Tunes, tapping make ‘Street’ ageless classic
Some shows are hard to enjoy because they are so old-fashioned.
Others, like “42nd Street,” are enjoyable precisely because they are old-fashioned.
This high-energy, midlevel touring production delivers all of the virtues of classic American musical comedy. It’s filled with hummable tunes, blazing tap numbers, gaudy costumes, corny jokes, leggy chorus girls, and goofy – yet lovable – characters.
And when I say hummable tunes, the Harry Warren-Al Dubin score delivers more jaunty melodies than any show this side of a Gershwin retrospective.
In fact, when the company launched into “We’re In the Money,” it felt like a pure and undiluted expression of happiness, especially the way it was performed in this show.
Four Depression-era urchins – actually, chorus girls dressed as urchins – are fishing through a subway grate with a piece of gum tied to a string. When one of them hauls something up, the others shout, “What is it?” One urchin holds up something shiny, pauses for a moment and yells, “It’s a dime!”
Then they break into a giddy version of “We’re In the Money.” Maybe it’s just a show tune, but it seems to capture something about the Depression that the textbooks don’t. When everything was scarce, even the smallest triumph brought unbridled joy.
“42nd Street” is a classic backstage fable, about young Peggy Sawyer from Allentown, Pa., who arrives on Broadway with dreams of being a star. She gets lucky and is cast in a show by the famous director Julian Marsh. Then she gets really lucky, when the temperamental star, Dorothy Brock, breaks an ankle. Suddenly, young Peggy is thrust into the starring role on opening night.
It’s a Broadway rags-to-riches story. Yet it’s also a Depression fantasy, in which good fortune shines on a group of hard-up American kids (that’s what the dancers call themselves, kids), just because, well, they deserve it. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I find it impossible not to be completely won over by this kind of simple optimism.
This non-Equity cast certainly sells “42nd Street” with enthusiasm. Melody Davi is a spunky and fresh-faced Peggy, and she certainly sells the notion that she is a first-rate hoofer. Jarran V. Muse is a fine Billy Lawlor, the young dancer with a good heart and healthy ego. David Grant, as the autocratic Julian Marsh, is in turns terrifying and surprisingly nurturing.
Natalie Buster nearly steals her scenes as the jealous and tempestuous Dorothy. She delivers her songs, including “I Only Have Eyes for You,” in a sultry and seductive lower register.
Some of the comedy bits fell a little flat, partly because the sound needed fine-tuning on opening night and partly because the jokes were old even in the 1930s. It takes a lot of flair to sell these ancient jokes about sugar daddies and gold diggers.
Yet the troupe delivers the stuff that counts: the Busby Berkeley-style production numbers like “Shuffle Off to Buffalo.” And just about the time you are convinced that “We’re in the Money” is the catchiest tune ever played in a pit, here comes “Lullaby of Broadway” to prove you wrong.