Charlie Stemp & Carly Anderson to star in a revival of Crazy For You at Chichester Festival Theatre
Charlie Stemp and Carly Anderson will star in a revival of Crazy For You at Chichester Festival Theatre.
Celebrating the work’s 30th anniversary, the brand new production will run from 11 July to 4 September as part of Chichester Festival Theatre’s 60th anniversary season.
Charlie Stemp (Half A Sixpence, Mary Poppins) will star as Bobby Child with Carly Anderson (Wicked, Sunny Afternoon, Sunset Boulevard) as Polly Baker and Tom Edden (One Man, Two Guvnors) as Bela Zangler.
The full company is Marc Akinfolarin (Moose), Lila Anderson (Vera), Merryl Ansah (Irene Roth), Simon Anthony (Sam), Craig Bartley (Mingo), Jason Battersby (Junior), Evonnee Bentley-Holder (Sheila), Imogen Bowtell (Elaine), Kyle Cox (Wyatt), Mathew Craig (Lank Hawkins), Bethan Downing (swing), Jacqui Dubois (Patricia Fodor), Nicholas Duncan (Jimmy), Tom Edden (Bela Zangler), Nathan Elwick (Custus), Don Gallagher (Everett Baker), Adrian Grove (Eugene Fodor), Laura Hills (Mitzi), Ryan Jupp (swing), Matthew Malthouse (Pete), Nell Martin (swing/dance captain), Joshua Nkemdilim (Billy), Kate Parr (Patsy), Sadie-Jean Shirley (Tess), Gay Soper (Lottie Child), Bradley Trevethan (swing), Ella Valentine (Margie) and Tara Yasmin (Louise).
The revival will be directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman: true Broadway royalty and winner of five Tony and two Olivier Awards for productions including The Producers, Contact and The Scottsboro Boys.
Theatre-mad Bobby Child is torn between his show-business dreams and his rich, demanding New York fiancée and rich, demanding New York mother who want him to run the family bank. On his mother’s insistence, he reluctantly heads west for the bygone mining town of Deadrock, Nevada, to foreclose on a mortgage.
There he finds the mortgage in question is on a dilapidated Victorian theatre and the owner’s daughter Polly is the girl of his dreams. Desperate to prove his good faith and win her love, Bobby lights on the idea of putting on a show – complete with glamorous dancers from New York’s Follies – to save the theatre and renew the town…
This hilarious, riotously entertaining musical is packed with glorious Gershwin melodies (including Someone to Watch Over Me, Embraceable You, I Got Rhythm and They Can’t Take That Away from Me), and its stunning tap-dance routines are guaranteed to set the spirits soaring. The witty book and dialogue are written by Ken Ludwig, who also wrote this season’s Murder on the Orient Express and is the author of the Tony Award-winning Lend Me a Tenor.
The set designer is Beowulf Boritt; the costume designer is William Ivey Long; the lighting designer is Ken Billington, musical director, Alan Williams; with new orchestrations by Doug Besterman and Mark Cumberland, original orchestrations by William David Brohn, sound design by Kai Harada, new arrangements by David Krane, original arrangements by Peter Howard and casting by Jill Green CDG.
For tickets and more information, visit cft.org.uk
