A Chorus Line London: 2 Acts?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/22/13 at 3:50am

While the London Chorus Line seems to be getting great reviews, I found a not so great one in the Financial Times (they think there's too much backstory... wha?) which says: High quality global journalism requires investment.

"The latter of these is palpably conceived as a break-out number, perfunctorily cued in late in Act Two as a kind of pre-finale; cleverly, though, we are shown “One” being constructed as a routine step by step, which has the effect of deconstructing our sense of it."

Is this just a critic's mistake, or are they doing it in two acts?

[mormonophobic]

Posted: 2/22/13 at 3:59am

I believe it's just a critic's mistake. The website says that it's 2 hours with no interval.
A Chorus Line - London

[DeNada]

Posted: 2/22/13 at 6:04am

It's definitely a critic's mistake - saw the show on Monday and it's one act.

Ian Shuttleworth's normally a bit more on the money than this (absolutely no discussion of the staging? At all?), but I don't think many people read the FT for its theatre reviews.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 2/22/13 at 10:00am

Baayork Lee & Bob Avian are directing it, so no way it's being done in two acts.

[mallardo]

Posted: 2/22/13 at 1:08pm

It's one act as always and it's wonderful.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 2/22/13 at 1:59pm

"I don't think many people read the FT for its theatre reviews."

And I weep over the How To Spend It section.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/22/13 at 2:30pm

Thanks guys.

Yeah, I don't know the critic--and I hate to sound like someone who thinks that every review that doesn't love a show I do is necessarily wrong, but the review just seems so off the mark, IMHO.

(I forgot to post the link http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/f47264ee-7b4a-11e2-8eb3-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2LcGIQZHl )

Caring about the characters too much at the start means we don't care about them at the end? huh?

(On another note, Eastenders airs here in Canada a couple of years behind the UK and I tend to half watch it as it's usually on when I get home and am making dinner--half watch it is being generous as I can barely even tell you character names, so I only now clued in that "gay guy" from Eastenders is playing Zach.)

I hope it does well--I know Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is meant to move into the Palladium (which seems a bit large for Chorus Line anyway) in June, so not sure what that means for it.

(Yes I probably should go to that frightening place, the West End Board, for all of this...)

Still, the review that baffled me the most (and the reviews have largely been strong) is one that still got four stars. The Scotland Herald starts off by saying that the musical is NOT a great musical--lest we think otherwise. Igt does praise rightly the staging as being the highlight--but then ends again saying One is a huge anticlimax and that we all know who's gonna get through at the end anyway (I didn't the first time, honestly...) http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/stage/a-chorus-line-the-london-palladium.20281357

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 2/22/13 at 7:16pm

I didn't either. [SPOILERS] I probably assumed Cassie would be cast because she has the bravura solo number and we are invested in her story; but Sheila is almost equally popular with the audience and the show has no problem cutting her.

I don't see the pattern that makes the selections so obvious.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/22/13 at 7:20pm

Yeah, I figured Cassie would (though I know Bennett toyed hard with her not getting cast to be more realistic), but otherwise...

[TBFL]

Posted: 2/22/13 at 7:34pm

Charlie is going into Drury Lane, so ACL doesnt need to move, but it seriously needs to improve ticket sales to stay longer, although it has already been announced that ACL will tour the UK after its London run.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 2/23/13 at 12:05am

***SPOILER***

Sheila doesn't get cast as Zach feels she's ready to move on into the next chapter of her life and open up her own dance studio.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/23/13 at 1:53am

I hope it does pick up--thanks for the correction about Charlie: I think I found an old site from last year that said it was set for the Palladium. I wonder if it would help Chorus Line to be in a smaller theatre--still it's not one of the more expensive shows to run...

ACL, I don't wanna start a new thread, but couldn't find anything--have you heard much about the non-equity review you mention in your sig? I'm such a fan that I planned to go back around Halloween when it was in Abbotsford (which is still really weird--I've never heard of ANY tour playing to that city which is basically a suburb to Vancouver) but couldn't get away due to a busy time with work and school. A part of me was worried I would be disappointed after loving the last (equity) tour so much--but when I looked for reviews after it had performed, I came up empty.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/23/13 at 2:23am

ACL, isn't that Sheila thing just in the movie?

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 2/23/13 at 2:47am

Who gets cast is largely irrelevant. If anyone walks out of A Chorus Line thinking the show was about a director who at the last second decides to cast his ex-girlfriend has missed the entire point of the show.

Originally, the actor playing Zach would just pick names randomly at the end of the show because it didn't matter who was actually cast and it was only decided later that the same people would be cast every time since there were fears audiences might be dissatisfied if they didn't have a clean, polished ending.

[peachesr82]

Posted: 2/23/13 at 8:52am

The cast are making their tv debut on a UK tv show, Let's Dance For Comic Relief, tonight, so hopefully it'll find it's way to youtube for you all to watch.

Just by-the-by John Partridge is so much more than the gay guy from Eastenders, we're not talking Mario Lopez here!

[ACL2006]

Posted: 2/23/13 at 10:07am

nope, it's in the stage version about her opening her own studio. There's a reason behind why each person doesn't get cast. Some of it due to talent, but mostly due to each one of their stories being told.

in terms of the new non-equity tour out now, there's very little info available. Their website(www.ACHORUSLINE.com) only lists the tour stops, no cast list, photos or other info. One cast member was doing a blog while on the road, but I don't think it exists anymore. I also wonder if something happened casting wise with people dropping out for various reasons. About a month into the tour a casting notice was posted for all roles.

Updated On: 2/23/13 at 10:07 AM

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 2/23/13 at 10:55am

"Sheila doesn't get cast as Zach feels she's ready to move on into the next chapter of her life and open up her own dance studio."

"ACL, isn't that Sheila thing just in the movie?"

"nope, it's in the stage version about her opening her own studio. "

In the stage version, Sheila says she's "thinking about" opening a dance studio. "Am I growing up or copping out?"

I don't think it's the reason Zach doesn't hire her. In a weird sort of life imitating art, Diedre Goodwin, Bway's revival Sheila, has, in fact, opened a dance/exercise studio.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/23/13 at 2:49pm

Oh, right, it's the stuff about her having a daughter that's just in the movie.

I thought the point with Sheila was that despite her talents, her attitude was a deterrence, even after she opened up.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 2/23/13 at 3:19pm

Yes: there's this early exchange:

Sheia: "I'm very strong."
Zach: "Maybe too strong."
Sheila:"Am I doing something you don't like? I mean, you told me to be myself".
Zach: "Just bring it down."
Sheila:"Bring what down?"
Zach: "Your attitude!