What a gimmick!! Here’s an ever-repeating story line, ready to go every few years from today to infinity, always with a new cast, always with new stories, always with the same, wonderful score and superb dancers.
"Every Little Step," a documentary that opens today, tells the story of auditions for the 2006 revival of "A Chorus Line." So it is ultimately a remake of the original show, which told the story of auditions for a musical that opened in 1975, ran for almost 15 years and won every conceivable award. The faces and voices are different, of course, with Charlotte D’Amboise rather than Donna McKechnie gaining the key role of Cassie. But McKechnie was only part of the cast for less than two years, with a large number of others taking the role, on Broadway, on tour and in other cities.
So don’t think that the dancers who are told "thank you," on their way out never found employment on a stage, either in the original or the revival. Many were selected as understudies or replacements, others wound up in touring companies.
James Stern and Adam Del Deo produced and directed the current version, with some wow-inducing editing by Fernando Villena and Brad Fuller.
Although the original credits noted that "A Chorus Line" was conceived, choreographed and directed by Michael Bennett, Bob Avian is credited as choreographer, and he and Baayork Lee, dancer, assistant choreographer of the original and director of the revival, are the people in charge of the auditions. They are fascinating to watch, especially Lee as she talks to dancers ready to take over her story and her life.
Archival footage shows Bennett and others in the late-night conversations and confessions in which the "gypsies," as itinerant dancers are known, spoke of their lives, their ambitions, their triumphs and their disappointments. These provided the basics for James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante to write the original book. It’s extremely moving material, and the kids of the 2006 production, some of whom were not yet born when the original opened, are just as drained by the time the audition ends.
With the musical having run at the Fox last month, the film is especially moving, and watching the auditions – of real dancers – is better than any TV reality show. Better than a lot of other movies, too.
At the Plaza Frontenac