Crazy For You/Malvern Theatres

HE’S had a string of song and dance successes in recent times and his showing on Strictly Come Dancing will certainly have done him no harm.

But this was always the big one for Tom Chambers, the fulfilment of a lifetime’s ambition to play the lead role in this Gershwin classic.

And my, does he step up to the mark, right to the tips of those fabulous, flashy combination shoes!

Chambers plays the part of Bobby Child, a man who’s been sent out to Nevada in order to close a failing theatre. However, once there, he becomes distracted not only by the rootin’ tootin’ cowpoke life, but also by becoming intoxicated with the frontier charms of Polly (Charlotte Wakefield).

This is despite the fact that the ornery little mountain lion seems to have been cloned from Doris Day during her Deadwood Stage period. Yessir, she’s spikier than a cactus and meaner than a dogie that’s overdosed on loco weed.

Meanwhile, a voluptuous Claire Sweeney struts her decidedly impressive stuff as Irene, a glamorous back-east gal who has been unceremoniously and perhaps incongruously dumped by Child in favour of his bit of bunkhouse rough.

Not to be outdone, or indeed undone, she in turn ends up with the saloon keeper and they presumably ride off into the western sunset together.

Essentially, this Watermill Theatre production is a boy-meets-girl tale amid the tumbleweed, but what makes this show special are, of course, the immortal songs of George and Ira Gershwin.

All right, we should know them off by heart now, but there is an immortal magic and freshness to I Got Rhythm, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Shall We Dance? and Someone to Watch over Me, all numbers that conjure up 1930s hard times when people just wanted to get lost in song and make-believe.

This must-see show runs until Saturday (February 3). So hit the trail, folks!

John Phillpott