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The current show at Norton SIngers is
the Tony Award winning musical "42nd Street" with a huge cast of
36 performers. It is loosely based on the 1933 movie musical with the same
name which starred Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell. The stage musical version
opened on August 25, 1980 and ran until January 8, 1989, won the Tony
Award for Best Musical and starred Jerry Orbach as Julian Marsh and
Tammy Grimes as Dorothy Brock. "42nd Street" is the tale of up and coming
chorus girl Peggy Sawyer who arrives in New York seeking a Broadway
career. It focuses on the efforts of famed dictatorial Great
White Way director Julian Marsh to mount a successful stage production of
"Pretty Lady" a musical extravaganza at the height of the Great
Depression. Unfortunately for Peggy, she misses the audition for the show
but suave tenor, Billy Lawlor, is attracted to her and gets her to sing
with him to get noticed by Julian Marsh who puts her into the show. This
is after she almost knocks him over like a football lineman. During an out
of town tryout in Philadelphia, Peggy accidentally trips and pushes
Dorothy Brock, the prima-donna leading lady, causing her to fall and break
her ankle. After this, Julian Marsh fires Peggy at the end of Act 1. She
decides to leave New York and head back home to Allentown, PA. Billy and
the chorus convince Julian to persuade Peggy to stay with the show and
take over the lead. They convince her to return to the show while singing
"Lullaby of Broadway" and Peggy becomes a star. Director Greg Geer,
musical director Anthony Torelli and choreographer, Judee Bottomley,
who recreated the dance steps of Pam Sheiber and Gower
Champion, infuse this show with the energy needed for this big
musical dance extravaganza musical to become a masterpiece of musical
theatre. The unbelievable tap dancing and vocal prowess of this huge cast
leads the audience to cheer some of the numbers during the show and
rewards it with a standing ovation at the close of it.
Greg plays up the melodramatic aspect of the 1930's style show and
finds humorous bits to throw in to keep the audience entertained for
example when the chorus girls thrust ostrich feathers in Dorothy's face
during "The Shadow Waltz". Anthony conducts 16 superb musicians who make
the gorgeous 1930's music soar from start to finish. Since this is a
dancing show Judee comes up with many different style dances including the
Charleston, cakewalk and the entire cast executes them perfectly. The set
design is by Pete Molitor with several backdrops and easily moved set
pieces on and off the stage. Amanda Downing Carney designed
the plentiful 1930's costumes while Al Cunningham designed the sound,
lighting is by Indigo Design. Kevin Mischley stands out in this show
as he tackles the role of Julian Marsh constantly smoking a
cigarette,(originally played by Jerry Orbach who I saw in this role in
1980) the hard ass director who gives Peggy the confidence in herself to
become a star. Kevin sings the lead in "Lullaby of Broadway" and the
finale number "42nd Street". He has the needed brassiness for the
role when he makes her learn everything quickly. Kevin plays it
to the hilt especially when he gives Peggy an acting lesson on how to say
it was grand, grand (kissing her several times) and when
she improves on how to say it afterwards is hilarious. This
gives him a chance to show off his comic side. (I've reviewed
Kevin several times and he always does a great job. Some of the
shows include "Jekyl and Hyde", "Crazy For You", "Annie Get Your
Gun", "Oklahoma'' and "Anything Goes" for which he won
an award.) Playing the bitchy diva, Dorothy Brock is Janet
Ferreri. She is topnotch in this role. Janet rants and raves about
wanting to be treated as the star as Dorothy. The character is like
a 1930's version of Cruella Deville. Janet's renditions of "The Shadow
Waltz", "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me" while dancing with
Lenny and the duet with Peggy called "A Quarter to Nine"
are wonderful and she also does "I Know Now" when she realizes the man for
her is Pat Denning. Janet also won an award last year for playing
Reno Sweeney in "Anything Goes" and I also reviewed her in "Pal Joey"
a few years ago, too. Atia Gravely shines as the
ingenue Peggy Sawyer. This girl is not only beautiful but she
has a fantastic voice and terrific dancing skills, too. Atia infuses this
character with the necessary charm and naive behavior to pull off the
role. She does an excellent job in the Charleston-dance duet number "Young
and Healthy" and "Go Into Your Dance" group number ( she and real
life husband Dan get to dance together in this song) where she dances
better than the other three girls. Atia is hilarious in the rehearsal
scenes with Julian Marsh where she learns how to act after he kisses her
several times but her best number is "Lullaby of Broadway" when she and
Kevin do a cakewalk with the cast and "42nd Street" with the chorus.
