42nd Street – Opera House, Manchester

Book: Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble

Music: Harry Warren

Lyrics: Al Dubin

Director: Jonathan Church

While only premiered on Broadway in 1980 (and later in London’s West End in 1984), 42^nd Street is a musical that’s become something of a classic. That’s certainly not down to the story which is a very thin tale of making good against all the odds. It’s not even really about the songs which, although there are some belters among them, are a mish-mash of the memorable and the easily forgettable, drawn from the 1933 film adaptation and from a range of film scores written by Dubin and Warren around the same time. What really holds this musical together is the dancing – big chorus line numbers that can’t fail to impress.

Set during the Great Depression its core message is really that if you work hard enough then things can only get better. Peggy Sawyer (Nicole-Lily Baisden) is a Pennsylvania small-town girl who rocks up in New York, clutching her suitcase, and hoping to make it into the chorus line of Broadway show Pretty Lady. While she lacks the big town savvy needed to get by the in a notoriously cut throat industry, she does have a whole lot of talent, and, like it should but rarely does, this does the trick. When the show’s star literally breaks a leg, Peggy steps up into the lead role, smashes it, and literally saves Pretty Lady and the livelihoods of all the ‘kids’ in the chorus.

This latest production, which opened at Leicester’s Curve Theatre earlier this year, has a timeless quality. It feels like a production you could be watching at any time in the last forty years. It’s a big, boisterous variety show with comedy and songs and gloriously choreographed (Bill Deamer) ensemble numbers. While some of the goings-on between the big numbers fall a bit flat, Les Dennis (as Bert Barry) and Faye Tozer (as Maggie Jones) bring some solid old-school comedy, Michael Praed (as Julian Marsh) adds a touch of dramatic decorum and is vocally something of a revelation, and there are great performances from Sam Lips (as Peggy’s – albeit rather unconvincing – love interest Billy Lawlor) and Alyn Hawke (as Andy Lee, Pretty Lady’s Choreographer). But it’s when the ensemble are on stage that this production really shines, with fabulous renditions of Keep Young and Beautiful, In The Money, Shuffle Off To Buffalo and, of course, 42^nd Street.

Set in it’s own tough times, 42^nd Street is an ideal couple of hours of escapism for our current ones. Sometimes you just need pure entertainment that washes over you and makes you smile, and that’s what this is. It’s a delight to see this many people on a stage, a vast set that changes from New York back street to swanky bar to glitzy stage with balletic ease (Robert Jones) and more extravagant costumes than you can keep track of (there must be some pretty frantic quick-changing going on backstage). What’s not to like about a line-up of smiling dancing girls in spangly silver outfits.

Runs until 21 October 2023