Entertainment
The "42nd Street" nale, eaturing Catherine Wreford as the "star-is-born" Peggy Sawyer
`42nd Street'
Tony-winning musical will bring "those dancing feet" to the Masonic Theatre stage.
BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News
C
onsider the real-life elements
that gave birth to the show
...
• A 300-pound Jewish
man from Philadelphia, Al Dubin —
who ate and drank to excess, and who
became a brilliant lyricist, despite the
fact his parents didn't want him to
pursue a musical career;
• A chorus boy of the 1920s,
Bradford Ropes — who became an
author and wrote seamy novels about
backstage life;
• A brilliant choreographer, Gower
10/18
2002
88
Champion — who died on the eve of
his biggest Broadway success;
• Tap dancing — a type of dance
that can be traced back to the Irish
step dance and old African dance
movements;"
• And 42nd Street — a busy thor-
oughfare in Manhattan that flourished
in the early 20th century (and experi-
enced a rebirth in the 1990s).
This is the stuff great Broadway"
shows are made of and one of them,
42nd Street, is coming to Detroit's
Masonic Temple Theatre for perform-
ances Oct. 22-Nov. 10.
42nd Street is a classic backstage
drama that runs the gamut of emo-
tions ... from the sadness of the Great
Depression through "star-is-born,"
"show-must-go-on" excitement and
happiness. And it's brought to life by
38 tap dancers in six full-production
numbers, pounding the stage in some
of the best ensemble dancing in
Broadway's history.
They'll need all- of the room they
can get on Detroit's biggest theater
stage to execute an exciting configura-
tion of dances that, combined with
the songs and story, won a best-musi-
cal Tony Award when 42nd Street
opened on Broadway 22 years ago.
The show, which ran for eight years,
captured another Tony for the best-
musical revival last year, then
embarked on the current 25-city tour.
The legendary 42nd Street story can
be traced back to a novel by Ropes, a
chorus dancer and little-known
author., who later became a noted
writer of screenplays and radio pro-
grams. The story had to be cleaned up
for the pristine movie days of 1933
when Jewish dancer-actress Ruby
Keeler and Dick Powell starred in the
film.
Using source material from the
1933 movie 42nd Street and other
films, such as Gold Diggers of 1933,
Dames (1934), and Gold Diggers of
1935, Michael Stewart and Mark