 |
 |
EDMONTON - The musical A Chorus Line was assembled out of hours of interviews collected by director/choreographer Michael Bennett in 1973.
Bennett talked to Broadway dancers, had writers James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante shape their stories into a coherent show, added a score by Marvin Hamlisch (music) and Edward Kleban (Lyrics), and launched the result in 1975.
A Chorus Line had one of the longest runs on Broadway ever and won every prize available -- including the Pulitzer.
A new production is currently playing at the Jubilee Auditorium. And, I am delighted to report, the classic is as compelling as ever.
The calibre of acting is superlative and the dancing graceful and spectacular.
Bennett's idea was to take a cast of 30 or so "gypsies" (as dancers are known in the trade) and put them into an audition situation.
|
Each one desperately needs the job. But his genius was to give each of them a distinct personality and story.
Time and time again the dancers return to stand in an unforgiving single line across the stage but with pin-point lighting, and under the probing questions of their director, we go far behind the black box set to explore their individuality. And in doing so, pry open a concept that might have appealed only to musical-comedy audiences into a heartfelt universal story of dedication and commitment.
Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love compresses chaotic, adolescent lives into a compact coming of age ballet. At The Ballet is a lyrical celebration of self-discovery through the beauty and discipline of the art form.
The Music and the Mirror tells of a lonely woman's mystical obsession with the dance.
The exuberant finale, One sums up everything that has gone before and features a remarkable display of unison dancing.
Hamlisch's passionate music ranges from atonal and strident to melodious.
It, too, stands the test of time and you will leave the hall humming.
The director, Zach (Michael Gruber), is a tyrannical taskmaster. He needs only eight dancers and must winnow out the rest. He does so by, not only watching them dance, but by mercilessly demanding them to tell him their stories.
The production is brim full of show stoppers but you will probably remember a sinewy and athletic Clive Alves in I Can Do That. Rebecca Riker delivers the wryly comic Nothing and the versatile performer returns later with a moving delivery of the dancer's anthem, What I Did for Love.
Mindy Doherty is sexy and playful in Dance: Ten; Looks: Three, a show-stopping turn on how a bit of body work, and some silicone, can turn a plain Jane into a va-va-voom babe.
An electrifying performer, Robyn Hurder displays a remarkable set of pipes and an energetic dance style in The Music and the Mirror.
The stories and characters are timeless.
So is this show.