42nd Street

Weston Playhouse is Vermont's oldest professional theater.  42nd Street was performed last night.  Brilliant!  I saw it on Broadway a couple of decades ago and in Hartford with a professional company more recently, but the dancing and singing last night were as good as either.  It was hard to believe that I was in a small theater in a small Vermont town and being treated to such a high quality performance.

Weston Playhouse was launched in a renovated church in 1937.  Lloyd Bridges was the leading man in the first performance of that first season.  A 1962 fire destroyed the original facility, but the current Greek Revival facility promptly replaced it.  The current facility has had to deal with floods in the 1970s and 2011, but it has survived all obstacles so far.

A cafe below the small theater serves dinner before the show and offers a cabaret after the show.  The West River flows over a dam next to a grist mill before passing behind the theater.