42nd Street

It's all in the feet -- ten pair of those dancing feet striking the floor at precisely the same instant in patterns complex enough to make Michael Flatley's kids look like toddlers. And in the costumes that make you want to forget your arthritic knees and two left feet and become a dancer, just so you can wear dresses like the "beautiful dames" in the song of that title. Of course, it's also the sturdy score reflecting a universe where boy gets girl -- even if the boy is old enough to be the girl's father -- means happy ever after. And it's also the tribute paid to the humble chorus line, long before Michael Bennett's first therapy session. And at the Theatre At The Center, just a hop and a skip over the Indiana state line, it's Katrina Lenk as a Peggy Sawyer so innocent, you can't believe this is the same actress who played the androgynous waif in Hedwig And The Angry Inch, and David Girolmo as a Julian Marsh so wise that his amorality is no obstacle to our being dazzled by his audacity; and Tammy Mader, long a performing favorite on the song-and-dance circuit, forging herself a reputation as one of the most innovative choreographers of our region. Put it together, and you'd never know this material dated from 1933 unless you looked at Forty-Second Street in 2001.