42nd Street
42nd Street
OPENING: August 25, 1980
CLOSING: January 8, 1989
Seen: January 1985
LOCATION: Majestic Theater
Hello, my Theater Kids!
I apologize for missing a few weeks – okay, fine. Months. In the time that I’ve been away from you all I’ve produced (And starred in) the world premiere staged reading of my play, A for Alcoholic. Naked Angels in NYC has picked back up again and I’ve presented a one act that I presented at the Rogue Festival a few years ago, and....well, I’ve got eager voices waiting for the next installment. And Welcome to Clayton continues it’s development at The Playground Experiment. The theater artist life is most definitely alive and well and it’s manifesting in my schedule. And speaking of being a theater artist – that is exactly what the show featured in this week’s entry about.
In the 1920’s, Vaudeville was all the rage. Florenz Ziegfeld in particular made an art form out of creating productions with lines of chorus girls singing and dancing. Choreographers such as Busby Berkeley played with complex choreography to create shapes and stunning optics on stage.
But then something happened: film technology advanced. Where films were once silent and visually rocky now had sounds and the pictures were smoother. This meant that what once could only happen on stage was now able to be presented on stage to a much wider audience. And what was one of the first mediums to translate to film?
That’s right, Theater Kids – The Musical.
Many of the films from the late twenties and early thirties have been lost to time. A good amount of them were fluffy revues. But one of the most popular of the time was one that has endured, even almost 100 years after the film first premiered in cinemas. It was 1933’s 42nd Street.
The plot, such as many of the time, was simple – and by today’s opinion, extremely predictable and cliché. A young chorus girl (Peggy) wanders into an audition for renowned director Julian Marsh’s newest musical, Pretty Lady. After being initially rejected, he sees her dance after the audition and he decides that she does belong in his cast. At the same time, Julian is pressured into casting older diva Dorothy Brock as his lead and she is driving him up the wall. When Dorothy, during previews, bumps into Peggy on stage and breaks her ankle, Peggy is fired on the spot by Julian. However, it quickly becomes clear that Peggy is the only member of the ensemble who has the skills to take on the lead role. Julian chases her to the train station, convinces her to come back, and Peggy Sawyer gives a kick butt performance which launches her to stardom.
There had been attempts to bring some of the movie musicals of the 30’s to the stage, but before 1980, only one had materialized. It was the 1974 adaptation of Lerner and Lowe’s 1958 film Gigi. The stage version was a flop, despite the success of the film. But in the late 70’s, David Merrick decided that it was time to break that trend. He partnered with Gower Champion, whose health was failing but nevertheless excited for the project.
The production premiered at The Kennedy Center in the summer of 1980. Having received mixed reviews from the press in DC, Merrick made the decision to delay the opening a few weeks in order to rework the show a bit and truly make it ready for New York audiences. And now, forty-three years later, we can all deduce that he made the right choice: 42nd Street is forever emblazoned in the musical theater cannon as one of the best dance shows to hit Broadway.
For the role of Julian Marsh, Merrick was able to procure the talented Jerry Orbach. Wanda Rickert played ingenue Peggy Sawyer, Tammy Grimes played Dorothy Brock, and Lee Roy Reams played Billy Lawlor.
But all not all that glitters is gold. On opening night, after out of town tryouts and months of rehearsal had finally resulted in a sparkling opening night, the curtain dropped unexpectedly and Merrick delivered some heartbreaking news to the cast: Champion had died earlier that day.
And this is where I get excited and this blog gets interesting: Playing the role of Phyllis and also dancing in the ensemble was a young dancer by the name of Jeri Kansas. And I am proud to call her a friend and a dance mentor.
Jeri originated the role of Phyllis, one of the many dancers who filled the line in Pretty Lady. She had been hand picked by Champion himself in her Broadway debut, Sugar Babies where she danced with Ann Miller. Prior to Sugar Babies, she was a Rockette. To this day, Jeri lives and breathes the art of dance and you can see this in every aspect of her life.
According to Jeri, it was Orbach himself who had the foresight to call for the curtain to come down once he saw Merrick come onstage on opening night. His experience in the industry told him that something was not right and having become the “father” of this very large cast, he knew it would be better if they received the news of Champion’s death away from the opening night crowd even if “away” was only by a curtain. The after party at the Waldorf Astoria, which should have been a joyous occasion, was tinged with sadness. But the cast knew one things: they needed to carry on Gower’s legacy. And carry it on they did. The show won two Tonys that year: Best Musical, and Best Choreography for Champion.
