It’s like the Gershwins are trying to trip you up!
Bath Operatic and Dramatic Society will be transporting audiences back to the golden age of musicals in the energetic, uplifting Crazy For You. JEFFREY DAVIES chats to director Steve Blackmore and actor Arnie Richardson
AFTER a two-year break because of the Covid lockdown, Bath Operatic and Dramatic Society (BODS) is back on stage in the West Country next week with an uplifting, award-winning, golden age musical which showcases some of George and Ira Gershwin’s most famous numbers – I Got Rhythm, They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Embraceable You, Nice Work If You Can Get It and Someone to Watch Over Me.
Crazy For You is packed with wit and wry humour, making everything old seem new again, with a fresh interpretation of timeless musical songs spanning cabaret, jazz, tap and variety show styles. Adapted from the Gershwins’ 1930 musical Girl Crazy, Crazy For You originally opened on Broadway in 1992, running for four years and winning three Tony Awards.
In the 1930s, everybody dreams of being a star in the bright lights of Broadway. Everybody includes Bobby Child, a young New York banker who is sent to Deadrock, Nevada, to foreclose on a rundown theatre. There Bobby falls for feisty Polly Baker, the theatre owner’s daughter, but she’s not quite so taken with the city slicker. Bobby vows – through cunning, razzmatazz, and a hilarious case of mistaken identity – to win Polly’s heart and save the theatre.
BODS is one of the most acclaimed amateur companies in the region and has been performing in Bath since 1894. Recent productions at the Theatre Royal include Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady, Sweet Charity, West Side Story, Hairspray and Legally Blonde, the final production to be staged in the Main House before lockdown. With a cast of 38 local performers – aged from 20 to 73 – drawn from the Bath, Bristol, Wiltshire, Somerset and Gloucestershire area, this show marks BODS’ returns to the Main House for the first time since March 2020.
“We were actually the very last production in the Bath Theatre Royal before everything closed down,” the show’s most welcoming director Steve Blackmore told.
“That was two years ago and we managed to squeeze in the
last performance before lockdown.
We were very lucky. We’ve since had a twoyear hiatus, waiting for everything to come back to normal. And now we are back,” he said enthusiastically.
“It’s been a huge change, not only for local theatre but also for professional theatre as well. We’ve all had to try to cope with the changes. Obviously it’s harder for local theatre than it is for professionals because we’ve all got day jobs,” adds Steve, who runs a company law agency in Bath and Bristol, as well as being an investor in West End and Broadway theatre productions, including Pretty Woman, Back to the Future and Moulin Rouge.
“I try to invest where I can in the hope the plays can become a Les Mis or a Cats. You never know!” he smiled.
So what can West Country audiences expect from Crazy For You?
“A show full of songs from the 1930s Gershwin era. It’s full of life and major dance routines. It is really almost like a flashback to that time where you’ve got these big Follies-style numbers. But predominantly it’s a musical comedy.
“The Gershwins wrote a musical called Girl Crazy way back in the Thirties and what they did in the 1990s was to take that show and add to it the storyline and the Gershwin classics like Embraceable You and I’ve Got Rhythm, as well as other songs that most people know. They put them into this show and made it a proper musical comedy. It really is a show where you genuinely laugh out loud at the comedy gags, the routines and at things that actually go on on stage. It’s a full-on entertainment,” Steve enthused.
Steve has acted in more than 100 productions for various companies in Bristol, including Bristol Musical Comedy Club, Backstage Productions and his own theatre company. He has choreographed more than 15 productions and directed 20, including Legally Blonde for BODS, The Producers and Jekyll & Hyde for Bristol Amateur Operatic Society, as well as the UK premieres of High Fidelity, Side Show and The Life for his own company.
His productions have garnered three NODA (National Operatic and Dramatic Association) Awards for excellence and ten Rose Bowl nominations for Best Musical. He also runs his own production company, The Worx Productions, and is patron of Thornbury Musical Theatre Group and vice-chairman of the Rose Bowl Awards, am-dram’s ‘Oscars’.
Directing any show is a formidable task. Did Crazy For You present any particular challenges for Steve?
“It’s predominantly a dance show so you have to have a very good choreographer, which luckily we do have. The show itself is a mix of strong girl dancers for the Follies numbers, but also a strong male chorus for the cowboys,” Steve said.