Atia always does an excellent job whether she is playing a dramatic part
like the blind Suzy Hendrix in "Wait Until Dark" or in comic
parts in the musicals I have reviewed her in.This show is just one
more feather in this young actress' cap. Brava.
One of the best voices and dancers in this show is Lennie
Machado who plays Billy Lawlor. He uses his strong tenor voice
which soars off the charts in "Dames" and "Lullaby" ( he does flips
and many acrobatic moves during the show) and sings with
the girls in "I Know Now". Lennie is a superb dancer who taps up
a storm in "We're in the Money" and is especially impressive in the
"Dames" number where he twirls canes in the air and in the"42nd
Street" finale where he is dressed up as a sailor and is shot while
dancing with Peggy. Lenny has matured into an excellent leading man
from playing juvenile leads. ( I was in "Man of La Mancha" at the
Newport Playhouse with Lenny back in 1990 and saw him last in "Into
the Woods" as Jack in the Beanstalk for Community Players in
1994. He will be choreographing "A Chorus Line" there this
fall.) Two scene stealing performers are Louise Tetreault
and Chris DiOrio as Maggie and Bert. Louise shows off her
powerful lower register to her topnotch soprano voice as well as her
dancing skills in "Go Into Your Dance", "Getting to Be a Habit with Me"
and sings "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" while in a sleeper berth on a
train and a chorus of "Lullaby". The chorus girls squeal in fright when
Bert opens the wrong berth to climb in with Anytime Annie. Chris shows off
his comic side throughout the show and his tenor voice in "Getting
Out of Town" and "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" in his pajamas. Dan Gravely as
the choreographer of Pretty Lady leads the cast in the opening
audition song with a long and show stopping tap dance. Dan and Atia
have a beautiful 5 year old son, AJ. Chris sings the latter song
dressed as bride and groom with Michaela Murphy who I directed
in "The Emperor's Nightingale" in 1992 and acted with in "Oklahoma" in
1998, plays Anytime Annie who is a dynamite dancer and singer who gets to
lead the chorus in "We're in the Money" and "There's a Sunny Side to
Every Situation". Her funniest moment comes when she tells Julian that
Peggy is at the train station after he fired her, when he thanks her and
walks by, stares at his butt saying anytime while looking longingly at it!
She and Megan Donnelly as Phyllis, Lauren Duffy as
Ethel, Hannah Forte as Diane, Mandie Joy Pouliot as Gladys
and Christine Lariviere as Lorraine, the Park Avenue dame,
get to tap dance wonderfully and have some scene stealing scenes as the
bubble headed chorines while the three chorus boys are Tom Lavallee, David
Weeks and Venugopalan Anantharamakumar ( who I told needs to shorten his
name.) Dorothy's two suitors are wonderfully played by Ty
Waterman as Abner Dillon, her rich sugar daddy who gets to sing part
of "Lullaby" and Glenn Fournier as Richard Denning, her
true love and vaudeville partner who gets to show off his voice in
"Getting Out of Town". ( I reviewed Glenn in "Crazy for You"
where he played Bela and Kevin played Bobby) Both men are topnotch,
pulling their roles off with ease. Kudos to all the hard working and
superb cast as well as to everyone who worked on this show. So for a trip
back to the 1930's where your spirits will be lifted and you'll
have a rollicking good time, be sure to catch "42nd Street" at Norton
Singers. You will be glad you did.
42ND STREET (5 to 14 June, 2009)
THE NORTON SINGERS
Wheaton College, 26 East Main Road, Norton, MA
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