“Crazy For You,” the classic musical of George Gershwin, was performed this week by Mingus Union High School students. The play tells the story of Bobby Child, [played by Preston Chalmers], a theaterobsessed New York banker who travels across the country to the quiet desert town of Deadrock, Nev.
With him, Child brings classic show tunes, elaborate tap dances and a collection of Jazz Age flapper girls in great costumes.
In a predictable but enjoyable musical-farce plot, the combination of theatrical magic and the budding romance with small town girl Polly Baker [Audrey Wooden], Child must save the town from its dead end rut, and himself from his unhappy life as a banker back East.
Cottonwood is not quite Deadrock. For one thing, the town has electricity, and there is a bit more going on throughout the town than a collection of aimless men sitting around singing. However, for two-and-a-half hours, the small, desert town of Cottonwood is brought to life by Broadway magic.
“Crazy For You,” directed and conducted by James Ball, the Mingus theater director, is the kind of story where, facing defeat, everyone in town finishes up act one not by solving their problems, but by tap dancing for eight minutes and singing “I’ve got rhythm!” in multipart harmony until they feel better.
Also, while Baker sings perhaps her most spectacular romantic solo, “Embraceable You,” Child is comically disguised as the theater director Bella Zangler and ruins it with awkward protestations that keep the audience laughing.
Every prop on stage becomes part of a complicated dance number, and even small parts like Irene, [Malia Duarte] — Child’s unloved fiancee — get a chance to bring the house down with a solo. From the dancing to the music, the play offers something than many can appreciate.
“I’m not really a musical person, but this makes up for it,” said Shane Harder, a freshman at Mingus who attended the play and had worked on some of the sets.
Despite Child going through his fair share of mishaps throughout the play, a goofy grin never leaves the face of Chalmers, a junior at Mingus who plays Child.
Chalmers brings dorky charisma and youthful earnestness to the part, and highlights what a high school production is capable of doing, which a professional production may not be able to achieve.
But, there is a hint of Broadway professionalism. Wooden, who plays Baker — a lone woman holding her own in a town full of men — has her fare share of moments on stage. When the lights go down, Wooden escapes from her surroundings, and lays out a solo that makes the audience forget they’re watching fake sets on a high school stage.
Wooden, a senior, has been accepted to the American Music and Dance Academy in New York City this fall, and her talent shows as she holds her own during songs like “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
“Crazy for You” may show off the benefits of Broadway singers coming to small desert towns like Cottonwood, but with any luck, Wooden could prove the benefit of sending someone from the West to Broadway instead.
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
