Crazy for You: Notes from a Dramaturg (Part 3)

On November 18th, MSU's Department of Theatre and Dance and the John J. Cali School of Music open Crazy for You, the Tony Award-winning adaptation of the Gershwin musical comedy Girl Crazy. In her third installment for the Creative Edge, production dramaturg and MSU musical theatre student Kelly Lynn Karcher gives us an overview of both versions of this Gershwin classic.

To read more about the evolution of Girl Crazy into Crazy for You, click on the PDF link below to access Kelly's complete Crazy for You study guide.

Girl Crazy
The Gershwins’ Girl Crazy opened on Broadway on October 14, 1930, and incorporated elements of every precursor to traditional musical theatre. It was a burlesque of the western, poking fun at many stock character types. It also included some elements of political satire, which stemmed from the earlier burlesque tradition. The aim of the show was to entertain, in much the way that vaudeville and minstrel shows had done, exhibiting the flashy dance numbers of the former and the ethnic and racial humor of the latter. In this way, Girl Crazy was a stepping stone, paying homage to the traditions of 1920s musical theatre but also paving the way for what was to come.

Girl Crazy was the last Gershwin musical of its kind. The fun-loving, silly spirit that had given birth to the musical comedies of the 1920s was fading in favor of more “intelligent” work. A few months before Girl Crazy opened on Broadway, the Gershwins premiered their first political satire, Strike up the Band. After Girl Crazy, their writing would head further in this direction, resulting in Of Thee I Sing (1931), as well as several other satirical pieces.

Girl Crazy launched the careers of several performers and musicians who would eventually become household names. It was Ethel Merman’s first Broadway show and Ginger Rogers’s second. In the orchestra were the yet-unknown gems Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller. Girl Crazy also left us with more hit songs than any other Gershwin show, including the show-stopping number “I Got Rhythm,” leaving an indelible mark on American musical theatre and popular song.

Crazy for You
Crazy for You took Gershwin songs out of cabarets and concerts and put them back where they belong—on Broadway. According to Frank Rich, “The miracle that has been worked here…is to take some of the greatest songs ever written for Broadway and Hollywood and reawaken the impulse that first inspired them. ‘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” (“Review/Theater: Crazy for You; A Fresh Chorus of Gershwin on Broadway,” New York Times, Feb. 20, 1992). Finally, these songs were returned to the context they were intended for.

The creative team started with five songs and part of a sixth from Girl Crazy and added a dozen more Gershwin tunes, seven from shows and five from movies, to create the 26 that comprise the score of the so-called “New Gershwin Musical Comedy.” Gershwin favorites such as “Someone to Watch over Me” and obscurities such as “Naughty Baby” were taken from other Gershwin shows. Two songs, “Tonight’s the Night” and “What Causes That?,” were unearthed in a warehouse in Secaucus, NJ in 1982. The latter, a previous unknown, became the hit song of the show. Crazy for You thus introduced a new way of looking at older songs, both revitalizing and paying homage to an old art form. Check out Wikipedia’s article, “Crazy for You,” for a list of all the songs in the show and where each came from.

William D. Brohn, the show’s orchestrator, went beyond taking songs from old Gershwin musicals and also incorporated snippets of songs from other Gershwin pieces. George Gershwin’s “Concerto in F” makes an appearance in the second act’s “New York Interlude,” and “A Stairway to Paradise,” while never sung, is incorporated into multiple songs. Making appearances at the end of the “Overture,” the beginning of “Entrance to Nevada,” and the end of “I Got Rhythm,” it becomes the show’s unofficial theme song.

The context of each song was also modified significantly. According to Ken Ludwig, the show’s librettist, "We wanted audiences to believe that each song was written especially for 'Crazy for You'—that they couldn't possibly have come from anywhere else.... [One night] we overheard a couple talking about the show. The woman asked, 'Are George and Ira Gershwin still alive?' And her husband said, 'They must be. They're still writing musicals'" (from Crazy for You page of PBS’s Great Performances Web site).

The fusion of the Gershwins’ musical theatre pieces with snippets from George Gershwin’s classical works combines to create one beautiful salute to the Gershwins’ music and lyrics, bringing their lifetime of work together into one incredible tribute!
—Kelly Lynn Karcher

Up Next:
Excerpts from an exclusive interview with Angelique Ilo, dance captain of the original Broadway production of Crazy for You.