On Tuesday Bea and I went to
The Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury
To see 42nd Street
A musical about a musical
Set on Broadway
It is filled with familiar show songs
And awe inspiring tap dancing
All decked out in sequins
And gorgeous 1930s fashion

For a young girl like Bea
Who longs to perform
On a West End stage
This was a perfect musical
Showing all the glitz and glamour
Of show life
And all the nitty gritty politics
And gruelling work
That goes on behind the scenes

This is a show with emotion
And a jolly good dollop of humour
All wrapped up with gorgeous vocals
And ALL those dancing feet

Peggy Sawyer moves from a small town
To the city
To follow her dream of becoming
A Broadway star
She finds herself in the chorus line
Before showing her passion and talent
And after many twists and turns
Being given a chance to be
A leading lady

Bea and I absolutely loved the show
Though much of the story
And all the jokes went way over Bea’s head
What she loved was the big ensemble numbers
The stunning soloists and
The high kicks and insanely fast tap steps
She came away with a grin on her face
And a plea to add tap lessons
To her already busy dance timetable

Nicole-Lily Baisden as Peggy Sawyer was sensational
Full of passion and energy
A brilliant voice
A beautiful dancer
Great comedy skills
And a face that beamed pure joy
When she danced
We could not take our eyes off her

I also LOVED Sam Lips
As Billy Lawlor
I first fell under his spell
When he played the lead in
Singing In The Rain
And as Billy he charmed me again
He has such a wonderful voice
And his dancing is fantastic too
He has a brilliant stage presence
And was perfect as Billy

I was surprised by Samantha Womack
In the role of Dorothy Brock
After seeing her in
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
I worried she would not rise to the role
Of Dorothy
But her vocals were fabulous
And she had some wonderfully
Funny moments too

Bea and I both loved Faye Tozer
As Maggie Jones
It was the first time I had seen
Faye be anything other than
A pop singer in Steps
I thought she was amazing
She was so so funny
She completely stole a scene
When her character was
Showing the chorus girls
Some dance steps
And she got carried away
And did the whole dance
Bea, age 9 thought this was brilliant
It was her highlight of the show

Faye has a wonderful stage presence
And her New York accent was fabulous
Her characterisation strong
We loved her
I will definitely be looking out
For anything else she does
To make sure we go and see

This is such a feel good musical
One of those that has numbers
That you never knew you knew
I found myself (very quietly!) singing along
Many more times than I thought I would

An inspiring musical
For aspiring young performers

We loved this show
And wish the tour every success
As it makes its way around the UK