February 28th, 2019

This was the view from my seat Tuesday night.  Center. K. 109.  Just about a perfect seat.

The show was, "42nd Street".  It's kind of a play within a play.  And it was one of my favourite kinds of plays, a musical in the old style.  Yes, okay, perhaps the plot is a little thin, but that's not the most important part.  It's the set design, which was stunning.  It's the costumes, which were fabulous, it's the sing and the dancing, which were both amazing! And when you put it all together. It's just magical.

For two hours, I was transported back in time to the old musicals that I adore. Gene Kelly, Donald O'Conner, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, that's the stuff that makes me smile.  I don't care if it's in black'n'white or colour, if there is an old musical on TV while I'm ironing, that's what I'm watching.  I want glittery costumes and ridiculous story lines, and tap dancing and song belting and swooning, crooning tunes.  I need music that is memorable,  The kind of stuff I'm still humming days later. And I got it here.

There were all the necessary elements to this story:  The lovely young ingenue, the fading and demanding star, the hard nosed director, the big hearted chorus girls and the full of himself but still sweet male lead.  There was comedy, there was drama and there was music, music music galore!

One of the things that really impressed me was how when there was a group number, the dancers were in perfect sync.  They weren't just good at what they were doing,  they were doing it as one entity.  Perfectio.!  If you've never tried to do anything in perfect unison with someone else, you cannot imagine how difficult it really is to do.  The the more people in the group, the more difficult it is.  They absolutely nailed it.

Even the local newspaper praised it saying, "If you only attend one theatrical performance this year, make it this one".  I agree.  This show is worth navigating the current nightmare of construction and parking issues we are currently experiencing.  And Tuesday night, when I was there, we had the added attraction of pouring rain, thunder and lightening just to make things a little more interesting.  Still, Totally Worth it!  And clearly I'm not the only one who thought so. There was very nearly a full house!

​So there you have it. If you have the opportunity to see this show, do it!  Don't hesitate for one second. It's a must do!