A Chorus Line: the original Broadway musical

The success of a Chorus Line was because it was real.... and it showed on the stage. If anyone wants to see a great 25min footage on the history of a Chorus Line....Google Rick McKay on YouTube and he had posted a 25 min clip from his yet to be released documentary sequel to the Golden Age of Broadway. Sadly, Rick passed away a few weeks ago and we may never see it released. The 25 min of raw Chorus Line material is a treasure to any theater enthusiast, Although I loved the movie when I was a kid, it's actually not very good and deserved a better version despite having s legendary director

A perfect storm, great characters, music, dancing, performances, a behind the scenes look at how a show is cast, lots of laughter, a few tears and a killer ending.

Baryshnikov re-created the finale for a TV special.

For the record breaking performance Joe Papp brought all the former cast memebers back for the big finale

I hate the score. It's still performed across the country (even in high schools) but the last broadway revival showed that it's dated and some of the roles were badly miscast (an African American Sheila who looked like she was hiding a box cutter in her weave was a huge mistake. There are plenty of roles in this show that can be diverse but not WASPY fucking Sheila). When they brought Mario Lopez in to play Zach and actually fucked with the brilliant Bennet staging by putting Zach onstage with Cassie you could hear the original creators rolling in their respective graves.

1980. Second row. Shubert. Sat next to Zach.

the revival was horrible

Standing in the back of the Schubert 4 weeks after the Broadway opening. only time I've seen grown straight men crying leaving the theater. The theme of your job being your existence was especially resonant with them I think. It is terribly dated now but at the time it was overwhelming. Saw it with my four closest friends. They were all dead within the next 15 years.

Chicago was supposed to be the big hit show that year. Both albums were released before the shows actually opened on Broadway. Chicago's score sounded great, ACL's lame. it was a huge surprise when the shows actually opened and Chicago's production was tired and ACL blew you out of the theater.

Bullshit "Chicago" was tired. I saw the original production with Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach, and if anything, Fosse's work was ahead of its time. "A Chorus Line," while enjoyable, was an updated backstager, a 70's "42nd Street."

Gwen and Chita were both 20 years too old for their parts and looked it. The energy level was so low and I heard the atmosphere was sometimes funereal backstage. The first time I saw it Fosse still hadn't recovered from his heart attack, which had delayed the opening, and there were doubts about his long-term recovery. And Chorus Line had stolen all their thunder.

The second time I saw it was Verdon's second or third performance after coming back from her surgery. She seemed totally out-of-it and couldn't stand unassisted. Chorus boys would prop her up by her elbows and move her around the stage. Her dancing consisted of swaying in time to the music, propped up a cane and her boys. It was one of the bravest things I've ever seen. (The show had a huge weekly nut and had to sell out to break even. It wouldn't sell out without Verdon and Liza couldn't stay any longer.)

It was a complete turn around when Reinking and Nemitz took over. It was faster, funnier, meaner and snarkier with tons more dancing. Roxie had become a huge glittering production number with white gloved jazz hands coming out of the stage floor and wings. It's still the best performance of Chicago I've ever seen..

And then it closed.

A Chorus Line is the most honest play ever written about the theatre world. It was also the last piece of theatrical art with gay characters that did not include the crisis that became AIDS which was just a few years in the future. There is an innocence and beauty to that show that has stayed with me from the first time I saw it. How many people on this site drew comfort from the characters in the show, telling us all that we were not alone? I often saw it by myself. As it had no intermission, the show always flew by. I miss it. And no show has ever had such a joyous uplifting finale!

[quote]Bullshit "Chicago" was tired.

Psssst the original "Chicago" played for a little over two years and 960 performances

The completely re-imagined "Chicago" has been running for 22 years and almost 9000 performances.

Can you say YAWN Boys and Girls?

I've wanted for years to see a revival of Chicago that recreates the original production's sets, costumes and Fosse's brilliant staging and choreography. But the original was lushly produced and I doubt anybody will ever pay for it as long as they can make bucks off of a shoe-string production.

ACL was a show of its time and that time has passed. As Arlene Croce noted in her savage pan, Bennett proved his talent by the show's crisp pace and the smooth integration of the stories but the characters were every stereotype known to theater. She also blasted the choreography calling MATM the biggest letdown in the shown.

