50th Anniversary Revival of A CHORUS LINE still on track for 2025?- Page 5

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 1/7/25 at 12:52pm

Jordan Catalano said: "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."

He would also stand in the lobby and make phone calls at full volume and it only added to his hilarity. 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 1/7/25 at 1:05pm

Lopez should have been fired for the b.s. he pulled during his run.

[MezzoDiva47]

Posted: 1/7/25 at 3:58pm

ACL2006 said: "Lopez should have been fired for the b.s. he pulled during his run."

yeah

but he was hot

so

the rules never seem to apply

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/7/25 at 9:04pm

ACL2006 said: "Lopez should have been fired for the b.s. he pulled during his run."

He sold tickets, Victoria.

[johnny_g]

Posted: 1/8/25 at 1:17am

Surprised no one here has mentioned the upcoming production at Goodspeed Opera House later this year, billed as the "50th Anniversary Production." I asked on their Facebook page, and they stated it would be a replica production. I am planning to come out from California to see it. Could this be the production that eventually moves to Broadway?

Has anyone here heard the 1996 BBC Broadcast? It's been floating around the web for a while. It's billed as a "concert cast" although Donna McKechnie gets a huge applause after "Music and the Mirror," so I don't know if there was some dancing. Her Zach is...David Soul (??!!) Some lines have been updated ("Harrison Ford, Harrison Ford, my God, Harrison Ford!"), and Connie is no longer Asian, she has a southern twang (?!)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/8/25 at 6:55am

I totally forgot about that BBC radio broadcast.  I will have to look for it online as my only copy is a tape.  Good memory about the updates which is interesting because for the Bus and Truck tour in the mid 80s they updated the costumes and references to crushes but after a year or so they decided to just go back to it being a period piece (in The Longest Line one person is quoted as saying the costumes caused a scandal with some conservative audiences in the tour as the new modern 1980s dance fabric met that you were staring at my more, umm, defined crotches, etc, through much of it.

I'm just catching up with this thread now, but I'm glad others have mentioned the non-clone major productions that have been sprouting up--on the East Coast, in Chichester/London...  Mostly they seem to want to update it and open it up so you get either flashback settings or fantasy settings for number and from what I've seen I don't think they work at all.  But I freely admit I'm a guy who is happy with faithful productions of shows based on the original staging and wish we would get more :P  Still, as others have said, I think this is especially true of ACL.  But the so-called Bennett estate has absolutely agreed to non clone productions--would they on Broadway?  I dunno...(It's too bad the Bennett estate has never been as protective of Dreamgirls but of course you can count on your fingers the number of shows--at least pre Cam Mac or before he got Laurence Connor to direct everything--that were required to try to keep the orginal staging.  The Robbins' estate used to be the most stringent, at least for the choreography of WSS, Gypsy and Fiddler but we know that's changed for all those shows.

When the last revival happened I remember how many people on here complained about it being flat, even tired, etc, etc.  I didn't care.  It meant that I finally got to see that original staging live.  Admittedly I saw the tour, and rather late in its run (Michael Gruber, Alex Ringler, David Hull are some of the cast I remember, and others were in the cast and Cassie was Robyn Hurder who has said she felt too young for the role at the time, but it was thrilling discovering her)  Honestly, at the time Mario Lopez had already joined the Broadway revival and I think I was happier to see the touring cast.  His crappy behaviour has already come up here, but let's not forget that he had his costume changed to show off his chest and arms more, AND THEN reportedly had Nick Adams, who had taken over Larry,have a hoodie or something added to his costume to cover UP his guns.  And while maybe this wasn't a requirement made by Mario, they DID agree to change the staging to give Zack more in stage time, including in the scene with Paul, leading the One routine, etc.  Awful.

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/8/25 at 7:51am

Mario at the Hollywood Bowl:

 

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 1/8/25 at 8:48am

A Chorus Line feels like a "you had to be there" show for me. I assume the excitement came from a) novelty, b) a contemporary feel and c) the artist stories avoiding cliche. They were specific.

I'd prefer a new show. A spiritual successor as it were. That interviewed modern chorus folk and set their stories to music. I've no idea who would compose it. A problem I forsee is that musical theatre education is so streamlined that many stories would feel the same. We'd have to dig past ones like:

~ I was a handsome gay boy from a small town who moved to the city. I danced at Broadway Bares and gained thousands of Instagram followers. Then a casting director called.

~ I was a slender woman from a wealthy family who went to an expensive college where they asked us all to sing in the same "Wicked/ Frozen" style voice. 

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/8/25 at 9:30am

At the time of his death, Michael Friedman was working on a musical for the Public that was a response to A Chorus Line. No idea if it ever got to the point of being in a produceable format. 

[communitytheatergal88]

Posted: 1/8/25 at 9:47am

I don't know if there needs to be a "reinvention" so much as an  refresh/update.  I saw the 2006 revival, and enjoyed it but walked away with a feeling of "so what"?  The costumes and pop culture references were all still from the 70s.  Why not just freshen it up to today?  more modern dance clothes.  intead to "robert goulet robert goulet" to "harry styles Harry styles" (or whatever floats your boat

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 1/8/25 at 9:53am

This’ll probably piss off a lot of people here, but I’d love to see Jamie Lloyd take a crack at this, with updates and rewrites. 

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 1/8/25 at 10:06am

As some who had seen the film version on tv once, I was excited when TKTS had tickets to the revival on the 4th of July 2007 (the only other show that night was Phantom). I saw the show, and saw the full cast, minus Deidre Goodwin who was out. I was a big fan after seeing the show. I understood why it was hailed as a great show. 

Cut to a few years later seeing the tour when it came to my town a little over a year after I saw it on Broadway, and I thought something was missing. it was amazing to see Robyn Hurder, who like a previous poster said, felt she was too young, but I think she had such a strong will, you couldn't understand why Cassie wasn't a bigger star, and I think really helped the show.

[RunnyBabbit]

Posted: 1/8/25 at 10:15am

EDSOSLO858 said: "This’ll probably piss off a lot of people here, but I’d love to see Jamie Lloyd take a crack at this, with updates and rewrites."

But how would he even make the costumes or the set more minimal?

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/8/25 at 10:33am

RunnyBabbit said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "This’ll probably piss off a lot of people here, but I’d love to see Jamie Lloyd take a crack at this, with updates and rewrites."

But how would he even make the costumes or the set more minimal?"

Jamie Lloyd is a director with a refreshing take on new interpretations. There’s so much more to his adaptations than simplifying sets and costumes. He can keep A CHORUS LINE completely intact production wise but his direction would completely alter and create a whole new interpretation. Only stripping away the colors in the costumes and making them black & white would produce an incredible stage visual alone.