Shh! Don’t tell “Chicago” murderess Roxy Hart that there’s a production of “Crazy for You” in Bloomington that centers the musicians onstage the way her show does on Broadway. No telling what that sexy killer might think or do.
But the rest of us can smile and be charmed.
Anita Ruth, who spearheaded the music for decades at Artistry, has returned as a guest conductor with a 20-piece orchestra that dominates two-thirds of the stage at the Bloomington Center for the Arts. And that nod to the glory days of showbiz is apt. Ruth’s lush and robust music adds to the flair of this version of “Crazy” that includes some arresting tap dance.
The stakes in “Crazy” are less grave than the scandalous murder at the heart of Kander and Ebb’s “Chicago.” In “Crazy,” playwright Ken Ludwig cooked up a trite, fanciful book centered on Bobby Child, a bratty Harvard youngster torn between his love for theater and going into the family’s banking business.
When his mother sends him to Deadrock, Nev., to foreclose on a playhouse, Bobby (Kyle Weiler) becomes smitten with Polly (Annika Isbell), daughter of the theater’s owner.
Ludwig’s true intent was to create a vehicle for us to hear the lush melodies and clever lyrics of George and Ira Gershwin. At Artistry, tunes such as “Embraceable You,” “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” are delivered with sweetness and panache.
Director Ben Bakken has his players sit onstage when they are not performing. The set pieces are minimal — there’s no space for anything except for a few chairs that the performers move around. But there’s plenty of room for energy and theatrical invention, and this “Crazy” has both in spades, from the music to the dance choreographed by Weiler and Elly Stahlke.
A relative newcomer, Isbell acquits herself with grace. She delivers a heartfelt “Someone to Watch Over Me.” (And in a sweet sidenote, she acts opposite France Roberts, who plays her father. Roberts was Isbell’s first-grade teacher in real life, and he inspired her to pursue theater when she saw him perform all those years ago.)
