They've Got Rhythm: Gasteyer, Knight, Kudisch Lead Gershwin's Girl Crazy for Encores! Nov. 19-22

By Ernio Hernandez
and Adam Hetrick
November 19, 2009

Ana Gasteyer, Wayne Knight, Marc Kudisch and real-life couple Chris Diamantopoulos and Becki Newton star in the Encores! presentation of the Gershwin musical Girl Crazy.

Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks stages the 1930 classic, which served as the basis for the 1992 Tony-winning musical Crazy for You. The show runs Nov. 19-22 at City Center.

Warren Carlyle (Finian's Rainbow) choreographs, with musical direction by Rob Fisher.

Gasteyer, who currently appears in the Broadway revival of The Royal Family, portrays Frisco Kate Fothergill – the role originated by Ethel Merman. Knight (Chicago) is cast as cab driver Gieber Goldfarb, with Kudisch as Slick Fothergill, Diamantopoulos (Les Miserables, The Full Monty) as Danny Churchill, Newton ("Ugly Betty") as Molly Gray, Mylinda Hull (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) as Patsy West, Richard Poe (Cry-Baby) as Jake Howell, Daniel Stewart Sherman (Desire Under the Elms) as Lank Sanders and Gregory Wooddell (Some Men) as Tom Mason.

The Encores! concert staging has sets by John Lee Beatty, costumes by William Ivey Long, lighting by Peter Kaczorowski and sound by Scott Lehrer.

Girl Crazy has music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin and book by Guy Bolton and Jack McGowan. According to Encores! notes, "The Gershwins' fanciful Depression-era musical of 1930 is the tale of a sophisticated New Yorker (Diamantopoulos) marooned in a dusty Western cow town with no one who understands him but the Yiddish-speaking cabbie (Knight) who brought him there and no one to love but the only woman (Newton) within 50 miles."

The musical includes the Gershwin classics "I Got Rhythm," "Embraceable You," "But Not for Me" and "Bidin' My Time." The original production opened at the Alvin Theatre on Oct. 14, 1930 and ran for 272 performances.

Tickets are available by visiting the New York City Center box office (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues), through CityTix at (212) 581-1212, or online at NYCityCenter.