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Come and meet - those dancing feet
This popular Harry Warren and Al Dubin musical is currently being staged by Greasepaint Productions at Loughborough Town Hall. It's an all singing and dancing affair which focuses on the trials and tribulations of staging a hit show. The action begins with its conception and finishes on its opening night - and along the way choreographer Cathy Birkenhead has put together some excellent routines. It is certainly a dramatic process as everyone involved in staging Pretty Lady faces a race against time to get the show op and running. But it also provides a vehicle for an unknown actress to be propelled from the relative anonymity of the chorus to the high profile role of leading lady. That happens to Allentown lass Peggy Sawyer who starts off as a rejected dancer but ends up firmly in the spotlight. She is superbly played by Tania Smith, a talented actress and singer who manages to capture all aspects of her character's life. At times she is vulnerable and naive, at others she has her head firmly screwed on. She gels well with all her co-stars and has a strong rapport with the fictional show's director Julian Marsh who is brilliantly played by Keith Reynolds. Their characters become heavily entwined when she is plunged into the limelight and has to rehearse until she drops to get her part right for the opening night. Reynolds shows the necessary authoritarianism for this, and when he is marshalling the rest of the cast during rehearsals, yet demonstrates a softer side to his character when he is at his most persuasive on Lullaby of Broadway. There is also a romantic diversion as Billy Lawlor (Richard Daniels) attempts to woo the young starlet and they produce a wonderful duet Young and Healthy. But there is a "victim" in all this and that is the aging star Dorothy Brock who is portrayed by Victoria Cutts. She plays the part of this scheming manipulative prima donna very well but mellows toward the end when an old flame is re-kindled. The two men in her life, the rich sugar daddy Abner Dillon and her ex-love and old Vaudeville partner Pat Denning, are strongly played by Len Dobson and Julian Cound, who also directed 42nd Street. While other good performances are turned in by Gilly Grigg and Mark Chinnery as the show's writers Maggie Jones and Bert Barry, Bill Parker as the fast footed dance director and Fleur Moss as Anytime Annie. Backing these up were a small, but strong chorus who helped bring to life the popular tunes like 42nd Street and Shuffle Off to Buffalo which have made this show such a hit. And musical director Milovan Jelic gets the best out of the orchestra who maintain a good pace throughout. Nick Gilbert, The Echo
Copyright © Greasepaint Productions - Last modified 15/06/2003 |
It's time to
put on your dancing shoes and head for 42nd Street.