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Riverside Theatre
The only professional theatre in Vero Beach, follow the star to Riverside, where you'll discover a rewarding and diverse season of shows and special event for 2007-2008!
Welcome to a season of Full Spectrum Professional Theatre. And what a wonderful rainbow it is!
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Children's Theatre
News from Riverside Children's Theatre!
Allen Cornell, Riverside Theatre’s producing artistic director, is actually a wizard.
No, he is not another Harry Potter. Mr. Cornell’s magic is much more powerful: he turned Riverside’s Stark Stage into the Great White Way via the dazzling Broadway musical 42nd Street which opened Feb. 4. The show runs through March 7.
Based on a 1933 film, the show debuted on Broadway in 1980 and ran for nearly 3,500 award-winning performances. Set during the Great Depression, 42nd Street tells the story of a young, inexperienced actress named Peggy Sawyer who comes to New York City to audition for a musical. Although she arrived too late to audition, some fortunate twists of fate enable her to join the chorus line and later become the star and savior of the show.
With record-setting advance ticket sales and the generosity of 16 patron sponsors who each gave $10,000 to help underwrite the lavish show, Riverside Theatre presents a theatrical grand slam with this block-buster that is a sensory feast from its overture.
With more than 6,000 lights, a flashingly brilliant array of gorgeous sequined costumes, 120 taps on shoes and a dance line that evokes the best of Broadway, 42nd Street is the most ambitious undertaking in Riverside Theatre’s 27-year history. The musical numbers include classics such as “42nd Street,” “Lullaby of Broadway” and “We’re in the Money.”
Mr. Cornell cast, directed and designed the sets and lighting for this backstage musical (a type of musical whose plot involves putting on a show) featuring a huge cast of 30 gifted dancers/singers/actors including his own wife Judy. From the moment the curtain begins to rise, the audience hears the rhythmic, staccato tapping of the full company of dancers who fill the stage to its dimensional limits.
Choreographed by Patrick Boyd, the show and its dancers evoke the tap dancing genius of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Gregory Hines, Ann Miller and even young Shirley Temple. The degree of difficulty of the dance routines is stunning. There is simply nothing like the thunderously rhythmic sound of tapping done by a dance line.
With such a large cast, space limitations preclude mentioning individual performers. They will, very simply, take your breath away as they did opening night to thunderous applause and a prolonged standing ovation.
Kudos to Ken Clifton as musical director; Craig Beyrooti as sound designer and Randi dell’Acqua for the most glorious costumes since those worn by Busby Berkeley’s chorines. My husband, a native New Yorker who has attended Broadway shows since his teens, declared this show is as incredible as anything he ever saw on Broadway.
Riverside Theatre is located at 3250 Riverside Park Drive in Vero Beach. For show times and ticket information, call the box office at (772) 231-6990.
BY BARBARA YORESH
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