Gaga for Gershwin The populist appeal of Crazy For You BY JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ

When the late director Mike Ockrent and the playwright Ken Ludwig decided to rework George and Ira Gershwin’s 1934 hit Girl Crazy, they hung onto the basic plot of a New York song-and-dance man finding his true love in a one-horse Western town and they grabbed a half-dozen tunes from that show. They rounded up another dozen-plus Gershwin numbers from Hollywood films and from little-known stage productions, and they brought in Susan Stroman to do the choreography. The result was Crazy For You, the 1992 Tony Award-winning musical. Revivals of that early ’90s show have hit the road over the past few years, and one of those national tours will make a two-night stop at the Providence Performing Arts Center.

Crazy For You is a true Gershwin fest, with "Embraceable You" and "I Got Rhythm" from the original show and "They Can’t Take That Away From Me," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," and "Someone to Watch Over Me" from Hollywood movies. Those songs set up several tender duets and lots of dynamic dancing. For the current nine-month tour, New York-based director and choreographer Joey McKneely was asked to re-stage the show, rehearse new dances (Stroman’s choreography was unavailable), and rethink the direction of a production that would travel with scaled-down sets.

McKneely, who hit the Big Apple as a New Orleans-born-and-bred 18-year-old, refers to himself as a "Saturn-returns kinda guy," referring to Saturn’s seven-year-cycle, since he danced in Broadway musicals for seven years, then choreographed for seven, and is now in the midst of directing for the next seven. He has staged a production of West Side Story at Milan’s La Scala and will take it to China in the fall. He has also directed a national tour of Annie Get Your Gun and choreographed The Boy from Oz. The following conversation took place by phone, smack in the middle of McKneely auditioning hundreds of young hopefuls for a tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Q: What changes did you make to the original choreography?

A: I knew the essence of the show, so I tried to stay true to its form. You don’t all of a sudden do Fosse-style to Gershwin. I tried to stay in the style but do my own stuff with my own steps. I respect Stroman tremendously, and I wouldn’t want to copy her.

Q: What about the direction?

A: I wanted to make it accessible for today’s audience; to make sure that I’m telling the story correctly. It’s very much of a farce, and I’ve tried to keep the pace up. Plus I love the comic aspect, so every laugh I can mine out of it, I try to.

Q: What do you think makes Gershwin still so popular with audiences?

A: Basically, it’s honest, it’s very heartfelt. They deal with the basic emotions of love, human beings connecting, joy, happiness, all the simple emotions. And the music is so beautiful that as soon as you hear the music, with the lyrics that Ira wrote so skillfully, you feel everything you need to feel. It doesn’t turn off anybody, like, for instance, rock music. There’s a certain population that immediately turns off to that, ‘cause it’s not accessible to them; they don’t understand it. With Gershwin, everyone understands and feels.

Q: What’s the number that brings down the house?

A: In this production, they mainly respond to the ballads a lot, because they’re very honest to the emotion of wanting love or having their heart broken. Everyone either pines for love, is in love, or used to be in love. And of course, the "I Got Rhythm" section at the end of Act One because of the big explosive dance that happens.

And I get a great response off "Naughty Baby." I did a take on it which is a little different, because I have a performer with great danceability, so I was able to do a comic S&M number. And the audience hoots and hollers, because it comes out of left field.

Q: What’s your favorite number?

A: Actually the finale, which is usually just a curtain call. I took it to the next step because I made it a wedding. I needed a reason for dance at the end, so even though it’s a curtain call, I think the wedding is fun.

Crazy For You will be presented at the Providence Performing Arts Center on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m. Call (401) 421-ARTS.