Crazy For You is a pastiche of musicals from the 30s, using 18 songs by George and Ira Gershwin, the decade's hottest Broadway composers.
Bobby Childs is the son of a bank president who really just wants to dance in the shows of Bela Zangler, who thinks he's a moron. When he gets sent to Deadrock, Nevada to foreclose on a theater, he meets the local post officer, Polly, who just so happens to be the daughter of the theater owner. When Bobby and Polly fall in love, and Bobby tries to help her save the theater, hilarity and Gershwin music ensue.
First premiering on Broadway in 1992, the original show has been nominated for every category in the Tony Awards and won 3 of them, Best New Musical, Best Choreography and Best Costume Design. A West End production debuted a year later and has had a couple of revivals there in 2011 and 2023.
Crazy For You provides the following tropes:
- Excuse Plot: Typical of a 30s show, the plot and songs are segregated because the songs are the main draw (although unlike the actual 30s, the audience may or may not be aware of who the Gershwins are).
- Fauxreigner: Bobby pretends to be Bela Zangler in order to convince the Deadrock residents to put on a show in the old theater.
- Hey, Let's Put on a Show: Bobby wants to do this to save the theater, but Polly doubts it will work. Bobby lampshades it for her
- Jukebox Musical: For the songs of the Gershwin brothers. The original production was even billed as "The New Gershwin Musical Comedy".
- My Beloved Smother: Bobby's mom is bank president and has stopped him from marrying his fiancée for 5 years (not that it matters, since he doesn't love her anyways). She doesn't approve of Polly either, until she just so happens to fall in love with her father.
- Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: The cowboys.
- Saving the Orphanage: The plot revolves around saving a theater from bankers.
