I was extended an invitation to attend my first ever theatre show, 42nd Street at the Kings Theatre Glasgow. I felt obligated to accept the invitation but I was hesitant, I’d never experienced a theatre show before. I was left in the dark about what to expect, although having asked around I was told I would thoroughly enjoy, the hesitancy melted away quite soon after that.
We arrived shortly before the show began to find out seats. The crowd hurried in a frantic state to find where they were to be sat. Hundreds of small red seats tightly squeezed together, although nobody seemed to be bothered by the proximity. Seemingly not their first show, knowing what they were in for. I grew nervous knowing how long the night could end up being.
The audience lighting dimmed and the stage became bright drawing everyone’s attention to it. Every whisper echoed, the last bar orders were poured and every nerve tensed up as the show began.
Families and friends buzzing in their seats, everyone became one excited entity. I could only imagine the butterflies these performers experience pre-show.
Effortlessly dances were preformed and scripts were recited. I could feel the love and dedication the performers had for the production, it was pouring out of each of them. Every step was intentional adding key elements to the fantastic story. The show was performed multiple times a day from Thursday to Saturday.Â
One performer told me they “rehearsed twice a week for ten months.”
42nd Street follows the rehearsal process of a Broadway show during the great depression and was first produced in 1980. It tells the story of Peggy Sawyer, a talented young performer with stars in her eyes who gets her big break in Broadway. Peggy’s rise from showgirl to star is the stuff of dreams. 42nd Street is full of crowd-pleasing tap dances, popular musical theatre standards, and show-stopping ensemble production numbers.
After the show came to an end I was taken away with how well I was enthralled by the story. The performers deserve all the praise. Plays and musicals in the UK have seen a slight decline. Attendance was down by almost a third in comparison to ten years ago. Their statistics confused me, because my theatre was packed, is it really dropping? And if so, why?
I spoke to a young theatre enthusiast Cerys Coombes and she said that the “theatre was becoming too casual” making it seem less appealing to the public and younger crowds. It has become less of an event but rather just something to visit on a whim. It does not appeal the way it used to.
Younger generations are becoming more hesitant to attend the theatre, they need stronger reasons to choose to visit. Theatre attendance is mixed, popular hubs showing strong demand but wider public participation is waning. Theatre isn’t disappearing, though audience bases are uneven. In 2024, over 17 million people attended west end shows, which was an 11% increase from pre-pandemic levels.
This indicates theatre is still hugely popular overall, although there have been some dips within the market. Smaller productions like this remind us how important theatre is especially for the creatives involved who love what they do.
42nd Street ran at Kings Theatre Glasgow from the 21st until the 24th of October
