pavilion all this week and will be putting on 8 performances which includes three matinees.
The high energy, high kicking show is billed as the ultimate feel good musical and despite a half hour delay, due to technical problems on opening night here in Southend, this certainly was indeed the case. The gloriously glamorous Crazy for You was actually written in the nineties as a co-conception by Ken Ludwig and Mike Ockrent using the music and lyrics of the late, great George and Ira Gershwin and based loosely on the Girl Crazy musical film of the 1940s.
Tom Chambers plays Bobby Child, the New York banker sent to Nevada to foreclose on a theatre in which he’d rather be performing in as opposed to closing it down and Charlotte Wakefield plays Polly, the theatre owner’s daughter. The two are brought together through a series of amusing mishaps and misunderstandings. They are a perfect pairing.
The storyline is as cheesy as they come but pulls out all the nostalgia of yester-year to bring back those reminiscent old musical movie moments where all of life's problems could be solved simply by ‘putting on a show’; after all, as one character informs us, “Mickey Rooney used to do it all the time.”
Tom Chambers shows off his singing and dancing skills to the max, endorsing his “Best Actor in a Musical’ Olivier nomination for the role of Jerry Travers in Top Hat. He is more than matched by Charlotte Wakefield, playing Polly with great gusto and whose musical numbers really stood out. She certainly has a most beautiful and powerful voice.
There was great anticipation for Caroline Flack who is appearing for the first time in a musical theatre role, despite having graduated from drama school. She didn’t disappoint in the small but fun role of Irene and looked like she was in her element performing her song Naughty Baby, which really showed off her warm, husky singing tones.
The real stars of the show, however, are the ensemble cast who work their butts off in this show. They provide the full triple threat of acting, singing and dancing as well as adding a quadruple threat with their outstanding musicianship. Arthur Boan, Daniel Bolton, Hollie Cassar, Abi Casson Tompson, Neil Ditt, Kate-Anne Fenton, Christopher Fry, Stacey Ghent, Matthew James Hinchliffe, Kieran Kuypers, Kate Milner-Evans, Emma Jane Morton, Kate Robson-Stuart, Ned Rudkins-Stow, Seren Sandham-Davies and Mark Sangster all do the most wonderful jobs of sustaining the energy and enthusiasm that this show creates whilst at the same time providing such an amazing sound from the instruments they play live on stage; you can’t quite actually believe that there isn’t an orchestra in the pit.
This is a really fun show with some nice staging, slick choreography and inventive direction all combined with a great Gershwin score which includes, Someone to Watch Over Me, Embraceable You, I Got Rhythm, They Can’t Take That Away from Me, But Not For Me and Nice Work if You Can Get It.
You really can’t help but be crazy for Crazy for You.
For tickets go online to www.southendtheatres.org.uk or call the box office on 01702 351135
The high energy, high kicking show is billed as the ultimate feel good musical and despite a half hour delay, due to technical problems on opening night here in Southend, this certainly was indeed the case. The gloriously glamorous Crazy for You was actually written in the nineties as a co-conception by Ken Ludwig and Mike Ockrent using the music and lyrics of the late, great George and Ira Gershwin and based loosely on the Girl Crazy musical film of the 1940s.
Tom Chambers plays Bobby Child, the New York banker sent to Nevada to foreclose on a theatre in which he’d rather be performing in as opposed to closing it down and Charlotte Wakefield plays Polly, the theatre owner’s daughter. The two are brought together through a series of amusing mishaps and misunderstandings. They are a perfect pairing.
The storyline is as cheesy as they come but pulls out all the nostalgia of yester-year to bring back those reminiscent old musical movie moments where all of life's problems could be solved simply by ‘putting on a show’; after all, as one character informs us, “Mickey Rooney used to do it all the time.”
Tom Chambers shows off his singing and dancing skills to the max, endorsing his “Best Actor in a Musical’ Olivier nomination for the role of Jerry Travers in Top Hat. He is more than matched by Charlotte Wakefield, playing Polly with great gusto and whose musical numbers really stood out. She certainly has a most beautiful and powerful voice.
There was great anticipation for Caroline Flack who is appearing for the first time in a musical theatre role, despite having graduated from drama school. She didn’t disappoint in the small but fun role of Irene and looked like she was in her element performing her song Naughty Baby, which really showed off her warm, husky singing tones.
The real stars of the show, however, are the ensemble cast who work their butts off in this show. They provide the full triple threat of acting, singing and dancing as well as adding a quadruple threat with their outstanding musicianship. Arthur Boan, Daniel Bolton, Hollie Cassar, Abi Casson Tompson, Neil Ditt, Kate-Anne Fenton, Christopher Fry, Stacey Ghent, Matthew James Hinchliffe, Kieran Kuypers, Kate Milner-Evans, Emma Jane Morton, Kate Robson-Stuart, Ned Rudkins-Stow, Seren Sandham-Davies and Mark Sangster all do the most wonderful jobs of sustaining the energy and enthusiasm that this show creates whilst at the same time providing such an amazing sound from the instruments they play live on stage; you can’t quite actually believe that there isn’t an orchestra in the pit.
This is a really fun show with some nice staging, slick choreography and inventive direction all combined with a great Gershwin score which includes, Someone to Watch Over Me, Embraceable You, I Got Rhythm, They Can’t Take That Away from Me, But Not For Me and Nice Work if You Can Get It.
You really can’t help but be crazy for Crazy for You.
For tickets go online to www.southendtheatres.org.uk or call the box office on 01702 351135
Ask the Audience
|
Joanne Kelly, 50, Chelmsford
“I was really impressed with the singing and dancing but what I really liked was the instruments that they played on stage. All credit to those guys who can actually play the instruments. It was excellent and it wasn’t really intrusive. I thought the story was good. A simple storyline but I liked the singing and dancing and would definitely recommend it.” |
Check out our interview with Tom and Charlotte below