By DANIEL HODSON
Scera Showhouse will fill its stage with toe-tapping, wild-west-singing performers in its newest production, “Crazy for You,” starting Friday, March 17.
“Crazy for You,” a 1992 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, was originally written in 1930 by George Gershwin and titled “Girl Crazy.”
Some of George and Ira Gershwin’s most famous songs: “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Embraceable You,” “I Can’t Be Bothered,” “I Got Rhythm,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” and “Nice Work If You Can Get It” are featured in the musical.
Director David Whitlock jokingly compared Gershwin’s music to “a fungus — a good fungus, if there is such a thing — that gets inside you and just keeps growing and growing until you are consumed by the wonderfulness of it all.”
Whitlock is also playing the lead, Bobby Child, who is a rich banker’s son sent to foreclose a mortgage on a property in Deadrock, Nev. The property turns out to be a theater. Bobby falls in love with Polly Baker, the postmistress whose father happens to own the theater.
In the end, Child decides to disguise himself as a Broadway producer to put on a show to save the theater, as well as his relationship with Baker.
Carlos Encinias, a senior from Albuquerque, N.M., majoring in music, dance and theater who is also the lead choreographer for the production, said “Crazy for You” is animated by a lot of dance numbers.
“We took a lot of ideas from the original Broadway production,” Encinias said. “We have a really strong cast — they have a lot of energy and contribute a lot.”
Mark Pulman, who plays the woman-chasing Bela Zangler, described the dancing as “exceptional.”
“I don’t dance — which may explain why I’m the topsy turvy guy,” Pulman said. “During one scene full of tapping, I hate to make my entrance and ruin the mood.”
Shows begin at 7:30 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays, March 17-April 8. Tickets are $10 and are available weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Scera, 745 S. State St., Orem. For more information, call 225-ARTS or 225-2569.
