Perhaps I should clarify. Last night we saw “42nd Street” at Cabrillo Music Theatre. “42nd Street” is part of that subgenre of musicals I would call “Theatre” musicals: that is, they are an homage to the lore and legend of the theatre. Others in this category include “Curtains”, “Minksys”, “Me and Juliet”, and “Follies”. “42nd Street” is an adaptation of the 1933 Busby Berkeley movie musical of the same name. The story takes place during the depression, when famed director Julian Marsh (played in the first Broadway production by Jerry Ohrbach) returns to the theatre to mount a big musical called “Pretty Lady”. The musical follows the process from first audition to opening night, and features the large cast of tappers, the newcomer from Allentown PA who can dance and sing a storm, gets into the chorus, trips the lead star (breaking the star’s ankle), and then goes on to replace her and save the show.
Oh, you want a more detailed summary? Here’s the one adapted from Wikipedia:
Act I opens with auditions for 1933’s newest show, “Pretty Lady”. They are near over when Peggy Sawyer, fresh off the bus from Allentown, PA, arrives. Billy Lawlor, already cast as one of the juvenile leads, notices Peggy and hopes to charm her into accepting a date with him. He informs her she’s 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, “Beat it, toots.” Embarrassed and flustered, Peggy rushes off, only to slam right into director Julian Marsh himself. Meanwhile, one-time star Dorothy Brock, indignant at being asked to audition for a role, is reassured by Julian he merely wants to make sure the songs are in her key. Despite his feeling Dorothy 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 of 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 a love-struck Julian, who decides there might be room for one more chorus girl after all. At a pre-production party, Julian learns that Dorothy is seeing 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. One phone call to an unsavory acquaintance and Denning is visited by a couple of thugs who convince him to break it off with Dorothy, and he heads off to Philadephia to be safe. At the same time, the show’s Atlantic City tryout is cancelled, and relocated to Philadelphia. As if you couldn’t see it coming, Dorothy reunites with Pat Denning… and Julian finds out…. and when Peggy tries to warn Dorothy on Opening Night, Peggy trips and crashes into Dorothy, knocking her to the stage. Julian fires the young chorine on the spot.
Act II opens with the doctor reporting that Dorothy’s ankle is broken, and Julian deciding to close the show. The chorus kids convince Julian that Peggy could fill the lead role. Only one problem: Julian fired her. Julian decides it’s worth a shot and rushes off to the train station to catch Peggy before she departs. At Philadelphia’s Broad Street Station, Julian apologizes to Peggy and asks her to stay and star in Pretty Lady, but she responds that she’s had enough of show business and wants to go home to Allentown. Dumbfounded, Julian 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, Peggy 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 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 Peggy into stardom. And even though she’s invited to and expected to attend the official opening night party, Peggy decides to go to the chorus party instead. Julian is left alone on stage 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.”
The original Broadway production of this show has some interesting lore and characters. As I noted earlier, the Broadway premiere featured the irreplacable Jerry Ohrbach as Julian Marsh, and Tammy Grimes as Dorothy Brock (for some reason, I was recalling Yvonne DeCarlo, but she was in “Follies”, in a similar role). The Broadway premiere also featured choreography by Gower Champion, well known for large dance numbers (think “Bye Bye Birdie”, “Hello Dolly”, “Mack and Mabel”, and many others). Champion died the day of “42nd Street”s Broadway opening. “42nd Street” was also producer David Merrick’s last success.
I should also note that the show features many well known numbers, written Harry Warren and Al Dubin, including “Lullaby of Broadway”, “42nd Street”, “Dames”, “We’re in the Money”, “About a Quarter to Nine”, “Shuffle Off to Buffalo”, and many more. Most of these are well suited to large groups of people tap dancing their hearts out. The book of the musical was by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble.
So, with all this history, how did Cabrillo do with the property? For the most part, quite well. Under the guidance of director/choreographer Jon Engstrom (the original production’s dance captain), the show featured spectacular dance numbers with loads of tapping chorines hammering the stage in reasonably tight routines. The leads also did a great job, in particular Michael G. Hawkinsæ as Julian Marsh, Tracy Loreæ as Dorothy Brock, and Cassie Silva as Peggy Sawyer. Hawkins didn’t quite have Ohrbach’s voice (but who does?), but pulled off the role with a style of his own. Silva (together with the rest of the kids) danced up a storm, and demonstrated at the end (as she was supposed to do) that she has what it takes to be a star. The handsome tenor who loves Peggy, Billy Lawlor, was played by Jeffrey Scott Parsons (who we’ve seen before at both CMT and the Havok), who matched Silva in spunk and dancing ability. Every show like this has its veterans who take the chorus kids under their tutalege and who encourage the reluctant when spirits flag; in this case, it was Farley Cadena as Maggie Jones, and Will Shupeæ as Burt Barry, playing the writers and composers of “Pretty Lady”. They exhibited the requisite grizziled-ness (if that’s a word) while dancing up a storm. In supporting roles were Hector Guerreroæ as the choreographer, Andy Lee; David Burr as Dorothy Brock’s sugerdaddy Abner Dillon; and John D. Lemay as Dorothy Brock’s love interest, Pat Denning. Other small non-chrous roles included Ronald Rezac as Mac/Doc/Thug and Steven Ladd Jones as Oscar.
