The Long Island Advance
Glamour, Dancing, and Music
Oh, those dancin’ feet.
They tap into view as the curtain raises.
It’s 1,2,3,4,5,6, 7, 8. They have to get it right because the tickets are $4.40 a seat. The “Audition” number leading with Andy Lee (Willie Clyde Beaton II), grabs the audience. And the cast of “42 Street,” at The Gateway in Bellport, all 23 of them, look like they’re having a ball from the get-go.
The story of newcomer, Peggy Sawyer (Elizabeth McGuire), from Allentown, Pa. who arrives at Broadway for a shot a stardom, takes place during the Great Depression. Can she get the job and then take over for the glamorous star, Dorothy Brock (a superb Kristen Beth Williams) in “Pretty Lady” when she breaks her ankle. Originally a 1933 film, it was a time when musicals and movies distracted people from their troubles, considerable back then with rampant unemployment. Many of the stories depicted underdogs who succeed hauling a show up with fabulous costumes (as in this production), sticking to an ideal, or they were madcap, hilarious comedies or fantasies.
So when you see numbers like “Go Into Your Dance,” as Peggy is welcomed as a new cast member at lunch by Maggie Jones (Jessica Wockenfuss), Annie Reilly (Sarah Dearstyne), Phyllis Dale (Marlina Brown), Lorraine Flemming (Haley Holcomb), Andy Lee (Willie Clyde Beaton II) including the waiters at The Gypsy Tea Kettle Restaurant, it’s a fun, joyful tap dancing spin on your imagination with all of them twirling their talent around the table.
(Like, who does that? Even in the Russian Tea Room that doesn’t happen! But that’s why you need musicals.)
Awesome praise to director/choreographer Randy Skinner as well as associate choreographer, Mary Giattino, double threats, for this marvelous show. Skinner has Tony award-winning best musical revival cachet and has worked on many blockbuster shows. Giattino is a former Rockette, Broadway and Gateway performer who owns and runs Stage Door School of Dance.
They know what riveting dance should look like and guide the cast with brilliance. And the cast follows with amazing energy and panache.
The Broadway musical that emerged in 1980 was directed by iconic dancer, choreographer and musical film star Gower Champion. After Champion’s untimely death just before opening night, Skinner took over. And that’s why over the years this show has held up.
As in…the beautiful, graceful “Shadow Waltz,” where Dorothy Brock performs against a colorful silhouetted background with lithe men in tuxes, or “We’re in the Money,” with the whole company in gold costumes as dancing coins, dimes to be exact.
There’s an amazing sequence, a nod to classic film star Gene Kelly’s “Gotta Dance” in the “42nd Street” number towards the end of the show when Peggy bucks up under pressure. The music builds, the cast is masterful with jazzy, seductive steps, tap, stomp, tap jiggle. Arms up and out. It even has this slick guy in black (the sinuous Sam Sanderson) who “kills” Billy.
Ryan K. Bailer as Julian Marsh was an elegant, remote, then ultimately tender Captain Von Trapp and an attractive Juan Peron in past Gateway productions. In “42nd Street” he’s the brusque, serious theater impresario, the commanding presence whose total focus and determination goads Peggy and the cast to get the best show out there despite sore feet and aching bodies. His weary cynicism dissolves, passion unleashed, singing, “Lullaby of Broadway.”
Watch Elizabeth McGuire’s Peggy evolve, realizing her talent as the show builds, not in a pretentious way but in a “Wow, I really do have this. Thank you!” McGuire has performed the show several times in other theaters; she’s perfected Peggy’s humbleness. Her singing and dancing are superb.
Kristen Beth Williams embodies her Dorothy Brock star character. She’s glamorous vocally and as a dancer, (even with a cast on her leg).
Robert Anthony Jones is hilarious as Abner Dillon, the unsophisticated wealthy boyfriend bankrolling Dorothy’s career. Jesse Swimm plays Dorothy’s real love interest trying to avoid getting bumped off to save the show, adding a poignant element.
Cullen R. Titmas as co-writer Bert Barry with Maggie Jones (Jessica Wockenfuss), are a funny duo especially in “Keep Young and Beautiful.”
Willie Clyde Beaton II’s Andy Lee, the dance director for the production, was also an amazing ensemble member in Broadway’s “A Wonderful World, the Louis Armstrong Musical” musical. Griffin Wilkins as Billy Lawlor shines with youthful pizazz.
How music director/conductor Andrew Haile Austin with associate music director Jake Turski and the orchestra keep the expert tempo going with 14 demanding dance scenes and upbeat songs, we’ll never know. But they did. Bravo!
Suffolk County executive Ed Romaine and his wife attended the show on opening night and, along with the audience, watched the astonishing “Finale” a rocking, extra bonus after the cast took their bows. The man next to me from Babylon Village shook his head in wonder at the dancing saying, “It’s contagious!”
Yes, it was!”
