42nd Street won the Tony
Award for Best Musical and became a long-running hit. The show was produced in
London in 1984 (winning the Olivier Award for Best Musical), and its 2001
Broadway revival won the Tony for Best Revival. Based on the novel by Bradford
Ropes and the subsequent 1933 Hollywood film adaptation, the show focuses on
the efforts of famed dictatorial Great White Way director Julian Marsh to mount
a successful stage production of a musical extravaganza at the height of the Great
Depression.
The show is a jukebox musical because in addition to songs from the 1933
film 42nd Street, it includes songs from many other films of that time.
It also includes "There's a Sunny Side to Every Situation", from the
movie Hard to Get and the song "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" from
Moulin Rouge. The opening act includes forty pairs of tap-dancing feet,
followed by a series of tap-infused extravaganzas.
Act I
Auditions for 1933's newest show, Pretty Lady, are nearly over when
Peggy Sawyer, fresh off the bus from Allentown, Pennsylvania, arrives in New
York City with valise in hand. Billy Lawlor, already cast as one of the
juvenile leads, notices her and hopes to charm her into accepting a date with
him. He informs her she has missed the audition but he can help her bypass that
process, but choreographer Andy Lee has no time for Billy's latest conquest and
tells her, "Amscray, toots." Embarrassed and flustered, she rushes
off, only to run into director Julian Marsh.
One-time star Dorothy Brock, indignant at being asked to audition for a
role, is reassured by Bert that he merely wants to make sure the songs are in
her key. Despite his feeling she is a prima donna past her prime, he agrees to
cast her in order to get financial backing from her wealthy beau, Abner Dillon.
Outside the theatre, writer Maggie and chorus girls Anytime Annie, Phyllis, and
Lorraine take pity on Peggy and invite her to join them for lunch and some
advice. They encourage her to show them a dance routine that is witnessed by
Julian, who decides there might be room for one more chorus girl after all.
Julian learns that Dorothy is seeing her old boyfriend, Pat Denning, behind
Abner's back. Knowing this could destroy the show's future, he decides to put
an end to the affair. A phone call to an unsavory acquaintance brings Pat a
visit from a couple of thugs who convince him to break it off with her. The
show's cast then departs to Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, for the
out-of-town tryout.
On opening night, someone bumps Peggy, who trips and crashes into Dorothy,
knocking her to the stage. Julian fires Peggy on the spot.
Act II
Dorothy's ankle is broken, and the show may close. The chorus kids, certain
Peggy could fill the lead role, find Julian and tell him that she's a fresh
young face who can sing and dance circles around Dorothy. He decides it is
worth a shot and rushes off to the train station to catch her before she
departs.
At Philadelphia's Broad Street Station, Julian apologizes to Peggy
and asks her to stay and star in the show, but she responds that she has had
enough of show business and wants to go home to Allentown. Dumbfounded, he
tries to coax her with the words "Come on along and listen to the lullaby
of Broadway..." After the cast joins him in the serenade, she decides to
accept his offer.
Forced to learn the part in two days, Peggy is on the verge of a nervous
breakdown when she has an unexpected visit from Dorothy, who has been watching
the rehearsals and realizes that beneath her nervous exterior, Peggy is good,
"maybe even better than I would have been." She even offers a little
friendly advice on how to perform the last song, "About a Quarter to
Nine."
The opening night curtain is about to rise when Julian, who is completely
in love with Peggy at this point, stops by for a last minute lip-lock and pep
talk in which he utters the now iconic line, "You're going out there a
youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" The show is a huge success
sure to catapult her into stardom. In addition, even though she is invited to
and expected to attend the official opening night party, she decides to go to
the chorus one instead. Julian is left alone onstage with only a single ghost
light casting his huge shadow on the back wall. He quietly begins to sing,
"Come and meet those dancing feet on the avenue I'm taking you to...42nd
Street."
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