42nd Street
Upstairs at the Gatehouse
11th Dec 2019 to 26th Jan 2020
“Ovation is delighted to present the London Fringe premiere of 42nd Street…
the all-singing, all-dancing Broadway musical. One of show business’s most classic and beloved tales,
42nd Street tells the story of Peggy Sawyer, a talented young performer with stars in her eyes.
She arrives in New York City from Allentown, Pennsylvania, armed with her tap shoes and big dreams.
When the leading lady drops out of the show, Peggy gets her big break on Broadway.
Musical numbers include: ‘We’re in the Money’, ‘Lullaby of Broadway’,
‘You’re Getting to be a Habit with Me’ and the title song, ‘42nd Street’.”
Review by Richard Lambert, 5 Stars
Once again Ovation has pulled out all the stops to create an amazing musical on the Fringe. Take one of the biggest Broadway shows ever produced and squeeze it into a London Pub Fringe Theatre. Could it work?
Oh yes! It does! It’s brave, bold and very exciting!
With a cast of 13 the stage is awash with fast swirling dancers and costumes.
From the Opening Tap Dancing number to the Finale it’s an upbeat sensation. Everyone has done a superb job on this production – Set and Costumes (Emily Bristow), Choreography (Simon Adkins), the band (John Reddel), the Director (John Plews), and all held together by Stage Management (Ally Southern).
One of the busiest departments for any large-scale musical is always going to be the lighting. It needs 100s of lighting Cues, each one individually painted, with timed changes that match the live action, the music, the blocking. Put this into a traverse theatre which adds the complication of the audience view point being skewed, along with the possibility of the audience being blinded by the additional lighting angles needed. A true master of this is Sam Waddington. Many well-known West End lighting designers could learn a thing or two from the lighting shown here on 42nd Street. Glorious lighting throughout. The colour addition at exactly the right moment for the Feather Costumes’ entrance – truly crafted from a very talented lighting designer!
But any show still needs a wonderful cast and no disappointments here! Every single cast member has full-on charisma, performance, and triple threat skills! No doubt there were 100s of applicants to be cast in this wonderful production and Ovation have been spot-on in their choice!
Absolutely adored this gem of a show!
Director – John Plews
Choreographer – Simon Adkins
Musical Director – John Reddel
Designer – Emily Bestow
Casting – Pearson Casting
Photo Credit Darren Bell
Performances:
Tuesday – Saturdays at 7.30pm
Sunday Matinees at 4.00pm
Additional Matinee Performances:
Sat 21st December – 3.00pm
Fri 27th December – 3.00pm
Sat 28th December – 3.00pm
Tue 31st December – 3.00pm
Wed 1st January – 3.00pm
Thurs 2nd January – 3.00pm
Fri 3rd January – 3.00pm
Sat 4th January – 3.00pm
Sat 25th January – 3.00pm
No shows on Mondays and 24th & 25th December
PRODUCED by Katie Plews for OVATION
Press & P. R. – Katie 07831 227 675
www.upstairsatthegatehouse.com
