Review: A CHORUS LINE at Garden Theatre

How do I love me? Let me count the ways.

When Broadway mails out love letters, they usually send them out in self-addressed envelopes. Smashed, Gypsy, The Producers, 42nd Street, The Last Five Years, Gutenberg! The Musical!, The Play That Goes Wrong, Noises Off, and Moulin Rouge! are just a sampling of shows about Broadway’s favorite subject: itself.

Among these show within shows is A Chorus Line, a 1975 musical that follows the paths of over two dozen dancers who compete for eight chorus spots in an upcoming Broadway show. The musical, co-directed and choreographed by Short North Stage’s Edward Carignan and Dionysia Williams Velazco, runs March 20-April 19 at the Garden Theatre (1187 N. High Street in downtown Columbus).

A Chorus Line is not necessarily a “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” type of musical. Each dancer has a litany of things he or she sacrificed while chasing after his or her Broadway dream. Michael Bennett, the show’s creator, choreographer and director, based ACL’s script on the tales dancers shared with him at the Nickolaus Exercise Center in New York City.

Short North Stage uses a couple of its neat magic tricks to make the production work. Sound designer/mixer Brandon Doeringer and conductor/keyboardist Malik Khalfani make Luke Furniss (trombone), Ben Guegold (trumpet), William Mayer (drums/percussion), Tom Regouski (reeds), Emerson Slicer (keyboards) and Sara Smith (bass) sound more like an orchestra than a seven-member band. Carignan’s set design is simple and yet complex enough to give the audience the feeling of being right in the audition hall and rehearsal studios.

A Chorus Line is the perfect vehicle for SNS, which has a seemingly endless supply of actors capable of carrying a show individually, but who are willing to work as a unit to pull one off.

Naturally, every cast member in this production can dance. Josiah Thomas Randolph (Richie), Bryant Howard (Mike) and Heidi Kok (Bebe) are astonishingly athletic and artistic. Their execution of Carignan, Williams Velazco, and assistant choreographer Jeff Fouch’s instruction is breathtaking.

The musical, however, goes far beyond a collection of acrobatic dance moves. A Chorus Line’s script allows each actor to add his or her personality to flesh out a character.

As Bobby, Nicholas Bradley oozes the sarcastic, bombastic charm of a dancer used to drawing in the spotlight. Bradley delivers the droll one liners perfectly. When Zach the director (Gregory Mallios) asks each potential member to tell him a little bit about himself or herself, Bobby responds, “Do you want to know all the wonderful and exciting things that've happened to me? Or do you want the truth?”

Bradley regales Bobby’s tales with honesty, humor, and a bit of bravado. “I would always try to find ways to kill myself,” Bradley says and then pauses ever so slightly to allow the power of those words to sink in before continuing. “But then I realized to commit suicide in Buffalo is redundant.”

On the other hand, Sheila (Winnona Maddrey) is sort of the anti-Bobby. If she were a whiskey, she would be described as “reticent, snippy with notes of bitterness.” She realizes the clock is ticking on her Broadway dreams. When Zach asks Sheila her age, she gives him a knowing sneer, “I’m OLD.”

There are other comedic foils in the heavy script. Sara Ashleigh Tuohy gets laughs as Kristine, the overly earnest dancer who can’t sing a note. Alana Sayat (Connie) and MK McDonald (Val) are brilliant as anatomically challenged dancers. Connie complains about being too short. In “Dance 10, Looks 3,” Val sings about being too common looking before plastic surgery enhanced her assets. Jake Jonesco’s delivery of his character Mark’s story of thinking he had gonorrhea is one of the show’s funniest moments.

However, it’s not all pliés and Grand Jetes inside A Chorus Line. This cast brings forth the desperation of dancers hoping to make the show to survive. Connor Lyon captures the friction, fear and drive of Cassie, a once promising star trying to fit into the chorus. Her spat with Zach, a former lover now estranged, and his treatment of her in the subsequent dance number are brutal to watch but powerful to experience.

As Paul, Louis Contreras Hansen is the show’s emotional epicenter. When Zach presses Paul for the details surrounding his sister’s death in front of everyone, the dancer shuts down. Later when the character is cornered by the director, Contreras Hansen captures the awkwardness and pain as Paul opens up about growing up gay and finally gaining acceptance by his father. Contreras Hansen’s delivery draws the stoic director out of the shadows to embrace the dancer.

Paul’s confession is followed by a series of emotional gut punches. First, one dancer sustains a potentially career-ending knee injury during a demanding dance routine. (Picture that headline: ACL dancer sidelined by ACL tear.) That’s followed by the cast’s painful realization their shelf life in show business is limited and they must plan for a future without dance. As Diana, Lisa Glover delivers the musical’s touching apex in “What I Did For Love:” Wish me luck, the same to you/But I can't regret/What I did for love, what I did for love.
Look my eyes are dry./The gift was ours to borrow.
It's as if we always knew.

Finally, there’s the show-ending reveal of which eight dancers are cut and which eight are chosen. When Zach says, “I wish I could keep all of you …” the audience feels the same way.

But don’t worry. You won’t have to wait long for the next Broadway missive of self-affection. Shortly after A CHORUS LINE closes, SNS starts preparations for THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, which is described as “a love letter to the Golden Age of musical theatre,” May 8 to June 1.

Photo credits: Fyrebird Media

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