Reviews 2012
Reviews 2012
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music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Al Dubin, book by Michael Stewart & Mark Bramble, directed by Gary Griffin
Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
May 29-October 28, 2012
“Come and meet Those dancing feet”
It’s only the second show to open so far at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, but 42nd Street is likely to be the hit of the season. If you’re looking for two hours of pure frothy entertainment, this is it. With classic songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin and one spectacular tap dance number after the next, this is a show sure to leave you with a smile.
42nd Street is an early version of what now called a jukebox musical or, more accurately in this case, a back catalogue musical. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1980 but it is based on the movie musical of the same name from 1933. This is the movie that gave us the showbiz myth of the chorus girl standing in for the stricken leading lady and becoming a star. While the non-musical parts of the film are rather pedestrian, the five musical numbers directed by Busby Berkeley are still fabulous today. With their high degree of stylization and geometric patterning they are probably the closest thing to the Art Deco esthetic on film.
The film, however, has only five numbers – “You’re Getting to Be a Habit With Me”, “It Must Be June”, “Shuffle Off to Buffalo”, “Young and Healthy” and “42nd Street” – so producer David Merrick dumped “It Must Be June” and added several more songs from the back catalogue of composer Harry Warren (1893-1981) and lyricist Al Dubin (1891-1945) – like “Shadow Waltz” and “We’re in the Money” from Gold Diggers of 1933, “Dames” and “I Only Have Eyes for You” from Dames of 1934, “Lullaby of Broadway” from Gold Diggers of 1935 and “About a Quarter to Nine” and “Go Into Your Dance” from Go Into Your Dance of 1935.
Cynthia Dale is perfectly cast as the bitchy, self-centred diva Dorothy Brock, whose sugar-daddy is financing the musical. Dale’s voice has darkened and become richer since she was last at Stratford in My One and Only in 2007. This allows her to lend such songs as “Shadow Waltz” and “About a Quarter to Nine” the full degree of sultriness. She makes Brock’s sense of hauteur seem like second nature.
As her rival, Peggy Sawyer from Allentown, PA, newcomer Jennifer Rider-Shaw is expert at conveying the innocence and enthusiasm of a talented girl happy enough just to get in the chorus of a Broadway show. Rider-Shaw is a fantastic tap dancer, so that when a chorus girl says she can dance rings around any of us, we believe it. Her singing is fine but she doesn’t really let loose until the final number. Acting is her weakest point. As someone who has managed to play the lead in a Broadway show and been acclaimed by the audience as a new star, she ought to show some increase in self-confidence at the end, but Rider-Shaw shows no change whatsoever. This makes it very difficult to believe that she will eclipse her idol Dorothy Brock, as the others say, if she doesn’t show she has gained strength from her achievement.
Sean Arbuckle is excellent as Julian Marsh, the tyrannical director with a soft heart. He has played so many non-singing roles at Stratford, some may forget he can sing as he did as Cliff Bradshaw in Cabaret in 2008. He is given the final reprise of the title song and sings it as the heroic tribute it’s meant to be, an epitome in one song of what the whole show is about. He is particular impressive in delivering the pep speeches to the cast that have since become clichés of every backstage musical since 1933. We may smile at their corniness but Arbuckle never lets us doubt that his character is absolutely sincere. Arbuckle is able to speak the show’s most famous line, “Sawyer, you're going out a youngster but you've got to come back a star!” as if it were brand new.
In smaller roles Gabrielle Jones and Geoffrey Tyler are very funny as the songwriting team of Maggie Jones and Bet Barry, who are writing the musical-within-the-musical Pretty Lady, that Marsh is directing. It’s a running joke that Maggie can’t sing her own songs effectively, but Jones disproves this in the witty divorce section of the “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” production number.
Other standouts are Steve Ross as the slow-witted Texan Abner Dillon, who is too innocent to see Dorothy is using him and Naomi Costain as the chorus girl Annie “Anytime” Reilly, a woman who knows the ways of the world but is honest enough to encourage virtue and talent when she sees it.
42nd Street is a dazzling costume parade, but for once this excess is justified by the show itself which includes one elaborate production number after he next. The highpoint of the show in design and choreography is “We’re in the Money” that occurs jus before the Act 1 finale. You’ve probably never seen so much gold and silver lamé on stage at one time. All that’s missing is Ginger Rogers singing the song in pig-Latin as she does in Gold Diggers of 1933. Hanson keeps her palette primarily in black, white and grey to evoke films of the 1930s. She only oversteps the bounds of believability in the final number when she dresses three sailors in fully sequinned outfits unlike any of the other men.
Alex Sanchez’s choreography is both highly inventive and historically informed, reminding one again and again of the combination of tap and jazz dance in the movie musicals of the 1930s. He creates an ambitious ballet for the “42nd Street” finale of Pretty Lady that attempts to highlight the negative side to the lyrics “Where the underworld can meet the elite”, but he doesn’t allow himself enough time to resolve his illustration of the seediness and danger of the street into the celebratory tone of its final lines.
Director Gary Griffin’s best idea for the sow is to place the 15-piece orchestra on the opened-up first balcony over the upstage area. Having he orchestra in sight makes a huge difference in experiencing the musical as live theatre. It also allows Griffin to encourage interactions between the musicians and the actors that highlight in the most natural way the theatricality of the whole enterprise. If musicals are to be performed at the Festival Theatre, to have the orchestra there in sight of the audience, not hidden in the attic, is best. I sincerely hope future directors of musicals in that venue follow Griffin’s lead.
If you come to Stratford looking for a show overflowing with high-energy fun, great songs and fantastic dancing, 42nd Street is where you’ll find it.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: (top) Kyle Blair and the company for “We’re In The Money”; (middle) Cynthia Dale and Kyle Blair. ©2012 David Hou.
For tickets, visit www.stratfordfestival.ca.
2012-05-30
42nd Street