Crazy for ‘Crazy for You’

I was rewarded with the opportunity this past Wednesday, March 21, to see an early showing of the musical comedy being put on by the Rose-Hulman Drama Club, “Crazy For You,” based on the musical by Gershwin.

I hadn’t seen this musical before and was greatly surprised by how impressively everything was done. It is always amazing for me to watch the musicals put on by the Drama Club, which take countless hours of students’ time, but which are impressive and worth seeing.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, it is based in the 1930’s (and the costumes show it well) and takes place in New York and Nevada. The lead character, Bobby Child (played by senior Eric Volz, a mechanical engineering major) is heir to a wealthy banking family who desires to be in show business. He attempts to impress Bella Zangler, owner of the Zangler Theatre in New York City (played by junior applied biology major David Bander) but fails miserably. Bobby travels to Deadrock, Nevada, a has-been mining town with only a local theatre and an inn, to shut down the theatre. Here Bobby meets Polly Baker (played by sophomore mechanical engineer Meganne Greenwell) who is the only woman for hundreds of miles around. He helps her put on a show in the hope that it will help the townspeople.

The musical is full of dancing, tapping, clogging, gunfights, plot twists, and plenty of singing. The songs really fit the musical, and help to develop the characters. I thought the choreography and singing were very impressive.

The cowboys had a wide variety of roles to keep things interesting, and did an excellent job of entertaining me. Many folly girls did impressive dance numbers throughout the entire musical. The small bits of comedy put on by the cowboys and folly girls were quite entertaining.

The only thing that didn’t sit well with me was that it felt like there were times when the dancing was carried out for too long. It didn’t hurt the play, but I sat there and wondered at times if it would ever end.

This performance is the last musical for the seniors and an enjoyable one at that. I’d highly recommend this musical to everyone that enjoys a good laugh, singing and dancing, and fun entertainment for over two and a half hours.