November 4, 5, and 6 were opening weekend for West Ottawa High School’s production of “Crazy For You.”  This funny, family-friendly musical was very enjoyable and showed off a talented cast. Many people appreciated the humor and were impressed by the incredible tap dancing performed by their fellow students.

  “I thought the musical was really good and really well set up. I was impressed with all of the dancing considering they just learned how to tap and most of them looked like they had been doing it for a long time,” Jr. Jaylen VanMaurick said. VanMaurick wasn’t the only one who recognized the time and effort put into this production. “I thought the musical was really fun to watch. You can see all the hard work by the cast paying off and that’s really cool to see,” Sr. Katie O’Brien said. The large dance numbers such as “Slap That Bass” and “I Got Rhythm” were well received. “The skill of the dancers to coordinate so many big scale numbers [stands out to me], it’s crazy how many talented actors performed at the same time on stage,” Sr. Jarod Klavon said.

  The tap, in particular, was appreciated by the audience. “This year, most of the dances involved tap. This is a really hard skill to learn, and they learned it in such a short time and did it very well,” O’Brien said. “I think it compared very well [to other WOHS productions], as it introduced a whole new dynamic of tap dancing, while keeping the charm and humor of past plays,” Klavon said. The cast’s hard work definitely shows, and many audience members were very impressed.

  The humor of the musical was appreciated by the audience. Klavon was particularly amused by Zangler’s line “I am beside myself,” when he is both upset, and quite literally beside himself. (It’s funny in context, so go see the musical!) “The way the play referred back to jokes that were made in earlier parts of the play is what really stood out to me,” Jr. Tyler Bosma said. “My favorite part of the show was all of the jokes and the awesome musical numbers. There were a lot of really funny parts and the singing and dancing was very well done,” O’Brien said. The musical itself is hilarious, but watching one’s friends on stage definitely adds to the production.

  “Everybody in the show did a good job and it is fun to watch your friends show off their amazing talents,” Bosma said. “I would definitely recommend the show to other students. It’s fun to watch any musical, but it’s even more fun when you get to see familiar faces doing what they love,” O’Brien said. Even if you aren’t friends with any members of the musical, it’s still a cool experience to see people your age at your school showing off their talent.

  “I would recommend the show to other students because it is really cool to see other people in our school do something that makes them happy and how artistic everyone is,” VanMaurick said. “[I] definitely would recommend [“Crazy For You”] to other students. Heck, I’m going a second time next weekend,” Klavon said.

  This year’s musical not only lived up to other years, it may have actually been better. With a nice pace between hilarious jokes and enormous dance numbers featuring our very own students tap dancing, “Crazy For You” is a show you don’t want to miss. There are still two more opportunities. November 11 and 12 at 7:30pm. Visit http://www.westottawadramaboosters.org/ for tickets.