The Music and the Mirror
One of the all-time longest-running Broadway musicals, “A Chorus Line,” opened at the Center Stage in Southampton last week, and proved yet again that it is one singular sensation.
With music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Ed Kleban, featuring songs like “Dance 10, Looks 3,” “What I Did for Love,” and “One,” plus a series of beautiful dance numbers, “A Chorus Line” would be good enough just with that to merit an audience’s attention. But it is the book, by James Kirkwood and Nick Dante, that adds the extra something special that netted the original production nine Tony Awards and the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The story follows 17 dancers auditioning to be, well, a chorus line. Background dancers. Set dressing. Some of them are just breaking into the biz, but the majority are seasoned gypsies, a little long in the tooth, and desperate for work. As Zach, the director, gets the hoofers to open up, one by one, about their lives through both words and song, the audience becomes more invested in the performers.
Which of them will snag the eight spots available in Zach’s unnamed show, dancing behind an unnamed star? Will it be Bobby, with a story for every situation, Val, an apotheosis of plastic surgery, the mysterious Paul, or Cassie, whose history with Zach goes beyond the footlights?
There are many notable nods to the original production, which is hard to maintain on an empty set with a mirrored background and costumes that are basic Danskin and Capezio. But still, there is Cassie in red, a flash of yellow, Morales’s sneakers, Sheila in nude colors. And, of course, Michael Bennett’s original dance numbers, brought to life by the director Michael Disher.
The space at the usually cozy theater has been ripped wide open, or at least it feels that way, with the mirrored background onstage, the new risers in the theater itself, and the disappearance of a wall that used to separate the theater from the lobby. It feels now more like a workshop performance space, and indeed, that is what it has become for this show.
The production features some faces familiar to East End stages and also some notable first-timers, including several still in high school, who gave outstanding performances. It seems almost sacrilegious to pick out individual performers in an ensemble piece like this, which during workshop performances at Joe Papp’s Public Theater would pick a different eight dancers at the end of each performance, adding an extra element of actual nervousness and surprise for the actors onstage and returning audience members. Who will get it this time?
Still, mention must be made of several outstanding performances. Isabel Alvarez fills some pretty big sneakers playing the role made world-famous by Priscilla Lopez, belting out the iconic “What I Did for Love,” played even today in elevators and supermarkets around the country. Shannon DuPuis portrays the role of Cassie, which garnered a Tony for Donna McKechnie, with realism and drive. Christine Lisette Martinez wows as the foul-mouthed Val, and Edna Perez Winston is completely believable as the wisecracking Sheila.
Denis Hartnett and Paul Hartman are 16 and 17 years old, and are terrific in important roles. But special mention must be made of Adam Fronc, who plays Paul, and gives a performance of such depth, feeling, poignancy, and professionalism that it is a pity there are only a handful of performances left to see.
To add to the theater-vérité, Mr. Disher plays Zach, the director, who is trying under great duress to put together the chorus of his latest show. This is Mr. Disher’s third time around with “A Chorus Line,” which, as he notes in the program, “is an addiction. Dancers and performers love the show for it is OUR show.”
Also, a shout-out goes to the orchestra at Center Stage – Amanda Jones, Karen Hochstedler, David Elliott, and Kyle Sherlock – the real unknowns in the background of this production.
“A Chorus Line” continues to compel dancers and performers. Google it and you’ll find dozens of sites dedicated to Chorus Line trivia, facts, memories by performers and audience members, a handful of treasured original-cast moments, and other monuments to Chorus Line geekdom.
The show is not performed as often as “Grease” or “Bye Bye Birdie,” but it is every bit, if not more, iconic. And what do we have to remember this greatness by? A stupefyingly pukealicious film version by the great Richard Attenborough, for whom this reporter still holds a burning resentment. How can you cut “Sing!” and “Hello 12, Hello 13, Hello Love” from a film version of “A Chorus Line”? Inconceivable, and yet it happened.
But back to the Southampton production. Here were its downsides, all easy fixes and things that did not interfere with the basic enjoyment of the show. The mirrors, so important to the play’s meaning and symbolism, could use a good scrub with Windex. Follow spots need to hit their mark seamlessly. Some lines are muffled and lost without body mikes, especially when Zach is onstage, yelling with Cassie above the din of background singing and dancing. The same with the montage sequence, which features many single lines shouted out in rapid succession. It would take someone who saw the original production maybe a dozen times, someone who wore out the vinyl album and sang the entire score every day on their way to school, to really be able to understand every word.
And there aren’t many of us around anymore.
“A Chorus Line” runs at the Center Stage at the Southampton Cultural Center through March 22.