In 1999, the show, under the supervision of Ockrent and Stroman, was taped for television’s "Great Performances" at the Paper Mill Playhouse where it played to sold-out crowds and rave reviews.

In the plot, Bobby Child, a banking heir and show biz wannabe, auditions for a Broadway impresario, but fails to make the grade. His mother demands that he give up his dreams of becoming a song and dance man and leave for Deadrock, Nev., to foreclose on a rundown theater.

Once in Deadrock, he meets and falls in love with Polly Baker, whose father owns the theater. But if he forecloses, he will lose Polly, so he convinces her that they can put on a show that will pay off the debt her father owes on the mortgage.

Now audiences can delight in the adventures of this stage-struck playboy in a Nevada mining town this week when Montclair State University brings its own exuberant and high-energy production of "Crazy for You" to the Alexander Kasser Theater on campus. It’s a vibrant, upbeat show, where romance, mistaken identities and show-stopping musical numbers all add up to irresistible fun. In essence, it’s the quintessential American musical.

"When I found out that the director-choreographer of the show [Clay James] is a tap dancer and the conductor of the orchestra [Paul Hostetter] is a former percussionist, I knew that I would be in for a powerful theatrical experience," said Neil Baldwin, distinguished visiting professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at MSU’s College of the Arts. "But the close, mutually respectful, and yes, occasionally obsessed, collaboration of Clay James and Paul Hostetter is built upon more than the rhythms of ‘I Got Rhythm.’"

"‘Crazy for You’ is a show about ‘putting on a show,’ making it the ideal musical for MSU performing arts students. It’s visually stunning, and captures the back-and-forth, frenetic mood swings between the sparkling Great White Way and the dull, dusty streets of Deadrock, Nevada," he commented. "A tap-fest extraordinaire with an inescapable beat, it’s filled with tunes engraved in our minds, achingly, endearingly poetic and finger-popping joyous, swinging songs we swear we’ve heard before, even if we haven’t.

"Sitting in the Alexander Kasser Theater before the curtain goes up, you are satisfied, even in anticipation, and have every right to be. However, remember this is a university with a musical theater program rooted in strongly held pedagogical goals. A conversation with Professors James and Hostetter reveals the rigorous educational process leading up to the grand finale of polished, professional-calibre entertainment: the insistent priority of historical theater within the four-year arc of student training; the critical importance of gathering a many-faceted knowledge base rich in the background of the craft these students have chosen; abiding respect for an original musical text meant to be presented in a certain way; the importance of praxis learning by doing and how much richer it feels to get out there on stage and play the role, once you have arrived at a fundamental understanding of who your character is.

"Hostetter tells us that great conducting is about listening, and James wants everybody in the theater to have the same heightened experience he did when he saw the Susan Strohman production of this new Gershwin musical," Baldwin went on to explain. "Yet, again, this is a university, and although the performance schedule at MSU is deliberately designed to replicate a Broadway work week, putting together an elaborate production of ‘Crazy for You’ on campus is an altogether different logistical puzzle when students’ classes and job responsibilities must be taken into account.

"During the rehearsal-jammed days and nights culminating in the show, our students have learned that George and Ira Gershwin represent the very soul of the real American musical," he added. They have learned what it means to swing, in the deepest sense of that thankfully undefined feeling. They have learned to respect the structure and the purity of the songbook and the thorough-line of the farcical yet romantic story. They have paid intelligent homage to great musical tradition while delivering a show uniquely new, ebullient, fresh and, of course, blessedly young."

Director/choreographer Clay James currently serves as coordinator of musical theater for Montclair State University’s John J. Cali School of Music and Department of Theatre and Dance. At MSU, he has directed and staged "Parade" (a New Jersey premiere), "A Grand Night for Singing," "Cabaret," and "The Full Monty." He received the American Regional Theatre Award for Outstanding Direction and Choreography three times in addition to winning the Moss Hart Award. James has appeared in six Broadway shows, four National companies, and over 40 regional theater and summer stock productions. He has worked with such esteemed directors and choreographers as Michael Bennett, Gower Champion, Jerome Robbins, Tommy Tune and Rob Marshall.

Paul Hofstetter (conductor) is director of orchestral studies for the John J. Cali School of Music at MSU. He is also director and conductor of the Colonial Symphony, artistic director of the Winter Sun Festival and conductor for the contemporary ensemble Sequitur. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the New York City Opera, Philharmonia Virtuosi, the Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, the Syracuse Symphony, the Broadway productions of "Candide" and the Gershwin’s Fascinating Rhythm, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players.

Contact Joan Finn at finn@montclairtimes.com.