EVEN if London is overstuffed with musicals, I would still urge everyone to head to the Gillian Lynne Theatre to see Crazy For You. This confection of old numbers by George and Ira Gershwin, with a new book by Ken Ludwig and revived by Susan Stroman, was first seen in New York in 1992. It is funny, glamorous, inventive and just the tonic we need in these cheerless times.
What Mr Ludwig has done is provide a new thread on which to string together a number of Gershwin pearls. The story, such as it is, concerns a stage-struck Manhattan kid who ends up in a rundown Nevada mining town where he rescues a bankrupt was a metaphor for cultural renewal in harsh economic times. That may be so, but what really draws us is the chance to hear classic Gershwin songs—such as and—and to relish dance routines that induce a kind of ecstasy.
