Theatre and Dance Previews

The story of small town girl Peggy Sawyer who rises from chorus girl to Broadway star is a classic backstage musical, with a show within a show, and some wonderful and memorable songs including "We're in the Money", "Lullaby of Broadway", "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" and or course the title song.

But it’s also, quite literally, a show that lives or dies by its dancing.

Director Matt Fowler takes rehearsal

It's ambitious for professionals, so for an amateur society, you would think it would be a no go area. But not the St Albans Operatic Society. They have embraced the timeless tale wholeheartedly and you can see the results at the Alban Arena from the 22-26 April 2008.

Director and choreographer Matt Fowler, who audiences may remember as Tony in the Society’s recent production of West Side Story, tells us why you should go and see their production.

“It's going to be a very different production of 42nd St to what anyone will have seen before” he explained.

“We've had a shortage of men so we've had to change a lot of the numbers to make them more female based. Also, whenever you see 42nd St done professionally, it has to be the Gower Champion choreography and obviously, because I don't know all the Gower Champion choreography, it's all my choreography so it's a totally unique production!”

So, what’s been the biggest challenge?

“I have to say the tap's been the hardest thing” revealed Matt.

“I thought it would be the easiest. I've been tapping for 23 years so I thought it would be my thing, but because it is my thing, I'm very hard on myself and a bit of a perfectionist.”

They Society looked for dancers in a lot of the local dance schools where tap is still very popular, so while some of the girls are quite young, the standard of tap is very high.

Complicated

And if you thought that for any choreographer the key would be keeping it simple but effective, then you’d be wrong, as Matt explained.

“Yes - that is a key which I've kind of not gone with!

“I've kept it complicated ... because I'm mean” he laughed.

Director Matt Fowler shows them how!

“Simple and effective's good but then complicated, as long as they get it, will be good too. They are working hard and I have every faith in them. I've got a fantastic troupe of dancers, the girls have worked really hard. I've given them some really complicated stuff, especially with the tap.

“I've done 42nd St before, where we did the original Gower Champion choreography but he wasn't a tapper and I found that quite obvious because I thought that the tap was quite simple. It's very effective and it's great to watch but what I've tried to do is make it more of a tap dancer's show and it's a lot more complicated in places.

“With ‘Go Into Your Dance’, I don't think you're going to see many more complicated tap numbers in an amateur show anywhere.” 

Longevity 

The timeless nature of the show can be seen in its longevity. 42nd St was first seen as a film in the 1930s before the stage show arrived in the 1980s and always seems to have been popular. Matt explained why he thought that was.

“I think what's appealing about it, is that it's a traditional old style musical theatre where there’s comedy, it’s not too serious, there's lots of fantastic numbers, lots of beautiful costumes, lots of tap dancing, and lots of singing. It's just your old-school feel-good fun night out!

"There are loads of numbers that you'll know and some you won't know and lots of great routines. The ensemble are great and some of the principals voices are just unbelievable, just as good as anything you're going to see in the West End in my opinion."