“This guy, this hoofer from New York, goes to Deadrock in Nevada, which is in the middle of nowhere. It’s a town with a lot of guys and just one girl. And there’s this romantic love story which builds throughout it. So really for me as a director, it’s about getting a strong group of girls and a strong group of guys, having great lead parts and bringing as much comedy as possible out of the situation. It’s more of a challenge getting the guys than the females in local theatre. But we’ve got a really good group here.”
Delighted to be working with BODS again after a two-year break, how does the actor, director and choreographer who’s been involved in local theatre for more than 40 years, define his directorial role?
“It’s a full, encompassing role because you have to read and understand the script, then try to think of something slightly different and come up with your own ideas. After that it’s getting involved in the casting side of it. Getting the right people for the right parts can be quite difficult.
“When you’ve cast the show it’s a case of setting it and liaising with all the different departments. And then, of course, there’s the costumes, hair, make-up, props, sound and lighting, and so on. You have to all have ideas of what you want in each scene and how you want it to be lit.”
He continued: “Obviously not all of it is my expertise because you do rely on others, like the lighting designers and the sound engineers, to work with you. Most of my work is fairly straightforward. Being creative is the bit I love. The hard work is actually when you get into the theatre and you’ve got to create
that magical picture,” Steve, who has received three Best Actor nominations, explained.
Playing lead Bobby Child in this glittering and glamorous show is Arnie Richardson.
“This is an all-singing and all-dancing show. It’s exciting, hilarious and an awful lot of fun. It’ll be great to get back into this purely fun show after such a long, dry spell with Covid. And I’m very much looking forward to it,” a most friendly Arnie Richardson told me.
“It’s very uplifting. And as much as I like Sweeney Todd and things like that, that might have been a bit of a downer at this time!
“My character Bobby is hopelessly in love with someone who, originally, he probably doesn’t have a chance with. He then changes into this character in order to get someone to fall in love with him. It’s all really a bit hopeless but charming. But in the end people always fall in love with charming people, no matter how hopeless they are.”
Was it easy to transform himself into Bobby?
“It was. I’ve played characters like him before. But the physicality side of things – the dancing – I’ve never done as much as this. The dancing is the next level. However, on the emotional and character level it’s very much in my range,” Arnie said with a smile.
And what a great score it has, I remarked.
“It does. The Gershwins [George and Ira] like to challenge their dancers. It is fun and relaxing to sing. A treat. Nothing too difficult but completely enjoyable. And when it comes to the dancing it’s like they put so many beats in they’re just trying to trip you up!” Arnie laughed.
It must be a wonderful feeling giving the audience a special evening out?
“It is. But it’s a feeling I’ve not had for a while. I’m nervous and I’m incredibly looking forward to doing it again. This my first foray back into the field after the pandemic. I was worried the nerves were going to get a hold of me but I’m feeling in control of them now. That initial nervous energy will get us through it and bring the show to a new high.”
Arnie remembers fondly what drew him to the stage.
“When I was a child I wanted to be a palaeontologist like everyone else who grew up on Jurassic Park. At primary school I was into drama and did a few of the local pantos, but at secondary school it wasn’t cool, so I didn’t do it.
“Then towards the end, during A-levels, and with a lot of pushing from my mum, to whom I’m eternally thankful, I fell in love with it and thought this is something I’d like to give a go,” Arnie recalled, saying that he fell further in love with drama while a member of BODS.
During that time he played many a role, but playing the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz in 2012 was one of his highlights. Arnie then worked on cruise ships for a number of years, being lucky enough to perform while sailing the high seas.
“At that point there was a moment in my life where doing it professionally was a little bit more stressful than doing it just for fun, and my partner and I made the decision to do it just for fun. It’s exciting and something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve done it as a profession and now I’m doing it just for fun,” Arnie stated.
Now with his feet firmly back on terra firma, and having moved back to the Bath area, Arnie is excited to rejoin BODS, to be performing at “the iconic” Theatre Royal Bath, and to put his new tap dancing skills to the test.
Although he said he had never professionally trained to be an actor – “I wish I had” – would he like one day to return to the professional stage?
“It’s really tough to say. I love it but, especially at the moment, the theatre industry is in such turmoil the stability isn’t there. And my partner and I have just bought a house. But I will never say never,” he said happily.
So is treading the boards in the family DNA?
“My mum always wanted to train professionally but her parents wouldn’t let her. She has done several pantos, though. And my dad would never admit it but he loves musical theatre. He never performed but if you step into his car you’ll hear on the radio probably Les Mis or even Wicked blaring out.”
Crazy For You is playing the Theatre Royal Bath from May 3 to May 7. Tickets can be booked on 01225 448844 or online at www.theatreroyal. org.uk