A CHORUS LINE
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| Michel stuart, Donna McKechnie, Carole "Kelly" Bishop, Thomas J. Walsh, Nancy Lane, Patricia Garland, Ronald Dennis, Don Percassi, Renee Baughman, Pamela Blair, Cameron Mason, Sammy Williams, Priscilla Lopez. |
"In Lieu of Reviews"
Reviews of live theatre being impossible during these days of the pandemic, THEATRE'S LEITER SIDE
is pleased to provide instead accounts of previous theatre
seasons--encompassing the years 1970-1975-for theatre-hungry readers. If you'd
like to know the background on how this previously unpublished series came to
be and what its relationship is to my three The Encyclopedia of
the New York Stage volumes (covering every New York play, musical,
revue, and revival between 1920 and 1950), please check the prefaces to any of
the entries beginning with the letter “A.” See the list at the end of the
current entry.
A CHORUS LINE [Musical/Dance/Homosexuality/Theatre]
B: James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante; M: Marvin Hamlisch; LY: Edward Kleban;
CN/D/CH: Michael Bennett (co-choreographer: Bob Avian; S: Robin Wagner; C:
Theoni V. Aldredge; L: Tharon Musser; P: New York Shakespeare Festival; T:
Public Theater/Newman Theatre (OB); 4/15/75-7/13/75 (101); Sam S. Shubert
Theatre; 7/25/75-4/28/90 (6,137): Note: The data on the opening dates is confusing. Otis Guernseys The Best Plays of the year cites April 15 as the opening for the OB production on one
page; a couple of pages later, he says that the press date, which usually marks an opening, was May 21. John Wilson's Theatre World series gives May 21 as the opening. Guernsey says in his next volume that it closed at the Public on
July 13, “opened” at the Shubert on July 25, but did not have its press date
until October 19, following that year's musicians’ strike. Wilson agrees that it closed
on July 13 but says it opened at the Shubert on October 19 after moving to
Broadway on July 25. I thank Alan Gomberg of the "Vintage New York Stage" Facebook page for bringing this to my attention.
A landmark musical of unbridled talent, sentiment, honesty, and
originality that rocketed from the Off-Broadway confines of the Public Theater
to the golden glamor of Broadway. There, its shimmering presence acted like a
beacon to lure spectators back to the Great White Way and, consequently, to
lift the theatre business to levels it hadn’t known for years.
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| Donna McKechnie, Robert LuPone. |
Its exquisitely simple concept—a group of chorus dancers auditioning
for a Broadway show with each called forth to relate something of his or her
background for the edification of the dance director—was conceived by mastermind
director-choreographer Michael Bennett. It was a work of homage to the unsung
tribulations of the chorus dancers (Bennett having been one himself) who
sacrifice themselves on the altar of their dedication to the thrill of
performing.
A Chorus Line, a show that
later became the focus of a rash of books, was developed for half a year in a
workshop supported by producer Joseph Papp. The show’s ultimate enormous success
provide Papp’s not-for-profit New York Shakespeare Festival operations with
enough capital to see it move unhindered through the second half of the decade,
and on through the entire decade of the 80s.
Bennett and his collaborators, book writers James Kirkwood and
Nicholas Dante, lyricist Edward Kleban, and composer Marvin Hamlisch fashioned
their revolutionary contribution from the actual experiences of cast members
and from their own show business recollections. The material was structured to
resemble an audition attended by two dozen “gypsies,” or chorus dancer-singers,
from which only eight would be selected, four boys and four girls.
After the initial 24 are whittled down to 17 finalists, the
dance-director, Zach (Robert LuPone), who spends much of the performance at a
microphone in the rear of the house, questions them on their lives, in order to
hear their speaking voices and to get some insights into their personalities.
