42nd Street Hits The Road

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 2:28pm

A new UK tour of the multi award winning Broadway musical sensation, '42nd Street' hits the road this summer on a 12 week tour.

Dave Willetts and Marti Webb will star and the production will be directed by the show’s author and original Broadway director Mark Bramble.

[bob8rich]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 2:54pm

I would be very excited about this were it not for one of the casting choices, whose over-acting and over-singing I've found a total turn-off every time I've seen and heard him.

[peggyb2]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 3:18pm

And without seeming impolite(being a baby boomer myself) isn't he a tad old for a romantic lead?

[Princeton Returns]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 3:21pm

I'm guessing he will play Julian marsh, so not the romantic lead. Not a great production

[bob8rich]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 3:46pm

I'm so old I was at the opening night of the original West End production of 42nd Street (with Ruby Keeler, star of the original movie, in the audience!). It was a fantastic show - one of the best of its genre IMO (better than Singing In The Rain, etc.).

I can't predict whether this tour production will do justice to the show or not but it says it has the sets of the last Broadway revival and it's directed by the original show's director, so it at least looks promising.

I'll be interested to see the rest of the casting. Maybe there's a future star amongst them - it is the show that launched Catherine Zeta Jones's career, after all.

[Princeton Returns]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 3:50pm

I'm going with that this is the same a the last uk tour which also advertised the broadway set and direction and run by uk productions. And I think one of them are producing this. It is also using the same art work and production photos as the 2007 tour. And that was most definitely not broadway standard

[peggyb2]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 3:58pm

I've always loved it and I suppose it doesn't really matter who the actors are as long as there are some decent hoofers in it!I enjoy the film despite Ruby Keeler's voice!
And how nice to know there are other senior citizens on here.

[abitoftap]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 4:05pm

Unfortunately the chance of this being Broadway standard are, as the great EC said, less than zero.
I'd like to be wrong, but I don't think so...

[AddisonMizner]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 5:16pm

I saw Dave Willetts in the UK Productions tour of "South Pacific" from a few years ago and he was absolutely AWFUL! In fact, the whole production was dreadful! It certainly didn't inspire me to see any other productions with either of these two names attached!

[abitoftap]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 5:24pm

You should (or not) have seen UK's Oklahoma....

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 5:45pm

......or anything they have had the balls to put on the British stage!

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 7:48pm

Shame for Marti Webb, she deserves better.

By the way, how is the condition of her voice compared to other West End women of her era (Elaine Paige/Barbara Dickson etc.)?

[Jonwo]

Posted: 5/15/12 at 7:55pm

It's a shame 42nd Street has never been revived in the West End, it has such a great score and having watched old clips, it must have been great to watch live.

[Princeton Returns]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 12:42am

Oklahoma was one of their worst, nothing was good about that. I always had a soft sPot for seven brides though

[abitoftap]

Posted: 5/16/12 at 4:39am

We lasted until the interval in Oklahoma. The beards in Seven Briddes were particularly interesting..