Dear R14, not everyone knows your initial shorthand for Music in the Mirror. And who the hell is Arlene Croce in the history of theatre? ACL and MB have gone down in history. AC has probably just gone down, to little or no acclaim.

Croce was considered on of the two or three best dance critics of her generation.

I loved it! Glad I saw the original cast.

It does feel dated and a bit twee now but at the time it seemed innovative, very insider and unlike anything else which came before it. It also seemed “serious”, felt “important” and it’s reflective, therapeutic, inward looking script tapped into a 70s vibe of getting “real”. It also seemed very New York and sophisticated. There was a lot of buzz about it which even translated to the hinterlands , even people who didn’t know musicals were aware of ACL in much the same way ANNIE, CATS, LES MIZ,POTO, HAMILTON all crossed over to the mainstream. There was a whole generation of kids in dance classes,community theater and college who latched onto it, were inspired by it and that it spoke to. I don’t care for most of the score but “What I did for Love “ and “One” were all over tv via variety shows.

R15, it makes sense that someone who reveres a dance show like ACL has heard of Arlene Croce.

Croce wrote that for a show about dancers, it was unable to reveal any meaning through dance. She suggested Bennett didn't have enough of a commitment to dance as a source of expression. And her most perceptive comment, almost 50 years after the fact, was that the show revealed about as much as the gypsies in "Applause".

Interesting that she felt Bennett was a great director but a mediocre choreographer, something Fosse himself picked up on. However, Croce really went after him in the same review of "Chicago" and noted in "Dancin'" that the one moment that had conviction was his image of American girls as infantile sluts. The moment has his female dancers putting their thumbs in their mouths and then swiveling their hips.

Fun fact: Robert LuPone returned to the cast several years after he left and he loved to improvise. Now, most of the kids on the line were very inexperienced (acting-wise) and ACL was a well oiled machine so having LuPone throw unscripted questions at them or pull them out of the line was extremely uncomfortable for the actors and the audience. I remember one performance where he, out of nowhere, asked 'Mark' to step forward and started questioning him. The poor kid froze and the actress playing Cassie stepped forward and pulled LuPone back into the show. I have no idea how he got away with it (I think Bennett was still alive).

R21, he did that in LA during the original touring run as well. One proposed element that I liked was that Bennett originally wanted a fluid casting decision, whereby the dancers chosen would be randomly selected every night based on their performances. Bennett also felt it would keep the dancers on their game.

A Chorus Line was thrilling. Real, raw, joyful, heartbreaking, hopeful, devastating. It was life on Broadway, behind the scenes and what performers go through because it's the only thing they know. "What I Did For Love" says it all. It may be a bit dated now, but A Chorus Line changed the American theatre the way Hamilton is changing things today. A Chorus Line was One Singular Sensation.

How do you feel Hamilton will hold up asked this question in 15 years?

I still Love most of the score. Don’t care for “One.” The show’s orchestrations are excellent. Donna McKechnie is divine. The revival was miscast and misdirected, and the movie is utter trash. There was a National Tour in the late 1990s that was pretty good, though.

A CHORUS LINE changed nothing. Sure, dance revues opened in its wake, but its surrealist, sung-through, one-act, one-unit dance format was sui generis and, unlike the British pop-"operas" of the 80s, had no real influence on the form or style of the musical, the one exception being (arguably) GRAND HOTEL. In its day, ACL's draw was its thematic resonance, its economical production and Bennett's staging/choreography/direction. But its emblematic Me-Decade narcissism and pedestrian score have dated badly, as recent revivals have proven. Like any "hit," posterity is always the judge.

R26. Well get a load of you.

I've seen the revival, many regional productions, and several of the complete bootlegs and archivals from the original productions, and can't for the life of me understand the point of Paul's monologue.

He's gay, his parents see him in drag, and his dad says take care of my son. Then Paul is crying like something traumatic happened. Why is this so moving? it always feels superfluous to me.

R28, it's the concept that his parents found out his secret and simply accepted him. Of course, Bennett had to twist the knife when the gay boy is the one who gets a career ending injury. There is also the subtext that Zach is sexually interested in Paul.

That Arlene Croce sounds like a real cunt.

I'd love to see a revival of A Chorus Line. I saw the revival of Chicago when it opened and it was as good as the original. I've got tickets for the revival of Angels in America and Boys in the Band.

