Date: Fri 29-Dec-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A-10

Quick Words:

42nd-Street-Downtown-Stern

Full Text:

(rev of "42nd Street" at Downtown Cabaret Theatre, 12/29/95)

Theatre Review-

Pack Up A Winter Picnic For Cabaret's New Smash

(with photo)

By Julie Stern

BRIDGEPORT - The most marvelous scene in Bridgeport's Downtown Cabaret

Theatre's delicious production of the Tony Award-winning musical 42nd Street

comes early in the second act, when Peggy Sawyer, the modest ingenue-heroine,

is heading home to Allentown in defeat and Julian Marsh, the tough-minded

director, along with the entire cast of the upcoming show, follow her to

Philadelphia's Broad Street Railroad Station to plead with her to reconsider.

Scenic designer Mark Cheney uses a subtle sepia-toned backdrop to give the

effect of great space, suggesting the airy height of a glass-roofed building

and beyond it a limitless expanse of railyards. As the demure, grey-coated

Miss Sawyer huddles with her suitcase on the edge of the platform, Marsh and

the gaily-clad ensemble of singer/dancers pour down the ornate wrought iron

Art Deco staircase, wooing her back with a dazzling rendition of "Lullaby of

Broadway."

Cheney, along with director/choreographer Craig North, costume designer Gail

Baldoni and musical director Lon Hoyt, have put together another Cabaret smash

hit to open the 1995-96 season, featuring DCT's traditional perfectionism:

wonderful sets, stunning costumes, joyous dancing and totally professional

performances by everyone in the cast.

42nd Street , the play, is a variation on the famous Busby Berkeley film from

the early 1930s. It is a Depression-era tribute to the indomitable spirit of

the spunky kids who survived on peanuts in order to follow the showbiz dream

of the big musical - a string of show-stopping reviews, joyously ebullient

dancing, powerful ballads and droll bits of comic relief.

Tying it all together is the theme of the young kid from the boonies who,

against impossible odds, comes through in the emergency, when the star breaks

her light right before opening night.

Appropriately enough, in this production the young kid (Peggy Sawyer) is

played by a genuine Pennsylvania hopeful. Unlike the other main players and

most musical theatre leads, Donielle LaVancher is not yet a member of Actor's

Equity, but she got the job and she acquits herself as a major talent.

Also outstanding are Kathryn Kendall as Dorothy Brock, the hard-boiled star

with a voice reminiscent of Ethel Merman; and Mary Kilpatrick and Jon Carver

as the two comic leads who captain the chorus.

From the frenetic opening tap dance routine through the parade of

well-remembered hits - "You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me," "We're In The

Money," "Lullaby of Broadway," "42nd Street" and "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," as

well as nearly a dozen others - this show is a continual delight.

It has been 20 years now that Downtown Cabaret Theatre has been one of

Fairfield County's best-kept secrets: Broadway-caliber entertainment at a

quarter of the price, with free parking and the chance to enjoy a picnic

dinner at your table while you watch the show. In the midst of this miserable

winter, grab your wine and cheese and pate and take a trip to 42nd Street .