Naughty, bawdy, gaudy, sporty – it’s 42nd Street

Photo gallery: Graduating Victorian College of the Arts music theatre and production students bring the Broadway classic to life

By Scott McLachlan, University of Melbourne

Published 5 November 2015

42nd Street is one of Broadway’s unlikely success stories.

Adapted from the 1933 Busby Berkeley-choreographed film of the same name, it chronicles the toils of musical director Julian Marsh as he takes his last run at staging a successful show during the Great Depression, and the rise to fame of down-home country girl Peggy Sawyer to a dancing and singing star of the stage.

Graduating music theatre students brought the classic Broadway number to the the Victorian College of the Arts for their final year performance season in September 2015.

Led by an all-star creative team, including director Gary Young (Ned, Carousel, Singing in the Rain), choreographer Kirsten King (Strictly Ballroom, King Kong the Musical) and musical director Luke Hunter (Jersey Boys, Grease), 42nd Street also featured set design, lighting and stage management by graduating production students.

Much like its fictional source material, the original 1980 production of 42nd Street was no smooth ride. Producer David Merrick’s $AU3 million investment looked every part of the gamble that it was.

No film had ever been successfully adapted for Broadway, with the only attempt – 1974’s Gigi – bombing with audiences and critics alike.

British shows were beginning to dominate music theatre, with the rise of Andrew Lloyd Webber imminent.

Even the opening night was tinged with tragedy: veteran director Gower Champion succumbed to his battle with cancer 10 hours before the opening, a fact which was kept from the cast and crew until the final curtain call.

Yet 42nd Street went on to become one of the most successful shows in musical theatre history with close to 3,500 performances, and the last American musical to run for 25 straight years at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway.

A hat-tip to the big-band brashness of the 1930s, a paean to all-American optimism during the Depression and a razzle-dazzle celebration of the golden age of the stage, 42nd Street is truly one of the great triumphs of Broadway.

View the full Victorian College of the Arts’ program and cast list.

The cast in full swing for the opening number “Audition”. 42nd Street features a number of tap pieces reminiscent of the golden era of the 1930s, despite original choreographer Gower Champion having had no formal tap training.

Thalia Smith as Peggy Sawyer showing off her tap moves to her fellow chorus girls. Although country-girl Peggy lucks into her role in the chorus line, her singing and dancing prowess is soon noticed by the rest of the cast and director Julian Marsh.

Nicholas Kyriacou’s Andy Lee and Jordon Mahar’s Mr Julian Marsh hash out choreography on stage. Marsh’s infamous dictatorial treatment of the cast mirrors that of original director/choreographer Gower Champion, who once banned a producer from the set of an earlier production, Prettybelle.

Tayla Johnston as Loraine, Jessica Condon as Maggie and Kaisha Urban as “Anytime” Annie.

Blake Appleqvist as Billy Lawler leading the cast in the classic tune “We’re In The Money” by 1930s composers Al Dubin and Harry Warren. The composers’ work was mined for a number of songs, both from the original film and their other film scores.

The band accompany one of Jenni Little’s solos as Dorothy Brock, the aging and cynical musical star paranoid about being usurped by her younger counterpart.

Mia Dabkowski-Chandler as Phyllis, Tayla Johnston as Loraine, and Bronte Florian as Millie performing “Dames”, a tribute to the leading ladies of Broadway.

Jordan Mahar as Director Marsh gives Thalia Smith’s nervous newcomer Peggy a pep talk in song ahead of her ‘opening night’ performance.

Thalia Smith is triumphant as Peggy at the centre of the title number “42nd Street”. The final song is a tribute to the glamorous exterior and seedy underbelly of New York’s most infamous show-business thoroughfare.

The cast and ensemble join in for the finale. The Art Deco-inspired set was designed and built by production students at the Victorian College of the Arts.

42nd Street was a 2015 Victorian College of the Arts production.

Photography by Drew Echberg, 2015.

Banner: Drew Echberg, 2015.