I worked for the first west coast production in SF. It was impossible to get tickets. Lines at the box office were long and it was sold out months in advance. I was lucky enough to have seen it many times. I would pop in during favorite moments. As the cast was eliminated at the beginning, they would congregate under the stage and augment the singing. I used to make of point of seeing "At the Ballet". Sometimes people would leave during "Dance 10, Looks 3". I saw the revival decades later in the same theater. It was fine. Not the magic or excitement of the original production though.

R32 was that the touring company at the Curran that featured McKechnie, Lupone and Charlene Ryan as Sheila?

R32-Not the magic or excitement of the original production though because it was dated or the performances werent as great?

[quote]She also blasted the choreography calling MATM the biggest letdown in the shown.

[quote]Dear [R14], not everyone knows your initial shorthand for Music in the Mirror.

R15 Maybe if he had spelled it right. But the critic was right. Music in the Mirror is the song I skipped when I turned the record over.

ACL is fairly inexpensive to mount, which I think accounts for its long runs. The break even point financially is a lot smaller than most Broadway musicals.. Except for the actress playing Cassie, few, in any, actors in the Broadway production got paid more than union scale. There is little if any scenery. There is only one costume change.

I saw a production of ACL 25 years ago and was underwhelmed by Paul's monologue. When I mentioned that to a friend, he replied that the monologue was groundbreaking for 1976, but already dated for 1992.

R15 and R35, it's Music and the Mirror.

Oh. Sorry, R37. And thanks. I do that with "Sex AND the City," too.

The tall, striking and gorgeous Eivand Harum was perfection as Zach and played it for years. Reinking was my favorite Cassie because you really believed she broke out of the chorus while most of the other Cassies blended right in.

I saw Harum and thought he was terrible. He ran the audition like it was a game show.

Who is this idiot who keeps saying that Fosse had a heart attack near when Chicago opened?

Fosse's heart attack occurred on the first day of the show's full rehearsal, moron. He went into the hospital and the show was put on hold while the producers asked Hal Prince to take over. He said no.

Times passed. Fosse recovered and the show went back into rehearsal and the Philadelphia tryout. It then opened in NY. At no time in that period was Fosse ailing.

It's in the biographies, jackoff.

^^^^Time passed.

A Chorus Line was pure magic in its original production because it was the right show for the right audience. We the audience are no longer who we were in the mid to late 70s so the show has dated. Just like South Pacific spoke to an audience of the late 40s or Showboat to an audience of the late 20s in ways no revival will ever be able to. Hamilton will be in the same place in 30 or 40 years.

It was definitely one singular sensation.

I’m not ancient enough to have seen the original but there was a tour in the 90s that seemed fresh and relevant to my 20-ish self, so I cannot buy the argument that it is “dated.” Some people have a real hard time relating to period pieces, but those people are just dumb.

I saw ACL early in its original run. When I saw it the second time a few years later I thought "well, I don't need to see this again."

I saw a dinner theater production of Chicago in the early 1980's and although I liked the music, the show was unimpressive. But when I saw the current, pared down, sleek production I loved it. I try to see it when I hear that a new Roxie or Velma is particularly good. I haven't tired of it yet.

To me it comes down to that the Fosse/Reinking choreography is so much more fun, clever, and sexy than Bennett's. ACL finishes quite spectacularly, but Chicago opens brilliantly and, dance-wise, stays right up there.

I remember the commercials for it, especially the one that starts at 0:58.

The way I heard it was that you didn't have to be a dancer to relate to the characters. Anyone who has sat for a job interview in any form can appreciate this musical.

I saw it way later in community theater and the line about Lana Turner was odd. Also the Robert Goulet reference. That was the only way it was dated to me.

I saw an interview with Jerry Orbach who said they ( the cast of Chicago) was "so jealous" of ACL swooping in and stealing their thunder. Bad timing.

I played the record over and over as well, and def skipped music and the mirror lol!!

I saw the original touring production, I was eleven! (yes, that made me gay right then)

The song ""All I need is a the music and the mirror. . ." has been an inspiration ever since.

It would been bigger if they made one change

"And Ann B Davis...As Alice"

Saw it opening week, was thrilling

R33, 34... Yes, the Curran. The revival was a bit dated. Whenever I saw it, I had specific seats. At the Curran, the Zach light for the performers was mounted in the center bottom of the Loge. They were directed to play to the light. If you sat behind it they seemed to be talking to you. When I first started working, I sat in on auditions. Michael Bennet was in the theater conducting the auditions. It was weird because I had yet to see it and I could not tell what was part of the script and what was part of the auditions.

