Free Broadway Baby by Samantha-Ellen Bound Page A

to the right. Enjoy. You’ll see me around at interval.’ He gave my nose a friendly tap. ‘Maybe we can have a dance-off,’ he said. ‘Whaddaya think, angel?’
    â€˜I think you better be prepared to lose,’ I said.
    He laughed and so did Mum.
    â€˜Oh golly,’ she said. ‘Come on, Ellie, before you go and make me fetch your jazz shoes.’
    She took my hand and we headed up the grand staircase, ready to watch the show.

Chapter Two
    The theatre was huge .
    Mum and I came to the top of the stairs and walked down the row to our seats. We were at the front of the mezzanine level, which is like a balcony, so you sit up high and look down onto the performance.
    Curved stairs with gold balustrades led up to the stage and red velvet curtains – the lushest I’d ever seen – hung down either side.There were lights along the walls of the auditorium that looked like old-fashioned gaslights, very dim but bright enough to see the shadows of people leaning over to whisper to each other or settle themselves in their seats. There was a buzz of excitement.
    My heart felt dazzled by it all. It was like I’d stepped back in time and my insides went all glittery, the same way they do right before I’m about to go on stage myself.
    I knew this was where I belonged.
    â€˜Stop squirming, Ellie,’ said Mum, looking in her bag for some gum. ‘There’s people behind us, honey.’ But I couldn’t help it, I had to look everywhere and take everything in.
    When the lights finally went down, the most spectacular hush fell over the audience as they waited for the show to start. I imagined how it would be standing on the other side of the curtain.
    From the minute the opening chords of the first 42nd Street song rang out, I was hooked. The story was set in something called the ‘Great Depression’ and it was about a young girl who arrives in New York, makes her way into the chorus line, and eventually lands the leading role in a big musical. Then she has to deal with falling in love and an older star who doesn’t want to be upstaged by the latest ‘it’ girl.
    There was heaps of dancing, but all the songs either went along with the story or moved the plot forward. Every single performer was beautiful and talented and had these pin-curl hairstyles, which made them look so glamorous. I made a note to try it out for school assembly next week (it was my turn to be the host, so I wanted to stand out).
    The best part was that all the performers were equally as good at singing, dancing andacting. A lot of the dancing was tapping, which isn’t really my thing, but 42nd Street just about changed my mind. It was like the dancers were creating music with their feet, and the rhythms were so catchy and clever.
    Costume and set changes rolled by and I was so entranced by the world on stage that Mum had to pull me back because I was leaning so far forward I almost toppled over the balcony.
    But the stage and the songs were calling to me. They were saying, ‘ Come on down, Ellie – light up the stage with us! We need a girl just like you .’
    By the time the end rolled around and the cast were taking their bows, I felt like I’d just experienced magic. The real world seemed fake and boring, while the world on stage was in my blood.
    I stumbled down the stairs with Mumand almost ran into Mikey, the usher from before.
    â€˜Ahhh,’ he said, reaching out a hand to steady me. One side of his eyeliner moustache had slightly smudged. He winked at Mum. ‘She’s got that look. There’s no going back now.’
    Mum laughed. ‘She was born with that look.’
    â€˜So was I, once,’ said Mikey.
    But I barely heard, because I was walking somewhere up in the clouds. I was in musical theatre heaven. It had never been clearer what I was supposed to do.

Chapter Three
    â€˜And then they tapped on these coins and the coins lit