WATCH: Rhythm, Starlight, Music…who could ask for anything more?

Theatre Royal: Crazy for You.

When the heavens roll back and the stars align, you get shows like Jack Cunningham’s, 'Crazy for You'. 

There’s a buzz in the foyer on opening night and a warm glow when the house curtain goes out, the tabs go to crimson and that Gershwin magic goes to work on the brief overture.

'Crazy for You' is a 1992 reworking of the 1934 musical, 'Girl Crazy', with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by George Gershwin that includes six songs from the original show and a selection of other Gershwin tunes from other shows, some of which were thought lost or others that had never been published. It won the Tony Award on Broadway and the Olivier Award in the West End for Best Musical.

The plotline is straight out of the 1930s lets-do-a-musical-and-save-the-theatre genre with the central characters falling in and out of love at the drop of a Stetson and misadventure, misunderstanding and mistaken identity drive the paper-thin story onwards.

Set in the Great Depression, it follows stage-struck Bobby Child (Conor Lyons) who is sent by his profit-driven banker mother (Clare Smith) to foreclose a theatre in the nowhere Nevada town of Deadrock. Bobby immediately falls in love with feisty Polly (Jennifer White) and together save her father’s theatre (Dermot Sullivan) with a hit musical. It’s a simple plot that allows snappy wise-cracks, hilarious characters, visual gags, catchy tunes, busy chorus and dance routines to die for.

Dance is at the heart of this show and Jack Cunningham’s choreography is a dancing feast. The energy is infectious and makes the show more of a show of dance than song. The routines are endlessly inventive. Constant change leaves us with that what-comes-next question all night. There are endless tap routines that happen everywhere – chairs, tables, barrels—and it’s all effortless and breathtakingly athletic. Chorus lines weave in and out, principals swirl around in ballroom routines, dancers swing on gold miner’s pickaxes, Joe Shanahan duets with a double bass and ballet movements adds that extra touch of class. 'I Got Rhythm', stopped the show cold for a full three minutes for an Act One Finale.

The show just wouldn’t work without two superb principals who can both sing act and dance spectacularly. Conor Lyons brings an astonishing balance, endless energy and effortless class to all his dancing numbers and his comic drunken scene with his stage double is hilarious. Conor’s Bobby comes alive when he’s dancing as he spins and floats across the stage and his smile and enthusiasm wins hearts in Deadrock and on the Mall.

Jennifer White’s feisty Polly is excellent as Bobby’s love interest. Their routines and comic interplay forms the glue that binds this show together and Polly gets to deliver some belt soprano numbers like 'I Got Rhythm' along with the sublime 'Someone To Watch Over Me'.

This is a difficult show. Jack Cunningham confided that it was six months in planning, I wasn’t in the least surprised. It’s long and wordy and multi-locational and needs to move. Jamie Roche and John Grubb’s set design is precise, workmanlike and cleverly crafted. Thirties-style mining town Deadrock turns quickly into backstage bric-a-brac rehearsal rooms and dressed Broadway stages with ease and Craig Cunningham’s lighting plot drenches scenes in colour and mood unnoticed. Sean O’Sullivan’s sound plot is seamless.

Jack Cunningham’s costume design is a visual delight. Floating sequins, enormous feathered fans, white three-piece suits give the Broadway scenes a dreamy, silver, silent, screen patina while snappy, fresh cowboy outfits lift Deadrock out of its Depression-era gloom.

Every aspect of this show is spot on. There’s not a weak performance. Jonathan Kelly plays his best role to date as an over-the-top Bela Zangler; Trish Orpen is Irene, the Rottweiler with lip-gloss until she discovers her bit of rough in Kieran Walsh’s hapless Lank Hawkins; Ann-Marie Collins is excellent as she weaves her way in and out of the chorus as Tess as does Holly Grant as Tess.

There’s also a fine list of minor principles. Dermot Sullivan and Clare Smith are hardnosed bankers as Everett Baker and Mrs Lottie Child; Liam Steenson, Mark Rellis and Joe Shanahan are everywhere as Sam, Mingo and Moose while Phil Erskine and Ciara Giles are superb as the hapless Brits that show up in Deadrock as tourists.

We also have fine performances from Ellen Jacob (Mitzi), Jack McGrath (Harry), Sam Horsfall (Wyatt), Fred Kennedy (Junior) and Ed Whelan (Pete). The choruses give the show its power and Musical Director Emma Walsh draws fine singing performances from them.

I stood on the Mall with a smile on my face, a song on my lips and that warm feeling that I had spent an evening in the golden age of an MGM musical.