Chorus Line, A

Chorus Line, A (1975), a musical by James Kirkwood, Nicholas Dante (book), Marvin Hamlisch (music), Edward Kleban (lyrics). [Public Theatre, 6,137 perf.; Pulitzer Prize, Tony, NYDCC Awards.] Zach ( Robert LuPone), a director‐choreographer, auditions dancers for a chorus line in a forthcoming musical. Not content with collecting photographs and résumés, nor with watching them perform a few sample steps, Zach requests each applicant to tell a little about himself or herself. The subsequent commentaries lead into various issues, some related to dance but most with other kinds of life experiences. With time he eliminates those he cannot use, then the rest unite in a glittering top‐hats‐and‐tails production number. Notable songs: One; What I Did for Love; I Hope I Get It; The Music and the Mirror. The celebrated concept musical was the brainchild of its own director and choreographer, Michael Bennett, who spent months in auditions and workshops recording histories not unlike those employed in the show. Joseph Papp presented the show Off Broadway but, after the rave notices, moved it to the Shubert Theatre three months later where it stayed for fifteen years, breaking the Broadway record at the time. Although Walter Kerr held serious reservations about the “ordinariness” of many of the histories Bennett used, condemning some as too self‐pitying and even irrelevant, he admired the show's “lightning‐stroke severity” and hailed the total accomplishment as “brilliant.”