But just as the tyrannical director, Julian Marsh, is about to close the show, the cast implore him to let one of the chorus, Peggy Sawyer, take over.Ī touch improbably, she has 36 hours in which to learn six songs, 10 dances and 25 pages of dialogue in time for the New York opening but she does it – prompting Marsh to utter the now famous-line: “You’re going out a youngster but you’re going to come back a star.” As a big musical is on its out-of-town try-out in Philadelphia, its superannuated star breaks her ankle. The story, which derives from the 1933 Warner Brothers movie, is the ultimate backstage fairytale.
