It's the story of the ultimate showbiz dream, a young girl gets plucked out of the chorus to play the lead in a brand new Broadway musical.

And on top of that, 42nd Street is a great musical, featuring classic songs such as Lullaby Of Broadway and We’re In The Money, as well as unforgettable dance routines – which is what first attracted director Paul Kerryson.

“It is almost the ultimate musical for dance,” he says before heading into rehearsals. “I come from the dance world originally, so it’s one of the musicals I have always wanted to do, but it has never come my way before.”

Paul is the artistic director of Leicester’s Curve theatre, whose last directing job was on Martin McDonagh’s macabre black comedy The Lieutenant Of Inishmore – which was, as he describes it, “full of death and blood and guts”.

Musical-lovers have no need to worry about a Reservoir Dogs-style reimagining of the stage favourite though.

“It is the ultimate backstage drama behind the glitz and the glamour,” he says. “It’s about the heartache and sweat, temper and tantrums. It’s something the public loves.

“The original film came out of the Great Depression, when people wanted some entertainment to cheer up their lives following the Wall Street Crash.

“It was quite a racy film for its time, but people can relate to it now, especially when we’re in a tight squeeze. The story has found its moment again.”

With a cast and orchestra totalling 40, headed up by Olivier Award- winning Tim Flavin as the director Julian Marsh and West End star Kathryn Evans as the leading lady Dorothy Brock, this new stage version has certainly not been affected by monetary fears.

The biggest challenge for Kerryson has been transferring the show on to the Festival Theatre’s larger stage.

“The original production took place in a proscenium arch with a curtain,” he says. “At Chichester, the audience will feel part of the backstage, but the show itself takes place in a traditional theatre, which the Chichester Festival Theatre isn’t! Instead we have had to come up with better things.

“The most iconic part of the original production was the curtain which comes up just high enough to reveal the dancers’ feet. We couldn’t do that, but we’ve come up with something which is equally exciting.”

The tale of a chorus girl moving centrestage actually happened for real in a 1984 staging of the show at the Theatre Royal, in Drury Lane, when the then unknown Catherine Zeta-Jones stepped into the breach after the actress playing Peggy Sawyer and her understudy both fell ill.

But with the rise of reality audition shows such as The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, Kerryson feels the tale has even more resonance now.

“With the audition process you either seize your opportunity or fall away by the wayside,” he says.

“42nd Street mirrors that contemporary interest in the process.

“To get into a show like 42nd Street you have to have a lot of talent. The dancers in the chorus have to sing, dance and act, and put their personality across – not many people on the telly could do what they do.”

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