The only thing wrong with the movie is that they made it at all. A live filmed version of the original cast exists (dreadful quality) but it's a much better representation of what that show should be.

Vicki Frederick steals the movie. She's fabulous.

R54, Vicki was an amazing Cassie. She began Music and the Mirror with her hair in a tight ponytail and then pulled it down and it was an ultimate Mary moment.

I like how in the movie Audrey Landers just disappears from this number when the dancing gets too hard. How the heck did she ever get in the film?

R55 Tits and Ass

r56 they aren't that big

R56, I didn't want them like yours, I wanted them in proportion

R57, I heard that, you BITCH.

Audrey had a dance double for the finale, I believe. Funny, the opening was done so much better by Fosse in All That Jazz which was done even better by Michael Bennett in the stage version.

I don't think it's held up particularly well, but when it opened it seemed as fresh and ground-breaking as Hamilton does now.

R60, I think On Broadway is much better than I Hope I Get It onstage.

I saw it in its original run on Broadway. I thought it sucked--very predictable characters --you knew who was gonna say they were gay or afraid they were. The sound track seemed flat to me. I never saw the movie--it seemed like something that would never translate well into film.

I saw the original production, and I was incredibly impressed with the dancing and many of the songs and the realism of the milieu. But I thought the story was very shallow--the characters were not very well fleshed out except for the traumatized gay character. Even Cassie doesn't have much to her.

"I don't want your job, B... I didn't come here today for you! I came here for me! I came... to SHOW OFF!"

[quote]touring company at the Curran that featured McKechnie, Lupone and Charlene Ryan as Sheila?

So just for a moment I was thinking Patti...

"Everythiiii wah beyootifuhh..."

"Titsdnahhhh"

"Whada di fah laaahhhh..."

There's a lyric Val sings in ACL which goes something like 'raised by a sweet ex con...tied up and raped at seven.' I thought they would cut it for the revival since we don't make light of child rape like we did in the 70's but, as far as I know, the lyric is never changed for any production.

which character sings the really loud "I've got to get this show!" in the look at all the people, so many people etc part?

R67 , a simple google search shows that productions have changed that lyric.

Because God forbid a character have some sort of backstory

RIP Sammy Williams

[quote]which character sings the really loud "I've got to get this show!" in the look at all the people, so many people etc part?

Are you talking about the opening number? If so, it is sung by the character Tricia (one of the chorus persons who gets cut at the end of the song) and goes "I really need this job! Please God, I need this job! I've got to get this job!"

so on the obc that would be Donna Drake singing it r72?

and yes that was the moment I meant. Thanks. Looks like Drake was the Maggie understudy. Makes sense. She sounds like a Maggie.

The film is one of the few movie musicals that surpases the stage original.

[quote]so on the obc that would be Donna Drake singing it [R72]?

That is correct. She not only understudied Maggie, she also understudied Connie and Kristine. She replaced Kay Cole as Maggie.

Here is Sammy Williams' obituary at Playbill:

As a teen, I was kind of obsessed with Sammy. Or Paul, the character he played. I went through all the theater books I could find to see if he was listed.

Even though it's sung onstage by Tricia, the section sounds a lot like McKechnie singing. I think that makes more sense for Cassie to have that moment.

Didn't see the Broadway play but Mom loved this movie when it came on HBO. It was the first movie we ever taped. We watched it while it taped, then watched the entire tape to to make sure we got it. When Mom passed away, the tape went in the trash.

For some reason, the final song and dancing makes me cry. Same with the final song and dance number in Riverdance with Michael Flatley.

The movie is pure shit. They made the score and costumes very 1980s and made it dated even worse than the stage version.

THANK YOU, R65! French and Saunders are pure genius!

Got to go to The movie premiere at Radio City Music Hall. Met Michael Douglas, Audrey and Sir Richard Attenborough. I'm glad I met them before the screening.

I listened to this album for hours as a child. I never saw it on stage until years later. The whole time I listened to it as a kid, I thought Cassie was singing WIDFL to Zach. Like that was the whole reason they broke up. It still makes no sense to me that Diana sings it. Can someone explain it to me?

