42nd Street at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

Well spotted, twisted1. In my defence, I have to say that by the time we get into 'With plenty of money and you' I am well away into one of my ecstatic trances and all I can really do is to concentrate on the tapping. It wasn't until about my third or fourth viewing of the show that I actually noticed the lids of the two pianos going down in preparation for Peggy being lifted up to dance on them. BTW, I just checked the original Broadway cast album of 42nd Street on Spotify and I think we are extremely lucky to have such a fabulous sounding orchestra at Drury Lane – much better than the OBC recording.

Great little video on Instagram showing group audition. Hundreds of them all tapping away at the same time. Heaven.
It must be child auditions though as they all look about 14........

Just to report that on my seventh viewing of 42nd Street, Philip Bertioli was playing Billy Lawler (extremely well) and we had a cover on for Abner Dillon whom I presume was Mark McKerracher. I was in A0 and when the woman in A1 left at interval (I rather suspect to go and sit at the back of the stalls) I sat sideways with my legs in front of A1 which I preferred doing than actually sitting in A1. Anyway, it all seemed as wonderful as ever and tonight I concentrated on the sound which even from A0 was absolutely perfect. I could hear all the instruments in the orchestra clearly and yet they blended perfectly and the orchestra balanced perfectly with singing and I could hear and understand ever word. I could also count every single tap but I'm not sure whether the sound design has anything to do with that. The show still remains a glorious, life-enhancing experience and everybody tonight seemed absolutely at the top of their form. I love them all!

My parents saw this last night for their anniversary (37 years, go them!!) and absolutely bloody adored it; well of course they did. They had some young children next to them and a very elderly gentleman in front of them, all absolutely enthralled by the entire thing. Sheena Easton (who they thought was amazing) went off at the interval though, and her understudy (probably CJ Johnson?) took over for what little amount Dorothy has to do in Act 2. Still not sure what that was about!

Saw this again on Wednesday night. Row A Stalls high numbers (£15). Neighbouring two seats free so we shuffled along into the £75 seats.

Well it's just bloody glorious isn't it?

Chris Howell pisses me off, don't know why - if the train scene was a CD I'd be skipping it, but other than that I was reveling in it all. It's so nice to see a West End show produced how West End shows should be produced. Huge cast, huge orchestra, great production values. None of this touring set crap.

Sadly it was only on two levels. The usher i spoke to said it was abnormally quiet and is usually on at least three levels during the week, so I'll pass it off as a one off. Though if they can't regularly fill it they're going to struggle long term.

Had a couple of understudies on (Billy, and the old chap) but the cast as a whole were fab. There was so much energy on stage and everyone was having an absolute ball.

As much as I loved An American in Paris, 42nd Street is so much better, and I really wish it would run and run and run.

5 musicals in 3 days with my niece who was visiting London and, of course, I saved the best till last. This is my 3rd visit to 42nd Street. We got rush tickets from Today Tix on Saturday night and got stalls Row A 18 and 19. I couldn't believe our luck. First time I went I sat in the famous row AA but A is equally as good just with slightly less leg room than AA. Thrilled to report that all 4 levels were open and one of the ushers told me it was pretty full throughout, stalls certainly were packed.
Anyway what can I say apart from the fact that I fell in love with the show all over again. CJ was on for Sheena and I thought she was pretty good. In my opinion not as good a singer as Sheena but a better actress. Apart from that all the leads were on and in fine form. Cant believe the energy when this was 2nd show of a 2 show day.
Funny thing happened in the Dames number when Stuart lost his cane and it flew into the orchestra pit.
And I still cant figure out where the staircase comes from!!!!!! Which has got to be one of the most spectacular numbers in musical theatre history.
Love the fact that lots of the audience still come to the front at the end to watch the orchestra, some were even climbing over the seats to get to the front.
Still giving out badges at the end, lovely touch.
I love this show so much and just hope it keeps going especially for the ensemble who are the hardest working troupe in the west end.

Two small comments on what alece10 has said. Regarding where does the staircase come from, I have never done the Drury Lane theatre tour but I understand that the Lane has the deepest stage in London and goes back as far again as one usually sees as the back of a full front stage scene. So that big area at the back can accommodate the staircase which is as deep as the full front stage. Also, somebody told me (it might have been the theatremonkey) that there is still a lot of the original machinery dating back to Victorian times underneath the main stage which cannot be removed because of its historical importance. This means that stage effects that involve going down into and under the stage cannot be used. The theatre famously used to stage melodramas involving spectacles like shipwrecks, horse races, burning buildings and such which made full use of both the very deep stage and the mechanisms under the front stage.
My other point, which I keep repeating over and over, is that the orchestrations, the performance of the orchestra and the sound design seem to me just about the best I have ever heard, possibly because I have now been seven times so I can concentrate on such matters! Is the orchestra at 'An American in Paris' better? I only saw it once and I thought the orchestra sounded great, but it didn't thrill me like the one at Drury Lane.

If anyone ever has a spare couple of hours, the Drury Lane tour is absolutely fascinating.

For those who are interested, this video shows what the substage Victorian "bridges" can do. There's four of them in total.

Wanted to do it as part of my nieces weekend here but unfortunately it was full. We did the RAH tour instead which was good and we even heard the RPO orchestra rehearsals for Casino Royale which was amaazing

Just booked my third trip.

Not bad for a show that I didn't really fancy seeing initially but the amazing word of mouth on here as well as really useful ticket buying info persuaded me to book.

I just want to thank Dippy, Daniel, alece10 and any others who have contributed information about the stage at Drury Lane. Seeing the staircase come forward at the end of 42nd Street, I can imagine how audiences must have been astonished a century ago to see an ocean liner sink on stage as well as a horse race and other huge spectacles. Wiki says that Noel Coward's 'Cavalcade', written to take maximum advantage of the large stage, hydrolic lifts and large proscenium at Drury Lane had a cast and crew of 400 people. Wow!