Word: 42nd
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...grand, silly movie original 42nd Street that Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley whipped up for Warner Bros. in 1933 was shorter, sharper and funnier than this elaboration, which includes several more numbers and, if possible, even less plot. The Warren-Dubin songs like Go into Your Dance, Shuffle off to Buffalo and About a Quarter to Nine are jazzy bits of innocent syncopation. There is now a good deal of narrative and emotional weight on these tunes, which are graceful little paper boats never made for such heavy cargo. The book, which the program accurately calls "lead-ins and crossovers...
Everyone knows this plot, even if he has never seen 42nd Street in any form: how the little girl from the sticks goes on for a disabled star, saves a big musical, finds love and becomes a star herself. The little girl, this time around, is a whirligig newcomer named Wanda Richert; the laid-up star is Tammy Grimes, who puts over a song like a hybrid of Bea Lillie and Sergeant Bilko; and the hardbitten, long-suffering director is Jerry Orbach, who brings not only freshness but some unexpected bite into the show's title tune...
...42nd Street will be remembered as the last work of Gower Champion, 59, an encapsulation of much that he did best. As a director, he had a jet pilot's sense of speed and angle of ascent. Fond memories of his Bye Bye Birdie offer abundant evidence of that. His choreography could turn from the gliding thunder of tap to the vaulting grace of a waltz without missing a step. The vitality of such 42nd Street numbers as The Shadow Waltz-done just with work lights-Lullaby of Broadway and We're in the Money ensures that this...
Producer David Merrick waited until the cast of 42nd Street had grinned, waved and danced through almost a dozen curtain calls on opening night at the Winter Garden Theater before coming onstage and making an announcement to them and to the audience: "This is tragic. Gower Champion died this afternoon...
Like most Merrick productions, 42nd Street dragged a long train of rumor and gossip. There were postponements of the opening, which the producer characteristically explained to the press in a manner that only deepened the mystery: "The Great Man way up there has said that this show is very important for people all around the world to see. He will give the word when he feels the show is ready. I am waiting for the courier to arrive." There was also much talk about friction between Merrick and Champion. Yet one first-nighter said, "People around the show wanted Merrick...