Salinan Mike Payne doesn't know how he's going to say this line with a straight face:
"You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!"
It's a line said by Julian Marsh, a famous Broadway director on the skids during the Great Depression in the lavish tap-dancing musical "42nd Street," which opens June 12 at Salina Community Theatre.
Marsh, played by Payne, is saying the line to young, naive ingenue Peggy Sawyer backstage during a Broadway show. During the opening night performance of the show within the show, prima donna star Dorothy Brock breaks her leg. Her understudy, Sawyer, has to buck up her courage and take the star's place.
It's a cliched scene that's been imitated and parodied hundreds of times, but this is the show that originated it. Or more correctly, the 1933 movie version of "42nd Street."
But it's a scene Payne and everyone else in the cast has to play with the utmost seriousness and conviction.
Payne, who previously has appeared at SCT in the musicals "The Full Monty" and "Urinetown," said his role in "42nd Street" has been a stretch for him as an actor.
"At least I don't have to dance," he said. "I get a couple of songs, but I was promised I didn't have to dance."
"42nd Street" runs through June 28 at the theater, 303 E. Iron.
Memorable songs
The original movie version of "42nd Street" was made during the height of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The desperation and cockeyed optimism of the period is captured in the show's musical score, which contains classic songs such as "We're in the Money," "Lullaby of Broadway," "Shuffle Off to Buffalo," as well as the title song.
"The Depression is always in the background of the musical," said Vickee Spicer, who's directing the play. "The cast laughs when they're told a show on Broadway was $4.40 a seat, but that was a lot of money back then."
In 1980, the movie musical was adapted into a Tony award-winning show by legendary Broadway producer David Merrick and choreographer Gower Champion. Twenty-one years later, a revival of the show won the Tony for Best Revival of a musical.
As befitting a show about Broadway dancers, "42nd Street" is full of intricately choreographed production numbers (the original movie was choreographed by the visionary choreographer Busby Berkeley).
Choreography for the SCT production is by veteran Salina dance teacher/choreographer Peggy Simms.
"The chorus really works hard during this show," said Spicer, who's also a choreographer. "There's eight production numbers, three of them big numbers, with a lot of tap dancing. There's 22 people in the chorus, and we're overwhelmed with how much there is to learn."
It's also a real 1930s musical, not a parody of 1930s musicals, and Spicer has to stress to actors at every rehearsal the importance of playing the material straight.
"The way the lines are written, there's some cliche there," Spicer said. "But you have to treat it with such sincerity and be pure with it."
Tap, tap, tap
Megan Price is used to playing pure sincerity. She's usually cast as the naive, innocent girl, and playing Peggy Sawyer is no exception. She said it's very similar to a role she played a couple of summers ago at SCT: Millie in the 1920s-era musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie."
"They both came to New York from small towns in pursuit of their dreams," said Price, a Salina native who attends Friends University in Wichita. "Both are pretty innocent at the beginning and learn a lot about themselves by the end of the show."
The choreography, much of it based on the original Broadway production, is challenging because of its strong emphasis on tap dancing, Price said.
"In other shows it's a lot of ballet and jazz, but this is strictly tap," she said. "It's definitely challenged my feet a lot. But that's why I do these summer shows, so I can stay in shape."
nReporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.
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