Theatre-goers in the Buckland Ripers area will be concerned today at news that the smash-hit musical comedy We're Crazy We Two will transfer from its run on Ealing Broadway to the Cattlemarket Theatre next month for a run of "at least three" performances*. The feel-good show which takes many of George Threadwin's greatest tunes and weaves them into a chaotic story about a hapless pair of young lovers is "as light-hearted as it is light-fingered in its borrowings, derivations and unacknowledged artistic debts" [Melbury Bubb Entertainment Weekly].
* Producers say that they hope for more but, "having had our fingers burned with this kind of thing before" will "see how it goes" before committing to any greater outlay.
Originally produced in the 1960s as "No No Amanda", it ran for thirteen performances at the Lyric Theatre, Chetnole before irreconcilable artistic differences ["everyone was screwing everyone else" [Piddletrenthide Inquirer]] made further performances impractical even under the then comparatively slack Health and Safety provisions. The show's production company later went into administration and the rights were sold in a fire-sale to the thrupieceorganisation in 1969. No further attempts were made to revive the show - apart from a licensed amateur try-out by the Threadbone Players in 2009. It was "not a success" [Michael Billious, Abbotsbury Arts Monthly].
Enter Julian Oddfellowes, creator of Motown Abbey and well-known opportunistic reviser of musical theatre shows requiring no revision. ["He is to the musical theatre what Attila the Hun was to Rome and Laurence Llewellyn-Bonewin was to house-remodelling", Dorset Dictionary of County Biography]. "Retaining only the musical numbers, Oddfellowes has written a new book and all-new lyrics and the effect is transformative", says musical theatre historian, Ally Pally, adding "though not in a good way". "What was once a sweet and rather naive little show is now a stodgy turd - one wonders how he keeps getting away with it".
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