The gift was ours to borrow.

It meant the time to dance was limited so they had to enjoy it while they could.

WIDFL was, I believe, originally to be sung by Cassie in the same situation but was given to Lopez who was a stronger singer.

If Cassie sang it, it would be interpreted as a song about her relationship with Zach--which thematically makes no sense.

Having another person, who does not talk about romantic relationships, sing it, makes it clear that the song is about something bigger.

What I did for my love of dance, really. It was never about relationships. The song is set up by dialogue when Zach asks them what they would do if they couldn't dance-- right after the injured Paul is taken away.

I think if Cassie sang it, it would have been more powerful and allowed the logical ending of having Zach dismiss her. As staged and written, it's not likely it would have been interpreted as a love song about Zach, like in the movie.

[quote]Even though it's sung onstage by Tricia, the section sounds a lot like McKechnie singing. I think that makes more sense for Cassie to have that moment.

Cassie doesn't sing at all in the opening number. It is in the script even that her mind is elsewhere and doesn't join in in the I Hope I Get It chorus's of the others. Plus it makes her stand out a bit from the beginning because you are looking at her as to why she isn't singing. Bennett thought of everything.

I saw it in its original Broadway run. One of the most magical evenings I've ever spent in the theater. A Chorus Line forever changed what a musical could be.

R74... Are you on crack? The movie was an abomination.

Yes, now I get it. But my parents were NOT going to let me go to the show, and listening to the bits & bobs from the record makes it hard to pull the full story together.

The show gives a chance for every actor to shine at a certain moment. A nice concept. It's still good today, if done right. I saw the City Center production this year, and a production at Westchester Broadway Theater. The latter had David Elder as Zack. Both pretty good.

I didn't see it until my first solo trip to NYC in 1978, at The Shubert when I was 18. My mom worked for ABT in the 50s and all of her girl friends were dancers of some sort, and the night it swept the Tonys in 1976 and Chicago won hardly anything, we were all watching in San Francisco at my Aunt Fil's house (she was really my mom's bff). They were all "Michael who?" "A Chorus Line? Haven't seen it but I've head about it" "Chita's got my vote!' etc. So I was biased towards Chicago.

Anyways it blew me away and I've seen it six times altogether, including at The Pantages with my mom—finally—in 1980 and she LOVED it. The very recent short run at City Center was everything you could want a revival to be. Seeing it as an eldergay, I reflected on my life, my goals and the choices I've made since I first saw it at 18 and cried all the way through it. And the big 'twist' at the end still worked for me.

I work as a contractor and am always going on estimates, where I'm up against other contractors who want the same job. "I Hope I Get It" is my signature song I sing to myself when I leave (if I want the job). Silently; I'm a horrible singer.

And OP, is it too late to delete your question about the movie? As you can see, anyone who cares about or loved ACL doesn't acknowledge it.

How's the movie? Should I look for it online?

You sound sweet R93 so I will forgive you for using “anyways”.

ACL will endure because the themes and the music are woven into the culture. Everyone has applied for a job or put themselves out there in some way, its universal.

Having said that, ACL was of its time and it lifted the veil on Broadway in an honest and unsparing way. It was an honest confessional because the source material was the dancers lives. Nobody should try to make it "relevant" or adjust it in any way to make it more topical.

It is the perfect flashpoint for the mid-late 70's and it addressed what the culture at large was ready to absorb at the time

ACL is already a museum piece. The weakest elements of the show have always been Cassie vs. Zach, career vs. relationship and the entire "what do you do when you can't dance" and they're now agonizing to watch. Bennett's staging was brilliant, his choreography less so.

Does every live performance have that "We're puttin' on a show!" feel to it? Musicals seem to be particularly guilty...I'm not being contrary, it's just a wall I can't seem to get past when I see live theater...

Thanks R95, I AM sweet, I've heard it so many times. In my case, sweet = not as smart as I look. I just laugh when people say I look like a college level english teacher.

In the commercial at r46 who are the actors? Is that Don Correia, Sandy Duncan's husband?

When did they put the gymnastics into Mike's act. I've watched the original cast online and they didn't do that.

It was groundbreaking if only for showing that in the mid70s chorus members sometimes danced in velour and polyester sweaters.

Jeff Hyslop did the role in the international company and he did an aerial walkover during that section.