His often provocative, yet sometimes painful, questions lead to a series of
solo turns, occasionally supported by other performers, in which the fears and
aspirations, the heartbreaks and the joys of these performers are sung, danced,
and spoken with remarkable exuberance, humor, feeling, and psychological
penetration.
 |
| Pamela Blair. |
The major continuing plot element coursing through the show is the
story of Cassie (Donna McKechnie, in the role that made her a star), a
beautiful, highly talented dancer, Zach’s former mistress, who once had a brush
with stardom but is now vying for a spot in the chorus, much to Zach’s dismay.
Her highlight comes in the marvelous solo, “The Mirror and the Dance (And the
Chance to Dance for You.”
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| Robert LuPone and the company of A Chorus Line. |
At the end, the eight dancers cast for the show come on in glittery, gold,
formalwear costumes, replete with tophats, reminiscent of the “Loveland”
sequence in Stephen Sondheim’s Follies
to present a quintessential, oldtime Broadway chorus number, “One.” Edwin
Wilson thought the finale “so sensational that it’s bound to go down in
Broadway annals as one of the most exciting finishes in modern musicals.”
The unusual book was thoroughly integrated with its musical support.
The music was so interconnected with the conceptual framework that the songs
could not easily be extrapolated and made into hit numbers, although “What I
Did for Love,” sung by Priscilla Lopez, became a standard, and much of the
remaining score became instantly recognizable through fans’ frequent playing of
the extremely successful cast album.
 |
| Donna McKechnie. |
Surprisingly, Hamlisch’s now iconic score received only moderately
favorable reviews from some critics, although others gave it much higher
grades. John Simon termed it “derivative and pedestrian, but serviceable
enough,” while Clive Barnes remarked that it was “occasionally hummable and
often quite cleverly drops into a useful buzz of dramatic recitative.” To
Douglas Watt, it was “a supple and nicely varied score, which, though notably
lacking in the least melodic or harmonic originality.” Edith Oliver described
it as “tuneful, varied, witty, and entirely appropriate.”
On the other hand, Walter Kerr found it “perfect,” and Martin
Gottfried observed that Hamlisch had subdued his personality to the needs of
the show and thereby provided a true Broadway score. “It isn’t just a series of
songs, but an evening’s worth of music designed to function as part of a stage
work.” Kleban’s lyrics were “articulate, expressive, uncluttered . . . and entertaining,”
wrote Watt, but Simon could say only that they were “pretty decent.”
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| L: Priscilla Lopez; R: Sammy Williams. |
Bennett’s conception was lauded by almost every critic. His production
took place on a Robin Wagner-designed bare stage in which the blackness was
relieved by movable mirrors that formed varying backgrounds according to need.
Jack Kroll called the set “a camera obscura . .
where reality and dream ricochet off one another like desire and frustration.”
Only a simple white line downstage decorated the acting area. Combined with the
infinitely versatile lighting of Tharon Musser, the décor was one of Broadway’s
most strikingly effective.
Theoni V. Aldredge’s costumes, essentially a variety of rehearsal
outfits typically worn by dancers, added immeasurably to the visual beauty in
their careful attention to the values of color and line, perfectly encapsulated
in the famous photo of the show’s chorus lineup showing each dancer in a
slightly different posture.
Simon, despite his disdain for the music, applauded the creators for a
“know-how, coupled with ravaging frankness, that makes the show so authentic,
interesting, and, finally, innovative.” He called A Chorus Line “the first musical-verité,’ and noted that it “captures admirably . . . the curious
duality that makes this underbelly of show business at once exceedingly soft
and hard as nails.” What Oliver deemed the “most original, joyous, generous-spirited,
and dynamic new musical to come along in years” impressed Kerr by the “lightning-stroke
severity, the percussive yet infinitely varied discipline . . . Michael Bennett
has imposed upon” it.
 |
| Carole "Kelly" Bishop. |
Bennett’s choreographic creations for the dance-dominated show drew
raves. Watt said Bennett “has no equal in teasing a dance number into shape, building
it from bits and pieces into a suddenly dazzling whole.” “His choreography and
direction burn up superlatives as if they were inflammable,” added Barnes.
