42nd Street - Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Adorable model of the 42nd Street set

Another tour de force from Ovation, full of amazing tap-dancing, industrial-sized sacks of energy and buckets of joie de vivre. I'm always impressed with the way Ovation manage to scale down massive productions to fit the cosy space of Upstairs at the Gatehouse.

The plot was simple: theatre company plans to put on a new (and regressive) musical Pretty Lady (with an emphasis on youth and beauty) funded by the sugar daddy of the leading lady, Dorothy Brock (Tamsin Dowsett), who can sing well but can't dance. An ingénue who turns up late to the backing dancer audition - Peggy Sawyer (Kate-Anne Fenton) - turns out to be an amazing dancer, so she's taken on. After a falling out with Dorothy, Sugar Daddy pulls out of funding the production. Then Dorothy gets injured and everyone implores Peggy to be the leading lady, which role she eventually accepts.

While the plot was simple, it felt as though different elements had been added to different drafts of the script, and the writers had forgotten to remove parts when making each new draft. It was never clear who the protagonist was or which hinted-at romance was going to blossom. Would Peggy get together with Billy, the sweet, friendly dancer who helped her get into the musical? Or was she going to supplant Dorothy Brock in the affections of Pat Denning, Dorothy's non-sugar-daddy boyfriend? OR was she going to end up with the director, Julian Marsh, with whom she had a Stockholm-Sydrome-esque relationship? As it turned out, no romance developed. Between anyone.

And who was the protagonist? Peggy? Julian Marsh? Billy? Oh, and what was Julian Marsh's mysterious backstory? I'm sure that was spelled out in one draft.

But the songs and dancing more than made up for shortcomings in the plot - and I kind of enjoyed the misleading plotlines, anyway. The songs were catchy and memorable. Kate-Anne Fenton made an endearing Peggy Sawyer. The character could have easily become irritating/sickly, given her extreme humbleness, but in this production she remained likeable throughout. The costumes were excellent. There were loads of costume changes because of the 'show within a show'. I love 1930s fashions. And tap dancing. One of my favourite bits was when the backing dancers all danced to the café.

Next: Swive