‘Crazy for You’ performance on Hilton Head hits all the marks for unforgettable Gershwin

Prepare to be amazed!

The celebrated Southeastern Summer Theatre Institute presented a series of stand out performances of the new Gershwin musical comedy “Crazy for You” Friday night at the Seahawk Cultural Center on Hilton Head Island.

Our opening night audience responded with spontaneous enthusiasm to the spirited production throughout the evening and were on their collective feet during the much of the reprise, finale and curtain calls as they enjoyed the brilliant reminders of the over the top classical musical comedy and its attendant vitality.

This is the second production by the youthful theater professionals, and happily, they will offer one more weekend of “Crazy for You” performances Aug. 6 and 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Aug. 8 at 1 p.m. Ticket information is available at www.hhisummermusicals.com.

Based on the George and Ira Gershwin Tony Award-winning musical “Girl Crazy,” first produced in 1930, our “Crazy for You” is a redo, a kind of revival in the broadest sense of the word. All of the elements that carried “Girl Crazy” over the top with awards are present in our “Crazy for You” but with a new plotline and an entirely new set of possibilities for everyone, including director/choreographer Joe Barros, music director Andrew Austin, scenic designer Matthew Imhoff, and especially the 40 SSTI young actors and dancers in front of the curtain as well as the backstage crew.

“Crazy for You,” which opened on Broadway in 1992, also won a passel of Tony Awards and offered a long season followed by additional performances around the globe. And, the productions continue throughout the country, all of these years later.

Now would be the perfect time to point out that the SSTI production is totally on the mark. The unrelenting good humor takes our musical comedy to the top of the chart. We in the audience bought in completely when a young New York banker and a spunky post office worker with knock out red hair living in Deadrock, Nevada, meet, fall in and out and in love again, and work together to save a theater, and, ultimately, a town and several of the people in it. Who knew? Wait until you find yourself in the Gaiety Theater in Deadrock, Nevada and near the adjoining saloon and hotel. Or surrounded by the most incredible cowboys and chorus girls, all of whom dance and sing and entertain at the drop of a gunshot!

Filled to the brim with Gershwin tunes, “Crazy for You” will delight and entertain you as you take in every song, every dance, every tap presentation.

All of the critical elements of a classic musical comedy presented themselves through the evening, and Friday night’s performance established a high standard. There was incredible music (Gershwin hits extracted and borrowed from other shows). There was dancing (the most amazingly choreographed moves). There was tapping. (We in the audience were mesmerized by the unrelenting synchronization.)

That said, I must share my short list of moments that were simply show-stopping. I can’t wait for you to see “I Got Rhythm” incredibly performed in a variety of formats. “Slap That Bass (Zoom Zoom Zoom)” with the company, then as solos and duets “Embraceable You,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” and so many more.

The music continued in my memory as I exited the theater, greeting other first-nighters: ”Who Could Ask for Anything More?”