A cast of 37 and a 35-piece orchestra present the Oklahoma City University debut of the “riotously entertaining” romantic musical comedy "Crazy for You," April 12-14.
The Tony Award-winning show, which premiered on Broadway in 1992, features favorite show tunes from the decades-long career of George and Ira Gershwin. The score includes “I Got Rhythm,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” “But Not for Me,” “Embraceable You,” “Nice Work if You Can Get It” and “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
Performances are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with a 3 p.m. Sunday matinee, on the historic Kirkpatrick stage at OCU’s Wanda L. Bass School of Music, 2501 N. Blackwelder. Tickets ($14-28) are available from (405) 208-5227 or www.okcu.edu/tickets. Parking is free.
A free talk by guest director Dan Fishbach, founder of the Los Angeles Musical Theatre Studio, will be held 45 minutes before curtain. The creative team also features Jan McDaniel as music director and choreography by Aaron Pomeroy.
“This is an effervescent show, a zany salute to the optimistic musicals of the 1930s,” said David Herendeen, director of OCU’s Oklahoma Opera and Music Theater Company. “It tells the tale of a New York banker who travels to the sleepy mining town of Deadrock, Nevada, to foreclose on a rundown theater and immediately falls for a spunky hometown girl, who takes an instant dislike to him. Happily, complications ensue, identities are mistaken, singing and dancing erupt, and we are treated to a hit parade of Gershwin classics.”
After its Broadway opening, The New York Times critic Frank Rich called the musical “riotously entertaining” and praised it for combining “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 show is the finale for the 67th consecutive season of the Oklahoma Opera and Music Theater Company, the world’s oldest collegiate-based opera and music theater ensemble. The troupe has won seven National Opera Association production awards in the past six years.
For more news and performance information at the Wanda L. Bass School of Music, visit www.okcu.edu/music.
