This musical is all about the big numbers – and they really are fabulous
In 2021, the success of “Anything Goes” at the Barbican proved that there remains a strong appetite for “classic tune and toe shows”, said Fiona Mountford in The i Paper. And this new production of “42nd Street” – a musical that was first staged in 1980, but which is based on a 1933 Busby Berkeley choreographed film – is sure to delight. The archetypal showbiz story, it is about a chorus girl who becomes a star, and in this revival, it has a dream leading lady in Nicole-Lily Baisden, as well as “exquisitely expressive” tap routines from choreographer Bill Deamer – and all the “energy and pizzazz” you could hope for, from the show’s opening scene to its “shimmering finale”.
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Set during the Depression, the message “42nd Street” is one of “bright positivity”, said Lyndsey Winship in The Guardian: “buck up, lace up your dancing shoes, get out there and put on a show. And also, be young, pretty and ever so nice, and good fortune will come your way.” Some recent musical revivals (“Oklahoma!”, “Carousel”) have been updated for modern audiences. For this co-production with the Leicester Curve (which will be going on a nationwide tour), director Jonathan Church has opted to retain the feel of the period, with mild sexism, “deco sparkle”, and black and white newsreel of the unemployed.
Some of the supporting cast are strangely lacklustre, said Nick Curtis in the Evening Standard. But the show is packed with classic songs – including “We’re in the Money” and “Lullaby of Broadway”. And Baisden turns in such a superb performance, it would “perfectly mirror the arc of her character” – had she not already wowed audiences in “Anything Goes”.
The “gossamer thin” and wildly “outdated plot” is a problem, said Claire Allfree in The Daily Telegraph: with no “decent book to anchor them”, the song and dance routines “seem to float free in their own ether”. But in that sense “42nd Street” is all about the big numbers – and they really are fabulous. The tap dancing sequences are “so mesmeric and weightless, they induce a sort of trance”, while the songs “send the soul soaring. If you want to feel the beat of the dancing feet, this really is the only show in town.”
Sadler’s Wells, London EC1, until 2 July, then touring; 42ndstreettour.com. Rating ****