But what makes “42nd Street” shake the stage is the tap dancing ensemble, which in CMT’s case, was spectacular. The lead roles in this group were Layne Baker as Anytime Annie, Ashley Cowl as Phyllis, Jessica Taylor as Lorraine. Others in the emsemble were Cory Bretsch, Kevin Brown, Jonathan Bryson, Brian Buxton, Robyn Carleton, Alicia Dodgin, Karlee Ferreira, Drew Foronda, Tessa Grady, Dean Hendricks, Patrick Logothetti, Holly Long, Nick Lorenzini, William Loufik, Margot Major, Kristina Miller, Zach Mink, Megan Niles, Erin Perkins, Jonalyn Saxer, Stephanie Simpson, Libby Snyder, Rebecca Steinberg, Veronica Stevens, Johanna Unger, and Alison Woods. All were spectacular dancers.
[æ denotes members of 
Cabrillo was also very strong musically, with a great 17-member orchestra under the direction of Steven Applegate. They are always great to listen to.
If you recall my response regarding how Cabrillo did, I said for the most part, they did well. Although the acting and dancing was spectacular, where they were weaker was on the technical side. The sets provided by the Reagle Players were very sparse and showed a bit of wear. The props, designed by T. Theresa Scarano, were also a bit odd — especially the large coins that for some reason had holes in them. The lighting design by Michael Tachco had mixed strengths: I liked some numbers, such as the shadow dancing early on, but there were also the usual CMT’s overuse of follow spots, some badly misaimed side lights that were distracting, and a really odd turquoise blue double spot that created this odd floating head effect. The costumes (wardrobe supervision by Christine Gibson), which supposedly were from the original production, were beautiful but at points seemed to be off-era. Hair and wigs were by Rick Geyer. The sound design by Jonathan Burke was mostly unnoticable (a good thing), except for a few microphone pops in the last number. The technical director was Darrell J. Clark.
The production stage manager was the ever capable 🙂 
Lindsay Martens, assisted by Emilee Wamble and Allie Roy.
“42nd Street” continues at Cabrillo Music Theatre through tonight, April 6, 2009.
During this performance, Cabrillo announced their 2009-2010 season. Alas, they lost the rights to “Dreamgirls”, which was to be their first show. The revised season features “Guys and Dolls” in Fall 2009 (October 16-25, 2009); “The Andrews Brothers” in Winter 2010 (February 5-14, 2010); “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” in Spring 2010 (April 23-May 2, 2010), and “Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” in Summer 2010 (July 23-August 1, 2010). They are also bringing in a holiday show, “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” for six performances in December 2009. They are trying to grow their subscription base (not a surprise in this economy) by offering 2-for-1 balcony subscriptions (where we’ve been for a few years), supposedly lower prices, and half-price tickets for White Christmas”. I should note that their prices are already pretty good: $198/$188 (matinee) for four shows in Orchestra, $172/$156 (matinee) for four shows in Mezzanine, and $100/$80 (matinee) for four shows in the Balcony (and with the 2-for-1, that makes it $50/$40 (matinee) in the Balcony, which is stupendous!). Cabrillo does great local productions (not tours) with remarkable acting, singing, and dancing. Their lighting design is a bit conventional (nsshere gets annoyed with their follow spots), and their sets run hot and cold, but they are a great value for the entertainment you get. As for us, I’m not sure whether we’ll renew in the balcony (where we presently are) or coordinate an upgrade with my Uncle Ron (who joined us last night), who has his tickets in the Orchestra. I think it all depends on budget.
Upcoming Theatre: We have a bit of a break from theatre while I get ready for the CISSP exam. Immediately after the exam (that evening) our theatre resumes with “Mauritius” at the Pasadena Playhouse. The weekend of April 25/26 is set aside for the Southern California Renaissance Faire and possibly the OERM Spring Railfestival. May 2 or 3 (pending ticketing) will hopefully be “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Theatre League Thousand Oaks (this is their last weekend). May 10 (pending ticketing) should be “Is He Dead? at ICT Long Beach. May 17 (again, pending ticketing) should be “big” at West Coast Ensemble, to be followed by “The Green Room at Hermosa Beach Playhouse on May 24 (pending ticketing). The end of May (May 28, 29, 30) brings “Fiddler on the Roof” at Nobel Middle School, where nsshere is doing the lighting design. On June 6 @ 8pm we’re scheduled for “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” at Repertory East Playhouse, but since we saw that when they did it two years ago, we’re likely to switch to “Fat Pig” in their “81 series”. Lastly, June 20 @ 8pm is “The Little Foxes” at The Pasadena Playhouse. We might also explore “Little Woman: The Musical” at the Lyric Theatre (3/19 – 4/26), depending on whether it fits into the schedule (and I note they are doing “Once Upon a Mattress afterwards (5/14-6/21)). Quite an ambitious theatrical spring.
