[title of show] Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 1

[title of show]
MUSICALS/PLAYS
MUSICALS ABOUT MUSICALS
(AND PLAYS ABOUT PLAYS)
The tradition of self-referential theatre pieces is a long and
varied one. Playwrights and authors are sometimes so in
love with the theatre that it becomes the most fascinating subject for
their creative efforts. Theatre stories about the theatre are wonderful
insights into the backstage milieu and a rare chance for an audience
to see what the rehearsal process often looks like, leading up to an
Opening Night. Following is a decidedly incomplete list of musicals
about producing (and performing) musicals and plays about the
behind-the-scenes world of plays.
DID YOU KNOW..?
that [title of show] is not
the only musical ever
written about musicals?
42nd Street
Perhaps the ultimate musical about a musical, 42nd Street is based
on the 1933 film of the same name. It starred Ruby Keeler as Peggy,
a young girl who arrives in the Big Apple, determined to make it
on Broadway. Against all odds, she gets a job in the chorus of a big
musical, titled Pretty Lady. When the leading actress breaks her ankle
right before Opening Night, Peggy steps into the starring role and saves
the day.
The 1980 stage version, directed by Gower Champion, was a musical extravaganza, featuring forty
pairs of feet tap-dancing away as the curtain slowly rose for the first act. The original cast included
Jerry Orbach as Julian Marsh, the producer of Pretty Lady, Tammy Grimes as Dorothy Brock, the
imperious leading lady, and Wanda Richert as Peggy Sawyer, the young kid who steps out onto the
stage on Opening Night as a youngster, but comes back a star.
42nd Street won the Tony Award for Best Musical and became a long-running hit. Tragically,
Gower Champion died just hours before the opening night performance and his death was
announced during the curtain call that evening.
DID YOU KNOW..?
Dames at Sea
While 42nd Street was a loving re-make of the 1933 film, Dames at that [title of show]
Sea took the same story and parodied it Off-Broadway at the Caffe references over 90
Cino in 1966, starring a young Bernadette Peters as Ruby, the kid from different musicals?
Utah looking for her big break on the Great White Way. This version, far from the Busby
Berkeley-esque Broadway production which came later, spoofed the tradition of lavishly
staged musicals with only six cast members on a very small stage. The plot of Dames at Sea
diverged from the original story by having the "musical within the musical" being performed
on a Navy ship when the theatre in which it was to be staged is scheduled for demolition. In
this version, Ruby saves the day when the leading lady is too seasick to perform.
Dames at Sea played for 575 performances Off-Broadway and had a subsequent London
run of 127 performances.
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 21