42nd Street

The musical“42nd Street” has lyrics by Al Dubin and music by Harry Warren from a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble. The show was first produced on Broadway in 1980 and won the Tony Award for Best Musical becoming a long-running hit. It was then produced in London in 1984 where it also won an Olivier Award for Best Musical. The show is based on the classic 1933 movie of the same name and tells the story about the efforts of director Julian Marsh to mount a successful stage production of a musical at the height of the Great Depression, and also follows small town girl Peggy Sawyer who arrives in New York and dreams of being a star on the stage and who undergoes a meteoric rise to stardom.

Director Liz Wainwright put together an enthusiastic and talented cast who obviously were  very well rehearsed and had put a great deal of hard work into getting this show on to the stage resulting in an energetic enjoyable production.  The opening tap number had the wow factor, all dancers taped very well, and not one was out of step. There were also some worthy enjoyable performances from the cast, notably from Steve Coughlan who played impresario Julian Marsh he had a lovely smooth bass voice when speaking as well as singing, Gemma Briscoe produced a good characterisation as Dorothy Brock the ageing star and Lisa Proctor was a very good dancer, and gave us a suitably shy, nervous and at times comedic interpretation of Peggy Sawyer. There were a number of nice performances from the supporting roles such as Dorothy Prothero as Maggie Jones, Liz Wainwright as Ann Reilly, Jim Briscoe as Bert Barry.Steve Rutter as Billy Lawlor, Thomas Davitt as Pat Denning and Mark Bennison as Abner Dillon. Other good energetic performances came from Peggy’s group of  dancer friends who all danced and sang well. The chorus of both adults and children were full of enthusiasm and energy, and appeared to enjoy themselves, All the cast worked well together as a team, as soon as the curtain opened they were ready to perform which came across to the audience. Diction was clear and dialogue could be heard well, American accents were generally good although there was the occasional local inflection noticeable. Costumes were bright and colourful and suited the roles well and scenery was more than adequate and provided a good platform for the performers, however it was a little noisy during scene changes. Lighting and sound were well executed and the orchestra led by Musical Director Nancy Wells supported the cast well and were not too loud. Congratulations must go to Lyndsey McGinn for her choreography which was well thought out, suitable for the era and the tap numbers were superbly executed by the cast.

Well done to all the cast crew and everyone involved in this enjoyable production including front of house and thank you for inviting me I hope to see you again for your next show.

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