Theater Review—

‘Forty-Second Street:’

Good Things Are Happening In Bridgeport

By Julie Stern

BRIDGEPORT — “Just imagine” said the lady in a black coat to her friend as they boogied out of the Downtown Cabaret Theater, “we’re in Bridgeport!  Seeing something this good!”

After several years in the limbo of lost funding, The DCT is back with a mighty splash, mounting a holiday production of Forty-Second Street, the Tony Award winning Broadway musical created by Gower Champion, based on the 1933 Busby Berkley film.

It’s the fairy tale about the world-weary director, Julian Marsh, who turns to the young ingénue who must take over for the injured leading lady and says “Kid-  you’re gonna go out there a youngster, but you’ll come back a star!”

Mired in the throes of the Great Depression, Marsh is attempting to resurrect his career with a blockbuster musical, Pretty Lady. Abner Dillon, a rich and foolish Texas sugar daddy has agreed to finance the show, on the condition that the starring role be given to his inamorata, the aging and arrogant Dorothy Brock.

With the connivance of the boyish tenor, Billy Lawlor, and a bunch of kind-hearted showgirls, Peggy Sawyer, the sweet young thing from Allentown, tap dances her way into a job on the chorus line. It’s her first professional gig, but when Miss Brock unexpectedly breaks her ankle the day before opening night, it will be up to Peggy — terrified and exhilarated at the same time — to learn the part and go on in her place.

Like the series of Gold Digger classics that Berkeley made in the thirties, the original movie was a study in character and the conflict between youthful dreams and harsh economic realities. The iconic dance numbers don’t come until almost halfway through the film.

In contrast, the musical is clearly centered around the dancing, and the wonderful memorable songs: “You’re Getting to be a Habit With Me,” “We’re in the Money,” “Shuffle Off to Buffalo,” “Forty-Second Street” and “Lullaby of Broadway,” which actually came from Gold Diggers of 1935.

This particular production is billed as having come straight from the Tropicana in Atlantic City. As such, it seems to have been shortened a bit, removing some of the talky bits that flesh out the story (as in the secret romance between Miss Brock and her old vaudeville partner, Pat Denning), allowing all attention to be focused on the dancing, which is choreographed by Paula Hammons Sloan.

This hardly matters. The vigor and  joyous enthusiasm of the dancers enraptures the audience and underlines the happy message that if you care enough, and really love what you do,  good things will happen.

There are some terrific performances here, especially from a shaven-headed Rutledge Varley, who brings Yul Brynner-like intensity and complexity  as well as a fine singing voice, to the role of Julian Marsh, and from Melinda Vaggione as the ebullient young heroine.

When she goes onstage for the “opening night” finale she begins with the fearful deer-in-the-headlights panic of the amateur, convinced she will forget her lines, and then, before our eyes, she morphs into the star she has indeed become, belting out  the spectacular title song in a way that had the whole house cheering.

Lauren Fijol is appropriately snippy as Dorothy Brock, but she too has a great voice, as does Andrew Chartier as Peggy’s devoted cavalier, Billy.

The costumes, the lighting, and the music are all splendid, and the whole evening was really a bundle of  foot tapping, smiling fun.

(Performances continue through January 4. Contact the theater at 203-576-1636 or DTCab.com for details.)