Susan Stroman directs ‘Crazy for You’ revival

Earlier this summer, Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie and Broadway producer Joey Parnes announced that the Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Crazy for You, will be produced by Center Theatre Group in an exclusive pre-Broadway engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre in 2018.

Susan Stroman—known for The Producers, Show Boat and Contact—was revealed as the director and choreographer of this limited Los Angeles engagement, which will begin performances February 7, 2018, and run through March 18, 2018. She won the first of her five Tony Awards for choreographing the original 1992 Broadway production of the musical, so in many ways she is coming full circle to now fully direct this revival.

She stated, “Crazy for You is – at its heart – a raucous musical tale about the power art has to bring life to a community and purpose to its people. It’s as resonant today as ever, and I am thrilled at the chance to re-discover this show and introduce a whole new generation to its great comedy, unabashed romance and the most choreographically-inspiring Gershwin music the world has ever known.”

Featuring a score of showstoppers by George and Ira Gershwin, including “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” “Slap That Bass” and “Someone To Watch Over Me,” Crazy for You is described as “an irresistibly funny valentine to the American musicals of the 1930s.”

The book by Ken Ludwig brings audiences into a world of cowboys and showgirls, where a Wall Street guy and a Main Street gal can fall madly in love, put on a show and dance their way to happiness.

Ludwig commented, “I’m thrilled that a whole new generation of theatregoers will get to see Crazy for You at the great and glorious Ahmanson Theatre. It will be a treat for me to roll up my sleeves, revisit the show and spend time once again in Deadrock, Nevada with Bobby, Polly and Bela Zangler.”

When Crazy for You first premiered on Broadway in 1992, Frank Rich raved in The New York Times, “When future historians try to find the exact moment at which Broadway finally rose up to grab the musical back from the British, they just may conclude that the revolution began last night. The shot was fired at the Shubert Theater, where a riotously entertaining show called Crazy for You uncorked the American musical’s classic blend of music, laughter, dancing, sentiment and showmanship with a freshness and confidence rarely seen… Crazy for You scrapes away decades of cabaret and jazz and variety-show interpretations to reclaim the Gershwins’ standards, in all their glorious youth, for the dynamism of the stage.”

The original show went on to win Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Choreography and Best Costume Design of a Musical, playing 1,622 performances.

This new production of Crazy for You will complete Center Theatre Group’s 2017–18 Season at the Ahmanson Theatre, which includes the previously announced production of The Red Shoes.

For information on tickets, visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org/Ahmanson.

Photo: Susan Stroman. Photo by Paul Kolnik.