By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Saturday 1 July (matinee), runs through 20 January 2024 RUNTIME: 165 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) Update: now closing 31 December 2023

Channelling Michael Crawford as Frank Spencer, Norman Wisdom and Tommy Steele, Blackheath’s Charlie Stemp is an unconventional leading man although he was nominated for a Best Actor in a Musical Olivier for Half A Sixpence.

• Read on for reasons including how Stemp is the early favourite for the Best Actor in a Musical Olivier in 2024

We last saw Stemp star in Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre) and here he plays theatre-mad Bobby Child who is torn between his showbusiness dreams and running the family bank.

Premiered in Chichester last summer, Crazy For You contains Gershwin melodies including Someone To Watch Over Me, I Got Rhythm and They Can’t Take That Away From Me but it’s Stemp’s dancing that you will most remember from this effervescent musical fizzing with fun and exuberant setpieces.

Crazy For You has a book by Ken Ludwig and music and lyrics by Ira and George Gershwin that is based largely on their 1930 musical Girl Crazy.

Stemp plays Bobby who falls in musical love with Bella Zangler’s theatrical Follies yet is forced by his family into a banking job that sees him arriving in Deadrock, Nevada on a mission to either close the town’s under-threat theatre or putting on a show to save it from financial ruin.

There he meets Polly Baker played by Carly Anderson (Sunset Boulevard, London Coliseum) who rebuffs him but when he impersonates Zangler and starts to turn the theatre around she starts to fall for the man she assumes is Zangler thanks to his community spiritedness.

Stemp jumps higher and with more beauty, grace and poise than any other musical theatre actor we can think of and it’s his astonishing athletic yet elegant performance that you will most remember this re-fashioned musical for.

He’s not only a dancer but a fine actor and his comedy chops have been buffed beautifully thanks to appearances in 3 recent London Palladium pantomimes.

We’ve seen his Dick in Dick Whittington (‘And he goes like a train you know’), his Prince in Snow White and Pantoland at the Palladium (Clary’s in cracking form as the Covid monitor. ‘It’s either a prick in the hand or a probe down the throat. Charlie Stemp likes both.’) where he submits himself to Julian Clary’s withering put-downs.

Beyond the big song and dance numbers we thought Natalie Kassanga was especially entertaining singing the rather saucy Naughty Baby and Rina Fatania made for a comic highlight as lost-in-Deadrock tourist Patricia Fodor while ensemble member Lucas Koch as Sam also caught our eye.

Stemp has got to be an early favourite for the Best Actor in a Musical Olivier in 2024 for his brilliant turn and this lively, fun and impressively danced musical may well fulfil, and exceed, the astonishing 8-month run at this sizeable venue that it is currently booking for.

Definitely 1 to take all the family to and to revel in just how old-school yet satisfying the whole package is.

• Main picture by via Crazy For You and Facebook courtesy Gillian Lynne Theatre Tickets
• Have you seen a show at the Gillian Lynne Theatre or starring Charlie Stemp? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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