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Entertainment

Crazy for Gershwin

J.W. Mitchell High students are performing a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical at the Pasco Schools Center for the Arts at River Ridge.

By MICHELE MILLER
Published March 18, 2005

If you like dancing or Gershwin, then you're sure to like Crazy for You.

So says Elizabeth Arzillo, the drama teacher at J.W. Mitchell High School, whose students are performing the 1992 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical at the Pasco Schools Center for the Arts at River Ridge.

Thursday was opening night, and the show continues today and Saturday with three more performances.

Crazy for You was built on six Gershwin songs - including But Not For Me, Embraceable You and I Got Rhythm - from the 1930s score of Girl Crazy.

This story starts backstage at the mythical Zangler Theater in New York, where the Zangler Follies is just wrapping up.

Bobby Child, a rich banker's son, wants to be in show biz, but can't get a role. He's consoled by his even wealthier fiancee, the snooty Irene, but his mother steps in to order him to Deadrock, Nev., to foreclose on a rundown theater.

Deadrock is just like its name: dead as a rock, except for the spunky Polly Baker, who vows to get even with this Bobby Child for the foreclosure - if she ever meets him. Bobby, of course, falls in love with her on sight.

To win her love, Bobby disguises himself as theater mogul Zangler and promises to put on a show to save the struggling theater. As luck (and musical comedy) would have it, the Zangler show girls show up just in time to help out.

To complicate matters, Zangler himself also shows up, in hot pursuit of his former mistress, Tess, who refuses to see him. Bobby and Bela Zangler sing the woes of lost love, and Bobby soon returns to New York.

After misunderstandings, a couple of raucous drunk scenes and lots of high-kicking dance numbers, all works itself out to the satisfaction of everyone.

The show's musical score is sure to please, Arzillo said.

And so should her dancers, who have been working hard since January with a couple of former Broadway dancers: Chris and Shanna Sell. The Sells, who now are the proprietors of Sells' Broadway Dance Company in New Port Richey, choreographed the show and have been working with Mitchell students twice weekly since January.

"I'm really lucky," Arzillo said. "I realized I had a lot of great dancers in the program and there was no other show to feature that so well. The majority are all seniors and I wanted something for them, something to meet the needs of my kids."

Meeting the needs of kids also meant that some would be sharing roles.

"I have so many talented kids," Arzillo said. "With this show we had so many great singers, so many great dancers (that) I couldn't not do it."

George Cahill III (whose mother Darlene was recently a contender on the CBS reality show Wickedly Perfect) will play the lead role of Bobby Child in all performances.

Laura Ramos and Jessica Martin will share the role of Polly Baker, and Matthew Hixon and Phillip Gilbo both will play Bela Zangler. Other cast members include: Zack Cicone, Tiffany Conelly, Brianna Suojanen, Daniel Gigantelli, Victoria Cooper, Kristen Wood, Krystal Moulton, Heather Spillaine, Drew Culler, Nicci Nutter, Corey Cane, Garry O'Brien, Louis Ramsay-Wood, Karis Gilbo, Yelena Peshko.

Zangler Girls: Taylor Giany, Erin Cantwell, Tiffany Morocco, Laura Ramos, Jessica Martin, Andrea Cummings, Lacy Walling, Alison Cobianchi, Raegan Quinn.

New York Ladies and Guests in Deadrock: Ereka Passerella, John Waters, Heather Spillaine, Corey Cane, Yelena Peshko, Briana Suojanen, Karis Gilbo, Tiffany Conelly.

Information from Times files was used in this story.

WHAT: George and Ira Gershwin's Crazy for You, performed by the J.W. Mitchell High School Drama Department.

WHEN: 7 p.m. today and Saturday; and 2 p.m. matinee Saturday.

WHERE: Pasco Schools Center for the Arts at River Ridge, 11646 Town Center Road, New Port Richey.

ADMISSION: Tonight and Saturday night, $10; Saturday matinee, $8.

INFORMATION: For tickets or details, call Elizabeth Arzillo at (813) 794-9358.

[Last modified March 18, 2005, 00:43:17]