Postponed for two years due to the health crisis, the musical “42nd Street” is finally making its comeback on the stage of the Théâtre du Châtelet, from December 7 to January 15. This great Broadway classic, created in 1980 and successfully revived in 2016 at the Châtelet, will not fail to amaze the public again at the end of the year. A show that requires impressive logistics. Overview of this production in figures.
An XXL show that makes you dizzy. While “42nd Street” takes us behind the scenes of the creation of a Broadway musical, between auditions, rehearsals and a grand premiere in 1930s New York, its conception is also titanic.
47 actor-dancers on set
Rare are the productions to bring together fifty artists on stage. “42nd Street”, adapted from the novel of the same name by Bradford Ropes in 1932 and brought to the screen the following year, is one of them. With 47 actor-dancers gathered on the set to give life to the adventures of Peggy Sawyers, who has come to New York to make a career, and recently hired to take on the role of replacement dancer, this great show is undeniably impressive in this choreographed and staged version. directed by Stephen Mear, winner of two Laurence Olivier Awards. A tap ballet accompanied live by 19 musicians in the pit.
Over 200 pairs of shoes
The rattles will resonate on the floorboards of the Chatelet and make the hearts of the public vibrate. Entering the history of the music hall thanks in particular to its cult curtain raising, revealing only the legs of the dancers hitting the stage with their tap shoes, “42nd Street” has become the benchmark in the field. Almost entirely composed of tap numbers, the show requires more than 200 pairs of shoes, which on stage become instruments in their own right, giving rise to memorable sequences.
Over 300 suits
© Châtelet Theater – Marie-Noëlle Robert
Typical clothes directly inspired by the archives of the time, shiny costumes, hats of all kinds, ornaments in series, more than 300 costumes take over the stage for more than 2 hours, for a dive into the New York of the 1930s. Costumes designed by Peter Mckintosh, which will amaze you, not to mention that a total of 2,200 m² of fabrics were used to create these rooms and the decor.
16 scenery boards
To go from a rehearsal room to a station platform, but also to the boards on a premiere evening, or even to the New York skyscrapers, 16 sets were designed for “42nd Street”. Decors that required 1700 liters of paint, 9 tons of steel and aluminum and more than 8 tons of wood, also using digital printing techniques on tulle and canvas and more than 250 m of LEDs.
100 kg of flakes
It is an understatement to say that a rain of glitter awaits the spectators with “42nd Street”. A great playful and sparkling show par excellence, it will have required no less than one hundred kilos of sequins to make the eyes of the spectators shine, with its costumes but also its great catchy tap numbers.
42nd Street, from December 7 to January 15, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris.