Today we have a special FLASH FRIDAY focused on one of Broadway's most iconic and best loved musicals of all time, the group therapy-themed backstage tuner A CHORUS LINE.
She's The OneOn July 25, 1975, one of the most important and influential musicals of the 20th century opened to rapturous reviews and lines around the block at the ticket queue following a sensational Off-Broadway run at Joe Papp's Public Theater - the innovative and daring showbiz masterpiece A CHORUS LINE. Spearheaded by master director Michael Bennett and created from the ground-up in a series of rehearsals and workshops based on a series of recordings captured of many of the actual performers participating in the show reflecting on their lives in the theatre and what it really means to be a Broadway gypsy, this was unlike any Broadway entity before or since. A CHORUS LINE is a true red, white and blue American original.
Speaking of Broadway gypsies and GYPSY, the musical, though, perhaps not since GYPSY, WEST SIDE STORY, COMPANY and a few other idiosyncratic game-changers had such an imaginatively written, staged and performed musical landed on the Great White Way - and, the show would go on to run for more than 6,000 performances after that hot July night that we celebrate with our clip collection today.
Featuring a peerless cast of Broadway dancers and actors whose roles were perfected down to the very word and smallest movement by intuitive and invested director Bennett and the accomplished creative team, A CHORUS LINE features a score by one of Broadway's master musicians, the recently deceased Marvin Hamlisch, as well as lyrics by Ed Kleban and a book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante (with several unnamed contributors, as well; such as comedy king Neil Simon). Matched note-for-note, word-for-word and step-for-step with every fantastic reveal and lighting coup presented by set designer Robin Wagner and lighting designer Tharon Musser over the course of the show, A CHORUS LINE was an impossibly rich feast for the ears, eyes - and, perhaps most of all, heart.
At that year's Tony Awards, A CHORUS LINE cleaned up, taking home Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book, Best Director and Best Choreography - the latter shared by Bennett and constant collaborator Bob Avian - as well as Best Actress In A Musical for Donna McKechnie - Bennett's muse - and top trophies for Sammy Williams, Kelly Bishop in Featured acting categories, plus Theoni V. Aldredge for her ideally contemporary costume design.
38 years later, A CHORUS LINE is still a fearless and poignant paean to Broadway and a provocative illustration of what we all do for love, whatever our passion may be - in addition to what that love costs for each and everyone one of us, too.At The Ballet
So, now, let's look at some of the finest moments related to Broadway long-runner and cherished musical theatre classic A CHORUS LINE from its Broadway premiere in 1975 until now.
First up, check out the original cast of A CHORUS LINE opening the 1976 Tony Awards with a coup de theatre befitting of master musical theatre stage magician Michael Bennett.
Next, view the closing of the 1976 Tony Awards featuring the cast performing the ear-grabbing finale, "One".
Now, see the original cast of A CHORUS LINE reunite on talk show DONAHUE to discuss their various journeys with the enterprise.
Don't miss this incredible clip of the sights and sounds surrounding the specially-staged record-breaking 3,389th performance of A CHORUS LINE when it became the longest-running show in Broadway history. What a finale!
Last, sample the 2007 revival cast of A CHORUS LINE performing on the Tony Awards, accompanied at the piano by Marvin Hamlisch himself.
So, what exactly is it about Michael Bennett and company's musical theatre masterpiece that makes it endure nearly forty years after its Broadway bow? Furthermore, what is your favorite element of the rich production history of A CHORUS LINE? No doubt, for any and all of us, the number of reasons why we love this show is much, much more than merely one.
