42nd Street (musical)

42nd Street
Original Broadway Cast Recording cover
MusicHarry Warren
LyricsAl Dubin
Johnny Mercer
BookMichael Stewart
Mark Bramble
Basis42nd Street
by Bradford Ropes
42nd Street
by Rian James, James Seymour, and Whitney Bolton
PremiereAugust 25, 1980
Winter Garden Theatre, New York City
Productions
  • 1980 Broadway
  • 1984 West End
  • 2001 Broadway revival
  • 2007 UK tour
  • 2007 Asia Tour
  • 2012 UK tour
  • 2015 US tour
  • 2017 West End revival
  • 2023 UK tour
Awards

42nd Street is a 1980 stage musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, lyrics by Al Dubin and Johnny Mercer and music by Harry Warren. The 1980 Broadway production won the Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Choreography and it became a long-running hit. The show was also produced in London in 1984 (winning the Olivier Award for Best Musical) and its 2001 Broadway revival won the Tony Award for Best Revival.

Based on the 1932 novel by Bradford Ropes and the subsequent 1933 Hollywood film adaptation, this backstage musical follows the rehearsal process of a Broadway show staged during the height of the Great Depression.

The show is a jukebox musical of sorts, in that, in addition to songs from the 1933 film 42nd Street, it includes songs that Dubin and Warren wrote for many other films at around the same time, including Gold Diggers of 1933, Roman Scandals, Dames, Gold Diggers of 1935, Go into Your Dance, Gold Diggers of 1937 and The Singing Marine. It also includes "There's a Sunny Side to Every Situation", written by Warren and Johnny Mercer for Hard to Get. A 2017 revival added the song "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", written by Warren and Dubin for Moulin Rouge.