Theater Review—

Richter Has Done A Great Job With ‘42nd Street’

By Julie Stern

DANBURY —  Thirty years ago, producer David Merrick  hired Gower Champion to choreograph and direct a Broadway musical based on one of the great Busby Berkeley black and white films from the heart of the Great Depression. The film was the 1933 extravaganza, Forty Second Street, and the show, with music and lyrics by Harry Warren, and a “book” by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, became a smash hit, both in this country and in London.

Now, local audiences can enjoy it on an outdoor evening, as Musicals At Richter presents 42nd Street as its second production of the summer. Directed, staged and choreographed by Jen Draghi and Ernie Pruneda, with assistance from Anne Vick and musical direction by Stephanie Gaumer, the show — like Berkeley’s films — is primarily a vehicle for explosive, joyous, high spirited dancing. And that’s exactly what you get.

The plot is stereotypical enough: Julian Marsh, the brash and ego-driven Broadway director, is determined to mount a Broadway musical that will knock the socks off audiences. Because it is the midst of the Depression,  he is forced to rely on bumptious oil millionaire Abner Dillon to bankroll the project, and Abner will agree only on the condition that Marsh chooses the famous (but over the hill) actress Dorothy Brock to be the star.

Meanwhile a timid young ingénue from Allentown, Penn., Peggy Sawyer, has dreams of being in her first Broadway chorus.  With the encouragement of Billy Lawlor, the youthful male lead, Peggy demonstrates her considerable talents, including unbeatable dance routines, a great voice, and terrific looks.

When the insufferable Dorothy breaks her ankle during a last rehearsal,  Marsh threatens to cancel the production entirely, but fortunately for all the boys and girls whose jobs depend on it, Peggy steps up to fill the part.

But of course you don’t go to see 42nd Street for the plot. What counts are those dance numbers, carried out by a stage full of terrific dancers, who are clearly having a wonderful time (as is the audience watching them).

Director Draghi has put together a cast of talented youngsters, mainly in high school and college, as the boys and girls of the chorus (including Newtowners Lindsay McCoy, Brenna Calderera, Sarah McMahon and Amanda Eventoff).

They are supplemented by some longtime Richter veterans. Donald Birely, whose usual role is as a director (Annie, The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music, and this season’s smash opener, Guys and Dolls), sings and dances as one of the cast, including a hilarious version of “Shuffle off to Buffalo.” Comic favorite Juliette Garrison Koch does a great job as the arrogant (but tender hearted) Dorothy Brock, and husband and wife Tom and Jane Matson are fine and funny as Abner Dillon and Maggie Jones, supervisor of the chorines.

Megan Kelley and Billy Hicks are swell as the lead ingénue couple, Peggy and Billy, and a brother and sister from Hamden,  Kevin and Emma Downing, are spectacular in the roles of Andy Lee, the dance supervisor, and Anytime Annie,  the chorine with big hair and a bigger mouth (and heart).

There are many great songs in the show that you will probably recognize, but it’s really the dancing that gets you, all those feet tapping across the stage until you feel you can’t sit still yourself.

A Chorus Line, in which a roomful of dancers audition for eight parts in a show whose name and plot we never learn, was conceived as a tribute to the nameless, hardworking hoofers on whose efforts the success of every musical ultimately depends.  42nd Street is a perfect example of that genre, and once again, Richter has done a great job with it.

(Performances continue weekends until July 24. See the Enjoy Calendar for  details, or call 203-748-6873.)