Review: 42ND STREET, Theatre Royal, Glasgow

“Come and meet those dancing feet” on Hope Street, where the UK tour of 42nd Street is making its Glasgow stop at the Theatre Royal. This sparking revival of this show-within-a-show started life at the Leicester Curve earlier this year.

Based on the 1932 Bradford Ropes novel and 1933 film, the stage version opened on Broadway in 1980 and follows the development of Pretty Lady, a new musical, and all the on-stage and off-stage drama in tow – from demanding stars to chorus girls thrust into the spotlight, with plenty of tap dancing in between!

Nicole-Lily Baisden shines as Peggy Sawyer, fresh off the bus from Allentown to start her performing career and gets to show off her tap-dancing prowess – skills that were seriously underutilised in her performance as Hope Harcourt in the Barbican/UK touring production of Anything Goes.

Baisden’s casting brings a new element to Sawyer as a character and made this reviewer ponder the additional burdens experienced by certain chorus girls while working on the Great White Way. It is heart-warming to see her taking centre stage, leading many of the dance numbers.

Samantha Womack revels in the role of “big name” Dorothy Brock, with her hard exterior softening over the course of the show. Michael Praed is suitably fierce and firm as director Julian Marsh, and Faye Tozer is delightful as the charismatic Maggie Jones, one of the writers of Pretty Lady.

Jonathan Church’s direction ensures the show has a slick, golden-age feel, and Bill Deamer’s thrilling choreography is truly the star of the show, superbly delivered by the talented cast.

Robert Jones’ glittery costume design adds to the excitement of the big dance numbers – although the odd brightly coloured hat feels a bit incongruous with the otherwise unified colour palette on stage.

Jones’ minimalist set design of a vast dark empty stage for most scenes is beautifully married with Ben Cracknell’s elegant lighting design, from lone ghost lights to dramatic reds and blues for the “42nd Street” sequence.

The final number of the show is sadly a bit disappointing: wobbly projections of the lights of Broadway are the backdrop to the cast tapping away on a single level of the stage and feels like an obvious cost-cutting choice over flying in physical neon set pieces.

While there are understandably design factors to consider for touring productions, with the Theatre Royal Drury Lane revival of 42nd Street in such recent memory with *that* staircase sequence, this simplified staging of the finale is rather underwhelming.

Although the cast refers to 25 musicians “down there”, there are only ten players in the pit orchestra. That said, the soaring reed and brass sections make the most of the simplified orchestrations, under the musical direction of Grant Walsh, blasting out the beefy Broadway score which includes familiar numbers such as “Lullaby of Broadway” and “We’re In The Money”.

As news headlines continue to be grim, this show is a lovely little bit of escapism, and the nods to the great depression, inflation and unemployment at the top of the second act do not go unnoticed by this Glasgow audience.

For an evening of pure joy and jazz hands, head on down to 42nd Street!

42nd Street at Theatre Royal, Glasgow until 26 August, then continues on tour, including Edinburgh in 2024

Photo credit: Johan Persson

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