I've seen Pamela Blair in several Broadway shows, but the only one that comes immediately to mind is "Best Little Whorehouse--". In the original "Chorus Line" she was the one who sang "Dance Ten, Looks Three" ("Tits and Ass").
I worked on a show at Goodspeed Opera House that starred Pamela Blair - years after Chorus Line. She was very talented and hilarious to boot. She had great stories.
Does anyone know what the reviews of the San Francisco production of the revival of A Chorus Line were like? According to this article in today's New York Times, it opened there this week.
Revisiting Some Singular Sensations: ?'A Chorus Line' Returns
By JESSE McKINLEY
SAN FRANCISCO
Audience members at the Curran Theater here on Wednesday night were already shaking with excitement when the earthquake struck. They had begun applauding as the cast took the stage and were largely oblivious to the minor geological tumult taking place under their feet.
The occasion was the opening night of the new revival of "A Chorus Line," the classic Broadway musical about a crew of aspiring dancers hoping for their big break. About 40 miles northwest of this temblor-prone city, another type of drama was occurring: a quake registering 4.4 on the Richter scale struck at 8:08 p.m. ?- just after curtain time ?- causing office buildings to quiver and dinner plates to shake on kitchen shelves.
No injuries were immediately reported, and the show, of course, did go on, playing to an enthusiastic audience of friends and admirers.
"I walked out of the first one, saying, ?'What's the big deal?' " said Peggy Anderson, 71, a retired educational administrator, who watched Wednesday night's show from the first row of the balcony. (For the record, she was talking about her first time seeing "A Chorus Line," not her first earthquake.) "But I thought this was spectacular," she said.
Among those in attendance were critics for the Bay Area's major newspapers, whose opinions won't be known until Friday morning. But the betting is already on as to whether this revival ?- coming 16 years after the original Broadway production closed a record-breaking run at the Shubert Theater ?- will have legs in New York when it opens at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater on Oct. 5.
On Wednesday night the crowd at the Curran was peppered with celebrities, like Francis Ford Coppola, and some major Broadway players, including Bernard Gersten, executive producer of Lincoln Center Theater and an associate producer of the original "Chorus Line"; the director Daniel Sullivan; and the producer Carole Shorenstein Hays, a co-owner of the Curran.
The show has been a subject of debate online since previews began on July 23, with obsessive comments on everything from changes in the script (minimal) to changes in the orchestrations (ditto). "There was less emphasis on the percussive synthesizer, substituted by what only can be described as ?'pipe organ,' " read one post on allthatchat.com, a Web site devoted to Broadway. "A bit jarring."
The production's advance sales have been solid in New York, producers say, with some $6 million in tickets sold so far. John Breglio, a prominent Broadway lawyer who is making his first stab at producing, said interest in New York had taken off since the San Francisco engagement began last month.
"We haven't even advertised," he said. "But this run really goosed sales."
"A Chorus Line" probably doesn't need much help with name recognition. Conceived and originally choreographed and directed by Michael Bennett, and drawn from interviews with dancers, the show ran on Broadway from 1975 to 1990, by which time it had been seen by more than six million people and grossed $280 million worldwide. At the time of its closing, it was the longest-running production in Broadway history, and was estimated to have pumped nearly $40 million into the coffers of the New York Shakespeare Festival, under the auspices of Joe Papp, who had originally produced the show at a 299-seat theater downtown.
In addition to cementing Mr. Bennett's place in Broadway history, the show helped forge the careers of actors like Robert LuPone, Donna McKechnie and Priscilla Lopez, who were nominated for Tony Awards for their performances. (Ms. McKechnie won a Tony, one of nine for the show, including best musical, in 1976. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.)
The new cast again includes a crowd of unknowns, among them a handful of actors who received their Equity cards ?- the mark of becoming a professional (a k a paid) actor ?- after being plucked from open casting calls. There are also established Broadway talents like Charlotte d'Amboise, who plays Cassie, an aging phenom; and Michael Berresse, who plays Zach, the show-within-the show's director, and Cassie's ex-lover.
Many members of the musical's first creative team worked on this production, including the set designer Robin Wagner, the composer Marvin Hamlisch and Bob Avian, the co-choreographer of the 1975 production and director of the 2006 one. Many other key players, however, have been lost: Mr. Bennett and Edward Kleban, the show's lyricist, died in 1987; James Kirkwood, co-writer of the show's book, died in 1989; and Nicholas Dante, his co-author, died in 1991.