A Chorus Line was not,
however, considered perfect, and a few “footling flaws” (Simon) were detected.
Among them was the clash between the somewhat contrived Cassie-Zach story
within the documentary structure, elements of didacticism and obviousness in a
group therapy-like number dealing with the dancers’ attitudes toward the
future, when age would hamper their art, excessive sentimentalism in some of
their stories, and “the ordinariness” of the biographies, as Kerr put it.
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| Kay Cole, Sammy Williams, Pamela Blair, Michel Stuart, Nancy Lane, Cameron Mason, Renee Baughman, Ron Kuhlman, Donna McKechnie, Thomas J. Walsh, Patricia Garland, Don Percassi, Ronald Dennis, Priscilla Lopez. |
The ensemble was faultless and the critics were hard put to select
anyone for special commendation. Those mentioned most frequently were Lopez,
Bishop, Williams, McKechnie, Blair, and LuPone. As for official recognition,
the show itself won not just the Pulitzer Prize but the award for Best Musical
from the Tony and New York Drama Critics Circle voters; Kirkwood and Dante took
the Tony for Best Book of a Musical; Bennett, Kirkwood, Dante, Hamlisch, and
Kleban walked off with a Special Citation from the OBIES; the score won a Tony;
Carole Bishop won both the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and the same
thing from the Drama Desk; Lopez snared an OBIE for Performance; Lupone was
nominated for a Tony; McKechnie won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical and
the Drama Desk Award for the same thing; Williams got the Tony for Best
Featured Actor in a Musical, as well as an OBIE; Bennett was Best Director of a
Musical, said the Tony voters, and landed a similar honor from the Drama Desk;
he and collaborator Bob Avian shared the Best Choreographer Tony; Aldredge was
nominated for a Best Costume Tony, Musser won the Tonys’ Best Lighting prize;
and Wagner’s set was recognized with a Joseph Maharam Foundation Award.
Previous entries:
Abelard and
Heloise
Absurd Person
Singular
AC/DC
“Acrobats”
and “Line”
The Advertisement/
All My Sons
All Over
All Over Town
All the Girls Came
Out to Play
Alpha Beta
L’Amante Anglais
Ambassador
American Gothics
Amphitryon
And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little
And They Put
Handcuffs on the Flowers
And Whose Little
Boy Are You?
Anna K.
Anne of Green
Gables
Antigone
Antiques
Any Resemblance to Persons Living or Dead
Applause
Ari
As You Like It
Augusta
The Au Pair Man
Baba Goya [Nourish the Beast]
The Ballad of Johnny Pot
Barbary Shore
The Bar that Never Closes
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
The Beauty Part
The Beggar’s Opera
Behold! Cometh the Vanderkellens
Be Kind to People Week
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill
Bette Midler’s Clams on a Half-Shell Revue
Black Girl
Black Light Theatre of Prague
Black Picture Show
Black Sunlight
The Black Terror
Black Visions
Les Blancs
Blasts and Bravos: An Evening with H,L.
Mencken
Blood
Bluebeard
Blue Boys
Bob and Ray—The Two and Only
Boesman and Lena
The Boy Who Came to Leave
Bread
A Breeze from the Gulf
Brief Lives
Brother Gorski
Brothers
Bullshot Crummond
Bunraku
The Burnt Flower Bed
Butley
Button, Button
Buy Bonds, Buster
The Cage
Camille
Candide (1)
Candide (2)
The Candyapple
Captain Brassbound’s Conversion
The Caretaker
La Carpa de los Raquichis
The Carpenters
The Castro Complex
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Changing Room
Charles Abbott and Son
Charley’s Aunt
Charlie Was Here and Now He’s Gone
Chemin de Fer
The Cherry Orchard
The Chickencoop Chinaman
The Children
Children! Children!
Children in the Rain
Children of the Wind
The Children’s Mass
