THEATER REVIEW : ‘42nd Street’ Is a Lullaby to Showbiz Cliche

It’s fast, it’s fresh, it’s funny, and it tap, tap, taps into your heart in a blaze of Gower Champion glory. It’s “42nd Street,” and you’re missing out on a humdinger of a good time if you miss this San Diego Civic Light Opera (Starlight) production, at the Civic Theatre through Oct. 30.

The story of the little chorine, Peggy Sawyer, who becomes a star when the original star literally breaks a leg, is the stuff cliches are made of. It dates to the 1933 Ruby Keeler movie, “42nd Street,” which producer David Merrick and director-choreographer Gower Champion turned into a (still-running)

Broadway hit in 1980.

But the thing to remember about cliches is why they are called cliches: they keep coming true.

Take the story of Cathy Wydner, who plays Sawyer. Wydner got her toehold in show business by auditioning 13 times before being cast in a “42nd Street” chorus in Los Angeles in 1984. She was immediately made the understudy for the Sawyer part because she had the best voice, according to Jon Engstrom, the choreographer who worked with her there and here. One night in 1985, the regular Peggy Sawyer couldn’t go on, and . . . well, Wydner has been playing the star part ever since.

Wydner’s starry-eyed performance tackles the challenge of portraying raw talent without the polish, rather like a colt that could win the Derby if she could get a bit steadier on her legs.

She accomplishes the difficult job of seeming to figure out the steps as she goes along with deceptive ease, proffering just enough self-doubt to make one wonder if she will miss the cue, then coming through the home stretch like a winner, just as Sawyer should.

If Sawyer is the original babe on Broadway, her heart bursting with dreams, the cynical producer, Julian Marsh, is the voice of experience. Without both elements striking sparks, there is no show, something Marsh doesn’t learn until the end when he loses his experienced leading lady, played with understated elegance by Pat White, and has to give the untested Sawyer a chance--or close.

At the same time that “42nd Street” provides a show within a show, the pivotal role of the producer, Marsh, suggests a larger show in which the show within a show fits. Like Marsh, Merrick and Champion needed a hit when they embarked on this project together. In a way, the musical itself was their Peggy Sawyer.

David Wasson captures the cynical bite of the producer who is surprised to discover after all this time that he still has a heart to be touched.

Kirby Ward puts a nice acerbic spin on the lazy charm of Billy Lawlor, the perpetual leading man who never grows up. Darryl Ferrera, who played the gangster Moon Face Martin in “Anything Goes,” is back pulling out the comic stops as the quintessential character man. He is particularly delightful as the smirking peeping Tom, sneaking in and out of the all-female train cars in the “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” number.

Cathy Gene Greenwood, who created a winning Mama Rose for the Moonlight Amphitheatre’s “Gypsy” this season, brings those mannerisms to the part of the economy-minded show business veteran--to good effect.

“That will be four glasses of hot water and one tea bag,” she says, ordering for the chorines at the table. That’s Mama Rose, all right.

On the tacky side, the set designs by Robin Wagner are clever in design but look as though they’ve seen better days. The costumes lack the sparkle of the credited designer Theoni V. Aldredge.

But, oh, those hummable songs by Henry Warren and Al Dubin--”Lullaby of Broadway” and “We’re in the Money”--zestfully conducted by Milton Greene. That good-spirited direction by Don and Bonnie Ward. And, best of all, those high-stepping chorus feet with the big, big smiles at the top. Those are the real stars, dancing to Champion’s original choreography, skillfully reconstructed by Engstrom.

Champion provided his most dazzling choreography ever for this Tony Award-winning show. Who else has been able to run the tap-dancing gamut from playful to showy to steps so erotic in the second-to-last “42nd Street” number that you feel intimations of “Body Heat” as Sawyer and Lawlor do their final sizzling, slithering duet?

Ruby Keeler, the Peggy Sawyer of the 1933 movie, was in the audience Thursday night, swaying to the music and looking terrific.

“I always felt the story itself is everybody’s dream, whether you’re in show business or a secretary or whatever,” Keeler said afterward. “You always have a feeling in your heart that maybe you’ll get the job.”

Keeler, now 80, tries to go to all productions of “42nd Street.” It goes to show that, as long as you keep a little Peggy Sawyer in your heart, “42nd Street” will always seem fresh.

“42ND STREET”

Based on the novel by Bradford Ropes. Music by Henry Warren. Lyrics by Al Dubin. Book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble. Directed by Don and Bonnie Ward. Gower Champion’s original choreography re-created by Jon Engstrom. Sets, Robin Wagner. Costumes, Theoni V. Aldredge. Lighting, Barbara Du Bois. Sound, Bill Lewis. Musical direction, Milton Greene. Stage manager, Jimmy Ray Hutton. With David Wasson, Cathy Wydner, Pat White, Darryl Ferrera, Cathy Gene Greenwood, Lon Huber, Robert Dunn, Suzanah Kent, Sid Gans, Terry Walker, Kirby Ward, Reina Bolles, Joyce Shumaker, Robert Dunn, Gail Wolford, Debi Smith, Lori Hermelin and Alan Willy. At 8 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, with Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2 p.m., through Oct. 30. At San Diego Civic Theatre, 202 C St., San Diego.