This Is London12 Oct 2018

8
42ND STREET
Drury Lane
It’s very difficult improving on
perfection but the impossible is
happening right now at Drury Lane
where, at her press night, the polytalented
Bonnie Langford raised the
theatre’s venerable old roof as she
purloined the leading role of
temperamental diva Dorothy Brock in
42nd Street, superseding on every level,
her predecessors, including Sheena
Easton, who headlined this joyous
revival when it opened in April last year.
Forty six years have passed since an
eight-year old Bonnie first appeared at
Drury Lane playing her namesake in the
1972 musical adaptation of Gone With
the Wind. She has since graced the
original West End casts of Cats, Me and
My Girl, Gypsy (with Angela Lansbury)
and was terrific as Charity in the 1998
revival of Sweet Charity.
There is nothing this versatile
performer cannot do, and although, as
part of the plot, the role of Dorothy
Brock does not require her to dance,
Randy Skinner, working from the original
Gower Champion template, has
choreographed a curtain call for her in
Bonnie Langford.
which she joins the company’s
miraculous chorus line and hoofs up a
mini whirlwind. It’s a brilliant idea and
gives audiences – albeit briefly – a
chance to see just how adept a dancer
she still is.
Mainly though, it’s her vocal talents
that are put to the test in this infectiously
feel-good musical, and her compelling
delivery of such popular 1930s
standards as I Only Have Eyes For You,
Boulevard of Broken Dreams and About
a Quarter to Nine elevate proceedings to
a new level. Her performance is so
convincing, you forget that Brock, who
only appears once in the second half, is
actually quite subsidiary to the ingenue ,
Peggy Sawyer, who replaces her when
she breaks an ankle, and overnight
becomes a star. Langford somehow
manages to enlarge the role and for the
first time this revival justifies the
character’s star-billing.
The rest of the featured performers,
notably Clare Halse who, as the out-oftown
would-be chorus girl trying her
luck on Broadway, sings as well as she
dances. You root for her all her way.
Ashley Day as her personable leading
man is pretty nifty on his feet as well as
vocally accomplished too, Tom Lister
brings authority to the role of director
Julian Marsh, and for comic relief, Jasna
Ivir and Christopher Howell as the
show’s composer and lyricist have the
requisite pazazz.
In the end, though, what makes 42nd
Street the best musical in London by a
mega-mile, is the stunning 50-strong
chorus line assembled by Skinner and
director Mark Bramble. Working with an
incomparable score by Harry Warren and
Al Dubin, the energy they burn as one
great production number follows
another, is thrillingly, exhaustingly
exuberant.
The book by Bramble and his
co-author Michael Stewart retains the
oomph and raciness of the original 1933
film on which it is based, at the same
time imparting to it a freshness that
belies its age.
And with Bonnie Langford giving her
all, one’s cup of bliss runneth over.
CLIVE HIRSCHHORN
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