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'Chorus Line's' story of dancers chasing their dreams still rings true today
'A Chorus Line' tells a tale of competition, self-respect and too many candidates for too few jobs. Sound familiar?
By Bill Hirschman
Special Correspondent
February 13, 2009
The
driving need to pursue a dream even at the risk of rejection is so
universal a theme that it doesn't surprise the torchbearers of A Chorus Line that their musical has endured 33 years.
As
a result, the 2006 revival visiting the Broward Center this month won't
feel like a freeze-dried museum piece even though it mirrors the
original production, its creators assure.
"In these troubled
times ... it feels even more relevant today in 2009," composer Marvin
Hamlisch said. "You've got the country in crisis ... and here is this
show that is basically talking about your own worth as a human being
and the whole competitiveness of trying out for a job."
The tale
about 16 gypsy dancers auditioning for eight spots on a Broadway chorus
line plugs so directly into common yearnings that it could have been
written last week.
The audience's buy-in transcends fascination
with theater, said Bob Avian, the revival's director and the
co-choreographer of the 1975 original with Michael Bennett. "It's about
the little guy; it's about the everyman. It's not about Fanny Brice;
it's not about Dolly Levi. It's about the guy who goes unseen and who
is anonymous."
As each dancer tells his or her back story, the
audience finds at least one person they identify with, said Baayork
Lee, who re-created Bennett's choreography for the revival and who
created the role of Connie in the original.
"It's about people.
It's about fathers cheating on their wives; fathers that are
alcoholics. It's about family," said Lee, who has directed or
choreographed more than 35 productions around the world. "Just to hear
it in Italian and have the people cry at the Paul monologue and laugh
at the Bobby one, that's Michael Bennett's legacy."
Sebastian La
Cause, the old man of the current troupe at 38, added, "Who isn't
inspired by people going after something they're passionate about? How
does that not ... move people to want something like this in their
lives?"
La Cause played the star baseball player in Take Me Out at the Caldwell Theatre in 2004.
There's
also a documentary feel, Avian said. "I think we were the first reality
show. But [today's reality shows] all so cruel and humiliating. [The
judges] say things that I wouldn't dream of saying in an audition
because I and Baayork were dancers.
"We know what it was like to stand there and be rejected ... I can't watch American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance. I hear those judges and I go, 'How dare you?'"
Avian
came out of semi-retirement to direct what has become a legend. The
original production ran for 6,137 performances, then the longest
running Broadway show in history. Even now it only ranks behind The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Cats. It won nine of 12 Tonys and virtually every other award in sight, including the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
"As far as I can determine ... there has never been a day since May of 1975 when A Chorus Line was not being performed somewhere throughout the world," wrote producer John Breglio.
Its
origins have reached mythic status. Choreographer/director Michael
Bennett invited underemployed gypsies to stick around after workouts to
talk into a tape recorder about their professional and personal lives.
Bennett,
Avian, Hamlisch and lyricist Ed Kleban, plus book writers Nicholas
Dante and James Kirkwood, fashioned them into a groundbreaking
mainstream musical through an extended workshop process in the
nonprofit Public Theater — one of the first times the method was used.
They
imagined a stern director grilling each candidate, forcing them to bare
their psychological and emotional drives. With a nearly naked stage,
workout togs for costumes and fluid lighting, the spare production
focuses on the humanity of discernible individuals devoted to their
craft. The heartbreak comes when even the ones who won the job are
absorbed as anonymous components into a single entity for the
show-stopping finale, One, Avian said.
Bennett, Kleban,
Kirkwood and Dante died young. But their legacy includes furthering the
popularity of in-town workshops, proving the profitability of nonprofit
theater, championing plotless musicals and revitalizing interest in
musicals, period. It also inspired thousands of youngsters to become
dancers, some who performed in it years later.
In 2006, the creators revived the show on Broadway with very little tweaking.
"We
thought, you know, it's Michael's masterpiece and there are many
generations who have never seen it, so we said let's be true to it as
much as possible," Avian said. "Michael's always in the balcony for me,
yelling at me, 'Don't let her do that!'"
Some pop culture names
and characters' birth dates that would betray the show's period origins
were cut. Three decades later, the surviving members cherish the
experience, but they stay busy. Hamlisch plays a concert Wednesday at
the Arsht Center in Miami and just scored a Matt Damon movie. But it's
impossible for any of them to escape, least of all Hamlisch.
"The good news about Chorus Line is if I never did anything else as important, I'll have that as my
calling card. The bad news is exactly the same ... Will I ever do
anything as important?"
Bill Hirschman can be reached at muckrayk@aol.com
Line Facts
Began previews at New York Shakespeare Festival April 16, 1975 and opened there on May 21, 1975.
Played firstBroadwaypreview at Shubert Theatre on July 25, 1975 and opened on Oct. 19, 1975.
Played 3,389th performance on Sept. 29, 1983 to become the longest running show in Broadway history. Since then, it has been eclipsed only by Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Les Miserables.
Closed on Broadway on April 28, 1990 after 6,137 performances.
Awards: Nominated for 12 1976 Tonys; won nine, including: best musical, book,
score, actress, director, lighting and choreography. Won five 1976
Drama Desk Awards, New York Drama Critics Award and the Pulitzer Prize
for Drama 1975.