The show had a healthy nine year run. It broke the curse of movie musicals being turned into musicals and was revived in 2001. As of October 2023, there have been whisperings of another revival coming to Broadway, but these have not yet come to fruition. By the time my dad saw it in 1985, Jeri had left the production. But even all these years later, he remembers being enthralled with the caliber of the dance with the cast that he did see – and it was the original cast that left that left huge tap shoes for every replacement cast to fill. Was it a date night with my mom? Who knows.
Forty three year years after that opening night, the original cast of that incredible production still has regular reunion. These dancers strap on their shoes and dance that opening number. Jerry Orbach passed in 2004 but his son Chris has never missed a reunion in his father’s stead. It goes to show the bond a cast can create – and how long that bond can last.
CAST: REPLACEMENT
ANDY LEE: Danny Carroll
OSCAR: Robert Colston
MAC: Stan Page
ANNIE: Beth Leavel
MAGGIE JONES: Jessica James
BERT BARRY: Joseph Bova
BILLY LAWLOR: Lee Roy Reams
PEGGY SAWYER: Karen Ziemba
LORRAINE: Marla Singer
PHYLLIS: Cynthia Thole
JULIAN MARSH: Jerry Orbach
DOROTHY BROCK: Millicent Martin
ABNER DILLON: Don Crabtree
PAT DENNING: Steve Elmore
THUGS: Stan Page, Ron Schwinn
DOCTOR: Stan Page
ENSEMBLE: Diane Abrams, Dennis Angulo, Carole Banninger, Dennis Batutus, Paula Joy Belis, Jeffrey Cornell, Ronny DeVito, Rob Draper, Yvonne Dutton, Brandt Edwards, Cathy Greco, Jennifer Hammond, Billye Kersey, Karen Klump, Terri Ann Kundrat, Neva Leigh, Maureen Mellon, Gwendolyn Miller, Ken Mitchell, Beth Myatt, Bill Nabel, Sheila O’Connor, Tony Parise, Don Percassi, Rosemary Rado, Michael Ricardo, Lars Rosager, Linda Sabatelli, Ron Schwinn, Pamela S. Scott, Yveline Semeria, Marla Singer, J. Thomas Smith, Michael Steuber, Susanne Leslie Sullivan, Vickie Taylor, Cynthia Thole.
UNDERSTUDIES: Connie Day (Standby for Dorothy Brock and Maggie Jones); Steve Elmore (Julian Marsh); Stan Page (Julian Marsh, Abner Dillon, Pat Denning); Vickie Taylor (Peggy Sawyer); Debra Ann Draper (Peggy Sawyer, Phyllis, Lorraine, Ensemble); Rob Draper (Billy Lawlor); Dennis Angulo (Billy Lawlor, Ensemble); Bill Nabel (Bert Barry, Mac); Ron Schwinn (Bert Barry, Mac); Don Percassi (Andy Lee); Brant Edwards (Pat Denning); Billye Kersey (Anne); Linda Sabatelli (Anne); Bernie Leighton (Oscar); Lizzie Moran (Phyllis, Lorraine, Ensemble), Ida Henry (Ensemble); Patrice McConachie (Ensemble); and Rick Conant (Ensemble).
“42nd Street” Internet Broadway Database. Accessed July 2023. https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/42nd-street-3963#People
“42 Postpones Opening”. New York Times, July 29, 1980. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/08/26/111281326.html?pageNumber=43
Bordman, Gerald. “American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle.” New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1978.
Clements, Carly-Ann. “Everything You Need to Know About 42nd Street.” OfficialLondonTheatre.com, July 20, 2018. https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-42nd-street-111412240/
Playbill Staff. “Celebrate 42 years of 42nd Street on Broadway.” Playbill, August 25, 2020. https://playbill.com/article/look-back-at-the-original-production-of-42nd-street-on-broadway
Reams, Lee Roy. “42nd Street” Performing Arts Legacy Project (Blog). Accessed July, 2023. https://performingartslegacy.org/reams/lee-roy-reams/
Rich, Frank. “Theater: Musical ‘42nd Street.’” New York Times; August 26, 1980. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/08/26/111281326.html?pageNumber=43
TheatreGold. “42nd Street Musical”. Accessed July 2023. https://www.theatregold.com/content/42nd-street/
