50th Anniversary Revival of A CHORUS LINE still on track for 2025? — Page 4

What would be impressive and an event is if they used the venue used in the movie (across from wicked)

ACL2006 said: "MezzoDiva47 said: "
mezzodiva47 has spoken

bow down accordingly

"

your posts are annoying just because of your tagline at the end. STFU!"

They seem tongue in cheek and not something to get worked up over?

A part of me thinks Chorus Line shouldn't be messed with, but how thrilling would it be if someone mounted a fresh production that really worked? Of course the risk is that it would be awful but that's the thrill of theater.

What is Robbie Fairchild doing these days?

I saw that revival so many times. My favorite thing is when we would do standing room, Mario Lopez would be in back of us, working out on the stairs going up to the mezz. He’d be grunting and whatnot doing his sit-ups and pushups for most of the show and while it was distracting, it was also hilarious.

Dreamboy3 said: "I don’t think the Bennet estate would allow major changes."

The Bennett estate is John Breglio, his lawyer, who produced the 06 revival and likely would produce or oversee any upcoming revival too.

The originalist tendencies of some members here are coming out in this thread, which is unsurprising but always disappointing.

A Chorus Line will cease to be exciting or relevant if it is treated as a museum piece that may only be done one specific way in its staging and design, AND if a show about young people is to be restaged and produced by people in their late 70s-80s.

If Bennett were alive and overseeing his own revival, I’d like to think it would more resemble Arthur Laurents’ work on his revivals of GYPSY. Theatre is living, breathing, and evolving.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Dreamboy3 said: "I don’t think the Bennet estate would allow major changes."

The Bennett estate is John Breglio, his lawyer, who produced the 06 revival and likely would produce or oversee any upcoming revival too.

The originalist tendencies of some members here are coming out in this thread, which is unsurprising but always disappointing.

A Chorus Line will cease to be exciting or relevant if it is treated as a museum piece that may only be done one specific way in its staging and design, AND if a show about young people is to be restaged and produced by people in their late 70s-80s.

If Bennett were alive and overseeing his own revival, I’d like to think it would more resemble Arthur Laurents’ work on his revivals of GYPSY. Theatre is living, breathing, and evolving."

I have worked with Breglio and know he is the Bennett estate. But gee thanks for pointing out that irrelevant fact. 🙄 And during his lifetime Bennet said a number of times that he was opposed to revivals.

The issue is that unlike, for example Sondheim or Rogers and Hammerstein shows where the score is what makes the show and directors can bring their vision to present the show in a new light, that is not ACL. While I love the score of ACL it really functions as support for the staging. Can you imagine production of Sweeney, etc with a reworked score?

While I'm certainly open to fresh interpretations, I think it is quite possible that A Chorus Line is one of few major hits that could survive for quite some time as a "museum piece. "The stories and very minimal staging/props are relatively timeless. And One as a closing number is as—if not more—exciting than a lot of the tech-driven big moments in current productions.

Updated On: 1/5/25 at 12:23 PM

Also of note, Michael Bennett wasn’t opposed to modifying and making changes to his work. For the First National Tour of DREAMGIRLS, he completely reworked the Act 2 Las Vegas opening number and added it into the still running Broadway production shortly after. I’m sure if he were alive today, he would have made changes to A CHORUS LINE to keep it fresh and more relevant to today’s Broadway standards while still keeping the DNA of the original intact.

I've seen a few non-replica productions. Most were horribly done. Two of the worst were at The Media Theater in PA awhile ago and a recent community theater production of it. The one at the Media had Music and the Mirror as a duet with Zach while Cassie got an added solo during Montage. The recent community theater production had the cut dancers bring out chairs for the 17 dancers on the line to sit on. WTF? And then they somehow copied the finale choreo form the movie!

And then there were the productions of ACL done at the Hollywood Bowl and at Papermill(2012?) that were replicas but we're terrible. Baayork would likely direct the 50th anniversary production but she's no longer a viable option to make this show work anymore. She has muses she's been working with recently to help launch other productions of ACL as she simply can't stage this anymore without help.

Have I completely made up (entirely possible) the rumor that someone wanted to stage this with Robbie Fairchild as the first male Cassie, but the estate shut it down?

Sauja said: "Have I completely made up (entirely possible) the rumor that someone wanted to stage this with Robbie Fairchild as the first male Cassie, but the estate shut it down?"

Just rumors. There was never another planned revival after the 2006 one closed up until now. Unless it was for a regional production.

The8re phan said: "i'd much prefer him as either Zach, Mike or Paul, butRobbie Fairchildcan certainly dance the hell out of the "Cassie' role..........



https://youtu.be/Jp3_QP0NjWw?si=VRapBbJfYGFRKS1Y"

But not in heels!

Eric Sciotto did M&TM during lockdown. He was fabulous.