TAP YOUR WAY TO 42ND STREET AT GOODSPEED

Miss Peggy Sawyer, a wannabe dancer fresh off the bus from Allentown, Pennsylvania, is anxious to take a giant bite from the Big Apple. It’s time to don your tap dancing shoes and join her as she captures hearts on the Great White Way, after a few wrong turns. You’ll wish you had a gift certificate to an Arthur Murray studio when you experience the razzle-dazzle spectacular of “42nd Street,” the musical comedy powerhouse at the Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam until Sunday, November 6, with book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble. Come meet Peggy Sawyer with all her eager enthusiasm and talented feet. The fact that she arrives too late for the dance audition for the new Julian Marsh musical “Pretty Girl” doesn’t stop her from landing a coveted spot in the chorus line. Being on Broadway means Peggy will put in twelve hour days, seven days a week, for five weeks of rehearsal, and earn the princely sum of $32 a week. Times are tough, but that doesn’t discourage this bright eyed optimist from practicing her shuffle, pivots, pull backs, wings and two steps with gusto. As luck would have it, Peggy, a bright as a new penny Carina-Kay Louchiey, accidentally bumps the leading lady, a fixture in show business, star Dorothy Brock (Kate Baldwin) and knocks her literally off her feet, breaking her ankle. With the help of Julisn Marsh (Max von Essen), and co-stars Billy Lawlor (Blake Stadnik) and Maggie Jones (Lisa Howard), Bert Barry (E. Clayton Cornelious) and Annie Reilly (Eloise Kropp), Peggy finds herself with thirty-six hours to learn the dance routines to take over for the lead. A little intrigue takes place when Ms. Brock’s sugar daddy (David Jennings) who is financing the show potentially bumps heads with Pat Denning (Patrick Oliver Jones), her lover. This pretty bright and bouncy show features such great numbers as “You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me,” “I Only Have Eyes for You,” “We’re in the Money,” “Forty-Second Street,” “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” and “Lullaby of Broadway.” Come see how the newest star in the firmament comes through to save the day. The projection designs by Shawn Duan are amazing and add sparkle to every number. For tickets ($30-85), call Goodspeed Musicals on the Connecticut River in East Haddam at 860-873-8668 or online at goodspeed.org/ticket-onsale. Performances are Tuesday at 2 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 pm. and 8 pm, and Sunday at 2 p;.m. and 6:30 p.m. Masks are encouraged but not required. Put on a pair of tap dancing shoes and hoof on over to the Goodspeed for a happy time of show business glitz and glamour when the shiny as a new constellation, Peggy Sawyer, uses her fancy frenetic frenzy flying footwork to get her name in lights.