Those dancing feet — Pioneer Theatre Company kicks up its heels with showstopping '42nd Street'

Five, six, seven, eight …

Flap, flap, flap, shuffle, heel.

Flap, flap, flap, shuffle, heel.

Flap, shuffle, heel.

Flap, shuffle, heel.

Flap, shuffle, heel, drawback, drawback.

It may read like a funny poem, but those are the first 16 counts of one of more than a dozen dance numbers in Pioneer Theatre Company's production of the Tony Award-winning musical "42nd Street."

"Every number in this show feels like a finale in a musical, it's that big," said choreographer Patti D'Beck, who returns to PTC for her 13th show ("The Producers" and "Chicago," most recently.)

"42nd Street" originally opened on Broadway in 1980, with a revival in 2001. The show won Tonys for Best Musical and Best Revival.

The musical is about Peggy Sawyer, a chorus girl who accidentally injures prima donna Dorothy Brock. Fired on the spot, Sawyer packs up to go back home to Allentown, Pa. But she is stopped at the train station by the director, who needs her to step into Brock's shoes. The musical boasts well-known songs like "We're In The Money," "The Lullaby of Broadway" and, of course, "42nd Street."

"Several of the numbers are four to five minutes long, and the finale is eight minutes long," she said. "It's just huge. There are a lot of people; it's a major dance show."

Where does one begin to figure out which flaps go on which counts? "You start at the beginning, I guess," she said. "It starts at auditions, and we were looking for dancers with a very strong tap background."

D'Beck, who was delighted to be asked back to PTC, started working on the show at the first of the year.

"I start reading the script, and reading and reading," she said. "Then I listen to the music and listen and listen and listen."

D'Beck also has to check the score since the CD doesn't always match what's written.

"Then I just go into a room and start. And my goal is always to figure out what the story of the number is."

The Broadway veteran has not worked on "42nd Street" previously.

"That was a fun challenge. I did a lot of research and reading and looked at a lot of Busby Berkeley movies — which was great fun."

Aside from dance steps and traffic patterns, with 16 to 22 bodies on stage, "sometimes the things you had on paper you'll really like or you don't like at all and you have to change it."

The actors, themselves, can also be a deciding factor. "Sometimes the picture they make naturally is better than what I imagined. So it depends on their relationship and their energy. And my job is to make sure they look good and they tell a story they're comfortable with."

"It's a cast of 28," music director Michael Rice said, "and sometimes when you get a lot of dancers, sometimes they're weak singers. But that is not the case with this cast. They're all triple threats," meaning they can all sing, dance and act equally well.

Rice, whose warm Arkansas accent hides the fact he's been living and working in New York City for 33 years, returns to PTC after last working on "The Light in Piazza."

"I grew up with music of this ilk; this is music I'm drawn to — the Gershwins and all that stuff," he said. "It feels so good to get back to this kind of show.

"Our country has had such a rough year and continues to go through one," Rice said, "and dang it, it just feels good to go back to this feel-good show which reflects the American dream."