Alan Ilagan

One of the first shows I ever saw on Broadway was, fittingly, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. A mash-up of some of the best numbers Mr. Robbins had produced or choreographed over the ages, the show was a feel-good extravaganza. There was nothing too deep or profound about it, but the energy of the performers – that raw, naked power of singing and dancing in front of an audience, without the spectacle of hydraulics or special effects – was enough to plant the seed of a life-long love of anything theatrical. I was a boy then, equally enraptured by the lights and the gritty glitter of Times Square as I was by the magic I saw on stage that night. Since that first magical moment I’ve been transfixed and enthralled by musicals, and the way they can transport an audience to another time and place. As I matured over the years, so too did my tastes, but in the end it was the live energy and verve of a stage performance that always won me over. Every once in a while I’m reminded of that magic, and it happened last night at the Cohoes Music Hall where they are closing their 8th season with the Gershwin musical Crazy For You.

They don’t make musicals like they used to. Back then it was a simpler time, quaint in scope and purpose, and the shows were designed purely for entertainment, as a vehicle for a few choice songs, the best of which would become American standards. Whereas many of today’s shows rely on pathos and stark reality to connect with an increasingly jaded audience, the musicals of the past were crafted solely to entertain, and in many ways that is how the greatest musicals will always be made. Compared to modern shows, Crazy For You may not offer the harrowing plot or emotional mayhem that we might be used to, but for sheer joy, exuberance and entertainment it triumphs over most of today’s board-treading spectacles. This is talent at its most polished and perfected – and Crazy For You is a show that relies on the power of its performers to deliver impeccable singing and dancing.

With expert musical direction by Kevin Francis Finn and a top notch cast and brilliant cadre of musicians that we’ve come to expect from the Cohoes Music Hall, this show is winning on all levels. Everyone knows the folks at C-R Productions don’t mess around, and in this final show of their current season they bring to life a classical musical of surprisingly resonant themes while managing to provide the escapism so many of us crave. Crazy For You rests on traditional showmanship – the blood, sweat and tears of the proverbial triple-threat. The vocals, unaided by amplification, are strong, and the acting is more than adequate, but it’s the dancing that brings the house down. Ingeniously choreographed by Christopher George Patterson, it is that dancing alone which makes this a must-see, featuring extensive and intricate tap dancing sequences that leave performers and audience alike giddily breathless.

The tall lanky lead of Christopher Lengerich as Bobby Child is an ample match for the not-quite-Pollyanna act of Amy Prothro’s Polly Baker. Mr. Lengerich gives a thrilling tour de force performance, conquering both Bobby Child and the faux Bela Zangler while executing every precise tap step in perfect time without seeming to catch his breath. The rest of the ensemble shines in their individual moments, but it’s their collective work that conjures the often-elusive magic of theatrical transcendence.

This is a throwback to a better time – musical-wise if not world-wise. It was a time when a musical was there to take you away, to escape from the real world rather than to accurately represent it, and that’s the main difference between much contemporary and classic theater. I’m not saying one is better than the other (and the truth is I usually prefer the realism over escapism at this point in my life) but every now and then it’s reassuring to feel that transcendent thrill through the simple power of song and dance, and a few amazing performers.

{Crazy For You plays at the Cohoes Music Hall through May 22, 2011. For tickets, visit their website at www.cohoesmusichall.com}

It always happens at this time of the year – a January thaw to mess with the mind and cause all sorts of heaving, both literal and emotional. As the fog rolls over the snow, it’s a brief respite before we plunge into frigid depths again – and perhaps that’s the reason for it (though that certainly isn’t the case this year, as we haven’t managed to rise above the freezing point until now). For whatever reason, this is traditionally the time when I’ll have a bout with insomnia. I think it’s finally passed so I feel safe to write about it.

Insomnia and inclement weather go hand-in-hand, and a January thaw brings out the emotional bear in me. It’s the slightest tinge of Spring in the air that sets my seasonal-light-deprived brain aching for more, stirring all sorts of things and awakening long-lost memories of adolescent ache and angst.

It was 1985 and Madonna’s ‘Crazy For You’ was battling Samantha Fox’s ‘Touch Me’ for the number one spot on the Fly 92 Top Ten at Ten countdown. Dedications of love accompanied the former; lust dominated the latter. I was erring on the side of love, not quite old enough to recognize lust.

Swaying room as the music starts,

Strangers making the most of the dark,

Two by two their bodies become one.

I had a love-hate friendship with a classmate (meaning I must have had a crush on him, even if I didn’t yet know what a crush was). Fortunately, this was my only straight-boy crush, though at the time I didn’t even know I was gay, much less that I was going through a crush – so I suppose it doesn’t matter either way.

I alternately wanted to destroy him and get closer to him. I don’t know how that became part of my pathology, I don’t know what broke along the way, but like the ice on the sidewalk en route to his house, it cracked and shattered then and there and I’ve never been the same since.

I see you through the smoky air

Can’t you feel the weight of my stare?

You’re so close but still so far away,

What I’m dying to say is that I’m crazy for you

Touch me once and you’ll know it’s true

I never wanted anyone like this

You’ll feel it in my kiss

I’m crazy for you.

As I said, my feelings weren’t quite romantic – I was still too young to know that. I only knew that certain boys moved me more than anyone else, and it was only the boys who held me so enraptured. They seemed more vulnerable than the girls, more willing to wear their hearts on their sleeves, even if they got trounced on. I was more guarded, so there was something very appealing about that openness, even if it was something I would never display myself.

Trying hard to control my heart

I walk over to where you are

Eye to eye we meet no words at all

Slowly now we begin to move

Every breath I’m deeper into you

Soon we too are standing still in time

If you read my mind you’ll see I’m crazy for you.

The earliest thaw would bring the boys to our yard, well, our driveway really, as my brother had set up a basketball hoop that was low enough so that the tall kids could dunk it. I watched from afar, perched high above it all in the attic, peering down at the boys running and shooting and shouting, and longing to be able to access that easy camaraderie. It would never happen, not that way. I wasn’t tall, I had no interest in basketball, and the topics they discussed (mostly sports) were things in which I wasn’t the least bit versed. And so I watched, and wondered at what made me so different, all the while yearning and aching to connect to them in some way.

To this day, listening to Crazy For You brings me instantly back to those unreturned emotions, to the longing in my heart – even when I didn’t know what it was that I wanted. It’s a tricky thing, this heart – and I’ve never been able to completely figure it out. Just when I expect it to be frigid and unyielding, it opens up and offers a glimpse of what might be, of what might come – not unlike the briefest January thaw – and then, as suddenly as it came, it is gone again until the Spring.