TV: Celebrating 'A Chorus Line' On the Road

The National tour of A Chorus Line is now playing at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles as part of a 29 city tour planned to run through next year. The Pulitzer Prize winning musical will soon close on Broadway, after playing 759 regular performances, leaving the current touring company on its own in presenting director/choregrapher Michael Bennett's original work.

Currently helmed by original co-choregrapher Bob Avian and choreographed by Baayork Lee, A Chorus Line's National tour cast features Clyde Alves (Mike), Venny Carranza (Roy), John Carroll (Larry), Emily Fletcher (Sheila), Stephanie Gibson (Judy), Michael Gruber (Zach), Natalie Hall (Val), Derek Hanson (Don), Holly Howard (Maggie), Jay Armstrong Johnson (Mark), Julie Kotarides (Vicki), Denis Lambert (Greg), Jessica Latshaw (Kristine), Ian Liberto (Bobby), Stephanie Martignetti (Tricia), Sterling Masters (Lois), Pilar Millhollen (Bebe), Colt Prattes (Al), Gabrielle Ruiz (Diana), Clifton Samuels (Tom), Kevin Santos (Paul), Nikki Snelson (Cassie), Anthony Wayne (Richie), J.R. Whittington (Butch) and Jessica Wu (Connie).

A Chorus Line is the first major Broadway musical to be born out of a workshop process and would go on to set the stage for new models of developing musicals. Weaving together and overlapping the dancers' stories, melding direction and choreography to tell these stories and incorporating cinematic elements of staging became signatures of Bennett's ground-breaking new style that would change Broadway musicals forever.

BroadwayWorld's own James Sims went backstage at the Ahmanson Theatre to chat with Gruber, Snelson, Lambert and Fletcher about the lasting impression A Chorus Line has left on Broadway and beyond and what it is like taking this production around the country.

A Chorus Line will play at the Ahmanson Theatre through July 6, 2008. Tickets cost $30- $100 and can be purchased online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org, by calling 213-628-2772 or at the box-office, located at 135 N. Grand Ave. For more information on the Broadway production, visit www.achorusline.com. And for more from James Sims visit www.simsscoop.com.