42nd Street is the classic show about show business: A musical tale about a starry-eyed young dancer with a dream of making it on Broadway. Peggy Sawyer leaves her hometown in Pennsylvania to audition for a new show, gets a chorus role and then a big chance when the leading lady breaks her ankle. Peggy takes over and becomes a star.
Mill Mountain Theatre’s December production of 42nd Street couldn’t come closer to that story. Eileen Grace, the show’s choreographer, began her dancing career nearly the same way.
“No sooner than I got to New York out of college, I landed a role in the first road tour of 42nd Street,” Grace said. Most of the cast had already been hired when the final auditions were to fill three remaining slots and Grace got one of those.
“It was the big jump in my career. I went off with that show for two years, came back with enough money to live in New York and pursue my career,” which included the Broadway cast of 42nd Street, another road tour, the initial cast of The Will Rogers Follies and eight years dancing with the iconic Radio City Music Hall Rockettes.
With the high-kicking, 36-tap dancing Rockettes, Grace has been a dancer, choreographer and dance captain for special performances with big stars and director of its touring shows for nine years. “I never dreamt that I’d have this kind of career; it’s been an amazing ride,” she said.
Like the 42nd Street character Peggy Sawyer, Grace said she “has worked hard at my craft. In my youth I gave up a lot to stay focused on dancing. It took a lot of encouragement from many people for me to go to New York. And it was luck at being at the right place at the right time. Absolutely, 42nd Street is my story.”
And when Mill Mountain Theatre’s Producing Artistic Director Ginger Poole called Grace to work in Roanoke, “I was thrilled,” she said. “In rehearsals, more than once I almost got teary looking at those young performers and realizing how lucky I’ve been.”
Today, Grace lives in Pittsburgh, is married, with six-year-old twins, a daughter and a son. “My best role by far is being Mom.”
The production runs Dec. 2 to 20 on the Trinkle Main Stage in the Wells Fargo Auditorium at Center in the Square. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesdays through Saturdays and at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are available from the Center in the Square box office, by calling 540-342-5740 and on line via MMT’s website, www.millmountain.org. Three tiers of seats mean there are affordable tickets for every show.
