Let me admit right up front that I’m a total sucker when it comes to A Chorus Line. No matter how many times I’ve seen it (quite a few over the past four decades since it opened on Broadway in 1975), there are still moments that grab at my heartstrings and bring tears to my eyes. The show is the story of a crowd of dancers auditioning to be the dance chorus of a new Broadway show. Zach, a director/choreographer, puts them through their paces while boring into their psyches: Why do they dance? What motivates them? What do they fear? They are all yearning for work: “God, I hope I get it,” they sing with nervous expectation and fear in the show’s opening number.
In fact, A Chorus Line’s script was written by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante based on interviews with young dancers, distilled to 17 characters who must be reduced to eight — “four boys, four girls.” The addition of Marvin Hamlisch’s great score yielded a long-running hit that won nine 1976 Tony Awards.
It’s a simple concept — a backstage showbiz tale. But it’s about people who respond to a calling. They aren’t striving for stardom (although a few of them yearn for it), but rather just desire work because its what they love to do. That’s the foundation of the show’s appeal — people coming together to create something greater because they throw themselves into a collaborative effort.
A production of the show has opened the 2015-2016 season at the Covedale Center, and it’s a good one. It’s not quite perfect, but definitely worth seeing. The best part is what’s essential for any successful production of A Chorus Line: The dancing is excellent. Credit choreographer Angela Kahle, whose Broadway experience (as well as being a Rockette at Radio City for a decade) is evident. She has imposed discipline and style on the cast of 26, keeping them synchronized and watchable, whether it’s ensemble work or featured numbers such as Andrew Maloney’s Mike jazzing his way through his reminiscence of taking over his sister’s dance lessons and Hannah Aicholtz dancing Cassie’s big solo moment, “The Music and the Mirror,” her demonstration that she still has what it takes and all she wants is “the chance to dance.”
The show’s capstone, “One (Singular Sensation),” with each performer in glittering gold tuxes, illustrates the show’s theme that these vivid individuals we’ve met add up to a greater whole, a collaborative “one.” What’s more, we are movingly reminded that what they do is not for fame or stardom, but for love — that’s the message of the show’s culminating number, “What I Did for Love.” Kahle’s dance supervision gives this production a convincing demonstration of what this means. They’re where they are because that’s where they want to be. In fact, it’s the only place they truly know how to survive.
A Chorus Line boasts an insightful script (it earned the show the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for drama, seldom given to a musical) with several opportunities for actors. Director Matthew Wilson has shaped those moments effectively, especially Ben Goodman as introverted Paul San Marco. His second-act monologue about being ashamed when his Puerto Rican parents discover his theater job as a performer in a drag show is the show’s emotional peak. Although Matt Dentino turns in a strong performance as Zach, the stern, demanding director, his badgering interactions with his onetime lover Cassie felt overly harsh and a bit too forced; a little more ambiguity would warm him up. A Chorus Line includes several naturally comic moments; in this production they are being pressed harder than necessary. Zach tells his dancers to be natural, not to “act” or show attitude: That advice could be given to several actors in this production.
The characters in A Chorus Line are mostly as people in their 20s; a few fear being over-the-hill because they’ve crossed the threshold of 30 and know the end is nearing. At least two cast members still in high school are a tad young for the roles they play. They’re fine dancers, but their acting needed more depth. Of course, A Chorus Line’s characters, devised in the mid-1970s with people giving birthdates in the ’40s and ’50s (which would put them in their 60s today) feels a tad anachronistic today. But the beauty of A Chorus Line is that the story it tells is timeless. Another generation is coming right along behind these performers — ready to step on the line and carry forward.
A CHORUS LINE, presented by Cincinnati Landmark Productions at the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, continues through Sept. 27. More info: cincinnatilandmarkproductions.com.
This article appears in Sep 9-15, 2015.
