TimeOut sent Jacqueline Smith to join the chorus line of classic musical 42nd Street and she lived to tell the story...
Ah, now I see why I was told to keep my turn tight - I have been allotted a 30cm square. I miss the transition from high jazz hands to high and low jazz hands, so I pull a quick Broadway smile to cover up my fading confidence. And I
hold that grin as we kick right leg, left leg, right leg, left leg towards the piano ...
After much stumbling, we reach the the finale - this I remember: wide stance, wide smile, strong arms, fingers spread. I raise my arms eight counts to 90 degrees, then a little higher for six counts, drop my hands on seven and then throw them up again on eight. The cast are still singing, but I'm not, I'm too flushed.
Gee whiz. This musical thing is a bit of a step up from Zumba.
Today I am part of 42nd Street - the musical, not the theatre district of Manhattan. The venue is the Auckland Music Theatre's tin shed rehearsal space in Western Springs.
After a brief training session, I am slotted into the chorus line for Act Two number, The Lullaby of Broadway, all part of a mission to get a feel for the show - which opens in Auckland next weekend - and what it's like to be part of those grand all-singing, all-dancing chorus lines.
Only thing is, I have never watched 42nd Street. I have never heard the songs. All I know is that it features cute retro costumes, lots of suitcases and, in one incarnation, starred Ginger Rogers.
But suddenly, here I am, smack-bang in the middle of the 38-person chorus, right next to the leading lady, living the Broadway jazz hands dream of my childhood.
This is as close as I'll ever get to Glee...
I'm told it's every 42nd Street fan's fantasy to join the chorus for The Lullaby of Broadway - the part where the chorus try to convince young Peggy Sawyer to come back to the stage and play the lead in the production of Pretty Lady.
The elaborately costumed love story has won the hearts of audiences since it was released as a film in 1933, and then hit the stage in 1980 - and one of those hearts is that of chorus girl Amber McAlpine.
She's an office worker by day, and hits the bright lights of the stage by night. This is her second time performing 42nd Street, and she has been in tap dancing rehearsals every day for the past few months in preparation. Musical theatre might be a hobby for most members of the cast, but they take it very seriously. Evening rehearsals run from 5pm until 10pm and there's a full-day session on Sunday.
This performance will be as close as Auckland audiences can get to the original without flying to New York, they say. The costumes have been shipped in from Broadway, with some characters require nine costume changes in a performance.
Brand new patent leather shoes - about 120 of them - have been painted pastel colours, and half have been fitted with tap-dance plates. University student Laura O'Sullivan, who plays lead character Peggy Sawyer, says she has six shoe changes - her quickest full costume change takes about 50 seconds.
Some of the cast members are tap-dance teachers, others are merely co-ordinated people who have quickly picked up the moves thanks to a Broadway choreographer running workshops here a few months ago.
So when the curtain rises at the opening of Act One audiences will see a blur of 80 shoes clacking in unison.
The cast tell me the first thing you need to know about clackity-clacking in high-heeled shoes for two hours is that you need to stretch your calves.
So, after jogging on the spot while singing to 42 Street (I attempt to mouth along) we do some yoga downward dog poses - the one when you turn yourself into pyramid with your bum in the air.
Once warmed up, everyone assumes their positions at the side of the stage. I take mine on a seat next to the prop movers, and wait for my cameo.
"This is the last time you will get to work at pace before the theatre," warns director Grant Meese. The cast adjust the buckles on their shoes. The pressure's on.
Though the cast are all in sports gear - teamed with tap shoes- it's easy to imagine them in the swishy, glitzy dresses and dapper suits I saw in the dressing room. I realise I have been transported to the 1930s and there aren't even any lights or velvet curtains. They must be good.
Almost two hours pass, and I realise the chorus hasn't stopped tapping, singing, smiling.
A few have had to adjust their American accents when they come across words like "dance", but no one has tripped over and been fired.
As far as my untrained eye can see, it's looking pretty slick 10 days before opening night.
My innocent cameo starts to feel a little daunting.
The opening chords of The Lullaby of Broadway kick start my memory, and the cast pull out the jazz hand routine I sort-of recall learning with McAlpine beforehand.
Then the pianist leads the transition to the next scene, and my nerves relax as I think I've been let off the hook. Not so. Meese calls the show to a halt. Remember that pleb from the warm-up? Now she is going to join in.
And it is then, stumbling through the turns and the step-ball-changes of my short routine, that I learn that eight simple steps aren't quite so when you are surrounded by 38 pairs of jazz hands and perfect Vaseline smiles.
I used to love musicals, and learned all the words to the Sound of Music, Annie and Grease before my times tables.
But in later years, other than learning the piano score to Cats and more recently singing along to the odd episode of Glee, I have enjoyed a distant relationship with musical theatre.
I have been quite satisfied with being a member of the audience. And after my blundering effort attempting the real thing, that's probably where I should stay.
A map to '42nd Street'
What is it?
42nd Street is the grand-daddy of Broadway musicals. It's largely based on the 1933 film adaptation starring Ginger Rogers. The stage show opened on Broadway in 1980 and enjoyed an eight-year season, which makes it the second biggest musical on Broadway after A Chorus Line.
The story
Set against glamorous Broadway during the not-so-glamorous 1930s Depression, it's a show-within-a-show about the staging of musical Pretty Lady, to be directed by the revered Julian Marsh and star the famous actress Dorothy Brock.
Peggy Sawyer, a fresh-faced tap dancer from Pennyslvania who dreams of joining the chorus, is turned away because she misses auditions, but she grabs the attention of the male lead, Billy Lawlor.
When Marsh realises he is down a cast member, Billy and members of the chorus convince him to hire Peggy. He does, but when she stumbles during a rehearsal and knocks over Dorothy, she is fired on the spot.
It turns out poor old Dorothy has broken her ankle, and Mr Marsh says that without his leading lady, he has no choice but to cancel the musical. That will force his ensemble out of work, so they make a desperate attempt to convince him to hire Peggy as the lead - she's a talented dancer after all.
Mr Marsh becomes smitten with his rising star. She's won his heart, but will Peggy be able to save the show?
The bits you might know
1) The opening, when the curtain rises slowly to reveal more than 40 pairs of feet tap dancing in unison.
2) We're In The Money, which features Billy Lawlor tap dancing on an enormous coin, whilst surrounded by ladies in jingling gold costumes.
3) The big number 42nd Street.
4) The big finale.
Why has its popularity endured?
It's about love, dreams and is so fantastically choreographed it will makes audiences want to go out and get tap dancing lessons.
The Auckland production
By the Auckland Music Theatre stars Derek Metzger, Suzanne Lee, Grant Bridger, Lynn Webster, Sarah Kent, Laura O'Sullivan, and Lyndon Keenan among others.
It opens at the Civic on Saturday October 2 and goes to October 23.
-TimeOut