Mr. Breglio said after the opening that their legacies ?- especially that of Mr. Bennett, who was his client ?- were driving the current creative team to continue working on the show in coming weeks. "All the fundamental elements are there, but ?'Chorus Line' was always a show about perfection," he said. "This has to be more than just another production of ?'Chorus Line.' "
Indeed, with some wags wondering why the show ?- a beloved, nearly sacred text for many theatergoers ?- needed to be revived, the members of the creative team were being modest about their goals. "I don't think they're in any way trying to emulate the original," said Mr. Hamlisch, who added that he thought the cast was the most talented he had seen.
"Thirty years ago a singer could dance, and a dancer might be able to hold a melody," he said. "But in 30 years, we've created triple-threats."
At the opening night party at a club around the corner from the Curran, Ms. D'Amboise ?- who looked a bit like a chaperone at a high school dance ?- accepted compliments and posed for pictures, and the younger members of the cast shimmied on the dance floor well past midnight.
"Your adrenaline is going so high, it's hard to settle down," Ms. D'Amboise said later. "They have a lot of energy, those kids."
As the crowd thinned, the D.J. played "One," the show's signature anthem, which drove the new chorus line into a happy frenzy. (There was a little more bump and grind in the night's second performance of this song.)
"Good luck with the rest of your San Francisco shows," the D.J. called out. "But especially New York, everybody."
Thanks, mac. I noticed the review said the performance is more than two hours without intermission. I can't remember if that was true of the original or not -- does anyone know?
I think I might find it a bit trying to sit through an intermission-less two-hour show. That wouldn't have been a problem when I saw the original Chorus Line over 30 years ago, because I still had an attention span back then.
I'm certain that there was no intermission in the original production.
It is long for a play, but god knows I've sat through longer movies without a problem.
It's almost here: the Broadway opening night for the revival of A Chorus Line is this Thursday. The New York Times geared up for it by publishing two articles about the original production in today's edition.
The first article is about how the dancers whose life stories became the basis of the script of A Chorus Line now regret having signed away the rights to those stories. You can read the whole sad story at
"Chorus Line" Returns, as Do Regrets Over Life Stories Signed Away
The second article, which I found more interesting, is about the demise of the overture to the Broadway musical. (The connection to A Chorus Line is that it didn't have an overture; Marvin Hamlisch wrote one, but Michael Bennett and the show's other creators "decided not to include it, fearing it would destroy the illusion that the audience was watching an actual audition as the lights went up.")
The author of the article (Jesse Green) mentions a number of explanations for the disappearance of the overture, including the fact that the scores of Broadway musicals have become increasingly pop- and rock-influenced, and pop and rock songs don't lend themselves to being used in an overture in the same way that more traditional Broadway show tunes do. He also mentions that the orchestras for Broadway shows are smaller than they used to be, so they don't have "enough strings to sell the ballads, enough brass for the showstoppers."
But the explanation I found most disheartening is that there have been "fundamental changes in the way audiences receive information" -- by which he means that
The traditional curtain-down, unstaged overture presupposed that music was ... capable, all by itself, of holding people's attention. That notion has been sorely tested in recent years. Producers and directors say they doubt the audience's ability to perceive useful information encoded in orchestral sound. Decoding that information depends on the habit of listening to music for its own inherent expressiveness, without words, pictures or action: a habit that disappeared from mainstream American culture along with the piano in the parlor.
What a depressing thought.
Here's a link (which should be good for the next week) to the whole article:
Whatever Happened to the Overture?
Thanks for the links, bree. I'll read the articles and come back.
Do you have tickets for Chorus Line yet?
mac11 wrote:Do you have tickets for Chorus Line yet?
I don't, and I fear I may have left it too late to get decent seats -- unless I wait until spring. (Didn't you say something about a possible trip to NYC in the spring?)
I did say that, and that would be an excellent event to plan my trip around. (And I agree about wanting decent seats.)
I saw Chorus Line the first time in 1977. I can't believe it's coming up on 30 years since my first NY trip.
Very interesting articles, bree. Thanks for posting them. I remember how excited I used to get when the overture started.
Spring and the theatre in New York. <sigh>
How much money do you think the original dancers made from Chorus Line? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? I realize that it is their stories that form the basis of the plot, but these people would never have made money from their life stories any other way. I mean, it's unlikely that any of them would have written an autobiography and cashed in.
Interesting that they expect to make more.
Excellent article about overtures.
mac11 wrote:I realize that it is their stories that form the basis of the plot, but these people would never have made money from their life stories any other way. I mean, it's unlikely that any of them would have written an autobiography and cashed in.
I agree, mac. The dancers may have provided the raw material, but it took artistry to shape it into A Chorus Line. Of course, if reality TV had been around 30 years ago, things might have worked out better for them -- they could have made money out of the raw material of their life stories, no artistry required. (Don't I sound curmudgeonly?)
I'm right there with you for curmudgeonliness. Don't get me started about the inanity of reality TV!
