Review: 42nd Street at Liverpool Empire ****1/2

The unemployment statistics for Depression Era America make for grim reading, and 1933 was its ‘annus horribilis’ (to borrow a phrase from the late Queen).

It’s estimated an average of 12,830,000 people – nigh on a quarter of the US workforce – were without work over that year.

But if things were grim in the real world, there was a chance to escape reality at the cinema, so perhaps it’s no surprise that of the 10 most successful films of the year, nine were comedies and/or musicals, and three of those were choreographed by Busby Berkeley.

One was 42nd Street, a taptastic big screen extravaganza which celebrated triumph over adversity and provided the message that with determination (albeit as well as talent) anything was possible.

What is a surprise is that it took the best part of half-a-century for the story to migrate to the stage (where a real-life ‘Peggy Sawyer’ moment happened to a 17-year-old chorus member called Catherine Zeta-Jones), almost-faithfully repackaged by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble into a glitzy, irrepressible and sizzlingly hot-hoofing tribute to the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd.

Above: the cast of 42nd Street. Top: Nicole-Lily Baisden as Peggy Sawyer.

This latest touring production boasts a strong cast both of leads and chorus - the tapping engine room of the show, underpinned by a cracking jazz band in the pit.

And if the plot may woefully thin, 42nd Street really comes alive in the delivery of the rocket-fuelled song-and-dance routines, from We're In the Money to the title number.

While the leads get to wisecrack a la Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, the ensemble work their tap shoes off in a series of energetic and irresistible numbers, choreographed by Bill Deamer and showcasing the young cast’s herculean stamina, timing and precision.

It starts as it means to go on with jobless hopefuls auditioning for a big new Broadway show, Pretty Baby, which is being bankrolled by a besotted businessman (played by Ben Mundy on press night) as a comeback vehicle for his lady love, faded star Dorothy Brock.

Samantha Womack is splendid as the icy-tongued but vulnerable stage veteran who may not be able to dance but can sell the emotion in a song to the cheapest of the cheap seats in the Gods.

Enter, stage right, Nicole-Lily Baisden’s peppy Pennsylvanian ingenue, fresh off the bus from Allentown, and with stars in her eyes and taps on her feet.

Baisden played Hope Harcourt in Anything Goes at the Empire in 2022, but here she takes triumphant centre stage as the bright-eyed, twinkle-toed (yet somewhat clumsy) Peggy who is plucked from the chorus line to play the lead when Dorothy is injured on the eve of the show’s run.

She’s persuaded by the show’s exacting, exasperated director Julian Marsh (an assured Michael Praed – although watch out for that pit!) who wooes her with Lullaby of Broadway before drilling her within an inch of her life, declaring “by tomorrow night I’ll either have a live leading lady or a dead chorus girl.”

While Womack commands the stage and Baisden generates enough energy to power its lights, Faye Tozer brings great comic timing and 30s wisecracking sass to her role as one half of Pretty Lady’s writing team.

Meanwhile Sam Lips, again returning to Lime Street (after an urbane turn as Don Lockwood in Singin’ in the Rain last year), sings with a wonderful vocal ease and clarity and is equally light on his feet as the ‘juvenile lead’ Billy Lawlor - ‘a tenor with ‘bass’ (sic) ideas’.

Be warned if you are seeing the show before Thursday that Les Dennis isn’t appearing as Bert Barry, presumably due to Strictly commitments, although the role is more than capably filled by Kevin Brewis.

Uplifting stuff. Just as it was back in 1933.