These numbers still brim with vicarious anxiety and exhilaration, neatly captured by the melody-warping dissonance of Mr. Hamlisch’s score (using the original orchestration by Jonathan Tunick, Bill Byers and Hershy Kay with minor changes). Creating that awareness was the original goal of Michael Bennett, the great choreographer and director who shaped “A Chorus Line” from a series of taped interviews with seasoned dancers. It’s when they step forward to tell their stories that they turn into types. The show’s power anthem, “What I Did for Love” (led in serviceably solid voice by Natalie Cortez), sounds as pop-pretty as ever. And though there are more than two dozen of them, in just a few minutes you’ve become aware of every one as an individual, with the potential to soar or snap. But since that initial swallow is so ambrosial let us savor it. As Zach (Michael Berresse), the show’s director and ersatz Freudian analyst, and Larry (Tyler Hanes), his assistant, lead their auditioners through increasingly elaborate routines, the fascination is in the tension of the dancers trying (and often failing) to become the dance.
In the fall of 2006, A Chorus Line came back on Broadway 16 years after its original run closed, and it felt as if it had never left. "A Chorus Line in Quarantine" was the brainchild of Jeffrey "Shecky" Schecter, who played Mike in the original Broadway revival cast. You can still sense the urgency that once propelled “A Chorus Line” in some of the ensemble pieces. She is excellent in the group scenes, when you can sense Cassie’s nervousness in struggling to fit in. A lot of dancers in rehearsal clothes are trying out new steps for an audition for a show. But for the song to stir, you need to believe that each of the people singing it is, as it were, on the line. “That’s why the original cast could never be replaced. Deidre Goodwin.
Heather Parcells (who played Judy) volunteered to edit, and reached out to cast members not on Facebook. As the sardonic Sheila (created by Kelly Bishop, who won for best supporting actress in a musical), Deidre Goodwin captures (and heightens) the memorable armor of … The paradox of this production is that, from that opening scene onward, the characters never register more fully as individuals than when they’re dancing in an ensemble. Jason Tam is ingratiatingly boyish, younger-brotherish and strangely unsullied as Paul, who tells the agonized story of his humiliating stint in a drag show in a monologue that brought shattered audiences to tears when Sammy Williams delivered it (winning best supporting actor). But in providing us with an archivally and anatomically correct reproduction of a landmark show, its creators neglected to restore its central nervous system and, most important, its throbbing heart.Conceived, originally choreographed and directed by Michael Bennett; book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante; music by Marvin Hamlisch; lyrics by Edward Kleban; originally co-choreographed by Bob Avian; choreography restaged by Baayork Lee; directed by Mr. Avian; music direction and supervisor, Patrick Vaccariello; orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, Bill Byers and Hershy Kay; vocal arrangements by Don Pippin; sets by Robin Wagner; costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge; lighting by Tharon Musser, adapted by Natasha Katz; sound by Acme Sound Partners.
Like Ms. McKechnie, who won her Tony for best actress in the part, Ms. d’Amboise is a dancer of distinctive elegance who has never achieved first-tier musical stardom. Daddy always thought that he married beneath him ... “At The Ballet” is the third song in the broadway musical “A Chorus Line”. So what? These kids are as tight and vibrant as newly plucked violin strings. "Sunday Morning" Matinee: "A Chorus Line in Quarantine" Paul McGill, who played Mark in the 2006 revival of "A Chorus Line," dances on an empty street in New York's theatre district, in "A Chorus Line in Quarantine." “A Chorus Line” shined a spotlight (literally and figuratively) on the components of this dancing machine, as the show’s director (and Mr. Bennett’s alter ego) interrogated the finalists, unearthing the kinds of confessions usually reserved for psychiatrists’ couches. By and large they’re bright, personable and cute as the dickens, which would be fine for “Fame: The Musical,” the synthetic cousin of “A Chorus Line.” It’s hard to separate professional shtick from their private selves, which defeats the show’s purpose. But there’s little sense of desperation now in Cassie’s big solo, “The Music and the Mirror.” Mr. Beresse seems so sinister and robotic in coaxing the dancers into psychological stripteases that he’s like Werner Erhard with a songbook. (Natasha Katz has adapted Tharon Musser’s original lighting design.) CBS News David Morgan is a senior editor at CBSNews.com and cbssundaymorning.com.Watch CBS News anytime, anywhere with the our 24/7 digital news network.