The kids who will be dancing their shoes off in the Moscow production of 42nd Street include Meredith Patterson as Peggy and Shonn Wiley as Billy Lawlor, both vets of the current Broadway production.
Director-choreographer Randy Skinner (who only handled the choreography on Broadway, where Mark Bramble helmed) flew to Moscow Sept. 19 to join up with his assistant, Rick Conant, who has been with the chorus and dance leads over the previous 10 days getting the numbers mounted.
"He says it is going very well and the kids are doing well and are very excited and enthusiastic," Skinner told Playbill On-Line before leaving.
The cast of the Moscow premiere of the show includes Emily Fletcher, Susan Grady, Nicole Sotto, Natalie Krill, Amber Harvie, Tiffany Helland, Kathryn Venverloh, Nicole Bourgeois, Ariel Reid, Natalie Langlois, Alison Stodola, Cheryl Jameson, Krista Kurtzberg, Shannon O'Bryan, Deven Marie Miller, Ginger Merritt, Amanda La Vergne, Jackee Guillou, Danya Gensiorek, Tia Mathieson, Sara Mason, Kristy Ambrosetti, Brendt Reil, Abram LeVasseur, Richard Arnold, Luis Figueroa, Louis Palena, James Bradley, Phillip Attmore, Darren Donahue, Patrick Stiles, Clark Johnsen, Michael Shelton, Matthew Kilgore, Joshua Scheer, Leo Ash Evans. John Wescott is Andy Lee and Kelly Shook is Anytime Annie.
Previews are expected to begin in Moscow Oct. 9 toward an opening of Oct. 12. Musical director is Stephen Bates, who was on the original tour in 1982 and also spent time in Europe with the show. The set and costume designer is Russian and the lighting designer and tech team were assembled by this production's American producer, Troika.
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Randy Skinner has been associated with 42nd Street as its tap master since 1980, when the stage version the classic Warner Bros. film landed big on Broadway.
"It's the first time an American cast in English is going over to present a big new musical," Skinner previously told Playbill On-Line.
Because of budget restrictions from the Moscow producer, one creator was required for both direction and choreography. Mark Bramble, the show's co-librettist, staged the current Tony Award-winning revival on Broadway and other major revivals.
"When all the big ones are done, Mark, being the author, gets the calls and then we do them as a team," Skinner said. "But this one they had to go with one person to do both."
The production is not an official spinoff tour of the current revival, which is a revised version of the 1980 hit. Skinner created tap choreography under director-choreographer Gower Champion for the original show and directed and/or choreographed many productions — in stock, overseas and on tour — over the years. Champion died in 1980.
Will Moscovites see the 1980 script and score?
"I think it's going to be that, although I'll do a lot of the new stuff that I've done in other productions," Skinner said. "I don't think we're going to do the new [Broadway] numbers. We won't do the four added ones."
Rehearsals started in late August and 42nd Street.
An eight-month run was previously mentioned.
