42nd Street is the kind of lavish musical extravaganza that modern musical love to mock. The costumes are elaborate - actresses parade onstage in gold sequins and pink chiffon - the songs are delightfully self-indulgent and the narrative is effortlessly wrapped up in a tight, neat bundle.
Yet while shows in the vein of The Producers and Spamalot would certainly poke fun at the theatrical conventions currently on display at the Walnut Street Theatre, it is difficult not to be seduced by what amounts to a blissful presentation of a bygone era.
First seen as a 1933 Warner Brothers film, 42nd Street has been reincarnated for the theater on numerous occasions throughout its 70-year history, including a Tony Award-winning run on Broadway in 1980 and an enormously successful revival in 2001.
Originally choreographed by Busby Berkeley and with lyrics like, "I'll go home and get my panties / You'll go home and get your scanties / And away we'll go / Off we're gonna shuffle / Shuffle off to Buffalo," 42nd Street began its existence as a heartwarming respite from the Great Depression. To this day, it continues to provide a much needed escape from the harsh realities of everyday life.
Few elements have been changed from the show's original winning formula. The plot remains the same - an immensely talented, inexperienced young girl from Allentown, PA, becomes a Broadway chorus girl in the midst of the Great Depression. Innocently optimistic and painfully shy, she finds herself chosen to star in the musical Pretty Lady when the show's original star breaks her ankle. With the livelihoods of her fellow castmates at her mercy, she must rise to the occasion or leave them prey to the elements of the Depression.
The lead actors are cut from the cookie-cutter mold of what one might expect from a musical of this sort (the producers are most definitely not looking to push any boundaries). And with the exception of Mark Jacoby, who plays Julian Marsh, Pretty Lady's director, their performances strike one as fairly standard. Still, the overall impact is contagious.
Although such a straightforward, show-within-a show narrative might resonate as somewhat contrived, this conceit is part of its intrinsic appeal. Audience members can hardly resist singing along with the intensely familiar melodies, particularly the show's title song, along with favorites such as "Go Into Your Dance," "We're In The Money" and "Lullaby of Broadway."
Despite its many successes, 42nd Street's generic structure and ostensibly shallow plot run the risk of alienating the jaded 21st century viewer. However, the Walnut Street Theatre has done an admirable job of ensuring that this does not occur.
The disparately colored settings and props suggest a marked distinction between when we are looking in on the "real life" of a theater company at work and when we are asked to act as spectators in attendance at another show. This trajectory from solemnity to vibrancy adds just the touch of reality that contemporary audiences require to suspend their disbelief.
As much of a blockbuster as it has ever been, the Walnut Street Theatre's production of 42nd Street offers a welcome relief from the mundane travails of ordinary life, providing in their place an imaginative vision of the world in which happy endings are no mere childhood fantasy.
