STAGE REVIEW: Crazy For You - at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, Tuesday, January 30, to Saturday, February 3, 2018.

TAPPERIFIC! It’s the only way to describe this joyful and wonderful production.

Take a Gershwin musical - add exuberance and colour, and a huge dollop of fun that is laid on thickly by the spadeful … and you have a successful night of music and dance.

The story centres around a young New Yorker, Bobby Child, a banker who harbours dreams of dancing and performing on stage.

He is sent to a small run-down town called Deadrock to foreclose on a failing theatre, but when he gets there he decides to put on a spectacular show to save the the town’s place of entertainment with the assistance of an oddball Hungarian impresario called Bela Zangler performed by Neil Ditt.

The whole show is packed with vibrant, toe-tapping fun from start to finish.

It consists of an immensely talented cast who not only expertly played a variety of musical instruments, they also danced, acted and sung with total professionalism. Their enthusiasm was totally infectious and theirs, and the rest of the cast’s efforts, led to prolonged spontaneous standing ovation at the finale.

Tom Chambers took on the role of Bobby Child and provided a performance of song and dance with considerable energetic flair.

His love interest, Polly, daughter of the owner of the threatened theatre, was played by Charlotte Wakefield who proved to be equally impressive with bags of energy and fun.

One of the music world’s leading lights for the last couple of decades, Claire Sweeney, was Bobby's fiancé, Irene, who ultimately but not unexpectedly loses out to Polly. As befits a star of her stature she provided exactly what was expected. A talented lady with a fine voice and a considerable stage presence.

Plenty of classic Gershwin musical numbers - most of which were easily recognisable such as Embraceable You, I Got Rhythm, Naughty Baby, They Can’t Take That Away From Me and many more.

Great fun, fancy footwork, and a delightful evening of memorable music and quality voices.

A totally uplifting night which sent the spirits soaring.

VRW