A Chorus Line - 1991/1992 Failed Return?

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 1:06am

So, I was looking through some of my ACL stuff, and I found a clipping from the Times (no date, naturally, and the rest of the article is nowhere to be found), that said "Sixteen years after a record-setting run...that singular sensation will return to Broadway next year."

What happened? What prevented it from actually happening?

[Taryn]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 1:26am

Umm, that's referring to the 2006 revival. It's 16 years after the original CLOSED (in 1990), not after the original opened.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 1:30am

I feel fairly certain it isn't, the paper has yellowed too much to have been from 2005, and the typography is slightly different. Unfortunately, it's not got anything attached with it to indicate a date.

[blaxx]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 1:39am

How can you be "certain" it isn't? 1990 + 16 = 2006! Yay, math!

[Taryn]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 3:54am

What else is it going to refer to? It says "after a record-setting run." AKA after the complete run of the show and the final closing. Which happened in 1990. 16 years later is 2006, when it was revived.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 5:35am

"I feel fairly certain it isn't, the paper has yellowed too much to have been from 2005, and the typography is slightly different. Unfortunately, it's not got anything attached with it to indicate a date."

You'd be surprised how fast newspapers can yellow. Especially if you throw it together with a bunch of stuff.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 10:09am

Blaxx- the show ran 15 years, add one and you get 16. That would put it around 1991/1992. And, given the way shows come back lately (Gypsy, Les Miz and La Cage) and knowing that Michael Bennett had wanted the show to transfer Off-Broadway (ala Avenue Q) should it be forced to close on Broadway, my question was pretty valid.

And I never said certain, I said "Fairly certain" meaning I'm not 100% sure.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 10:39am

It took me 38 seconds on the NY Times website to find the answer ...... the internet can be your friend:

'A Chorus Line' Will Return to Broadway
By JESSE McKINLEY

Published: January 12, 2005


That singular sensation is coming back: "A Chorus Line" will be revived on Broadway next year.

Sixteen years after it closed a record-setting run at the Shubert Theater, Michael Bennett's landmark musical about the lives of Broadway dancers is to be restaged with the help of three of the original production's creators: the composer Marvin Hamlisch, the designer Robin Wagner and the choreographer Bob Avian. Produced by John Breglio, the powerful entertainment lawyer who controls Mr. Bennett's estate (he died of AIDS in 1987), "A Chorus Line" will open on Sept. 21, 2006, at a theater to be named.

[gypsy4]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 11:03am

I'm sorry I agree with the other posters why would the bring it back a year later what was the point of closing it then.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 11:21am

Also, Michael Bennett had been dead several years by the time the show closed. He didn't have a voice in wanting it to move Off-Broadway. However, the indefatigable and fantabulous final Cassie, Laurie Gamache did. And goddammit, it'd still be running today and she'd still be doing those fan kicks.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 1:15pm

Namo, how true - Laurie was FIERCE and right up there with Donna and Ann R.

P
Updated On: 9/19/09 at 01:15 PM

[Taryn]

Posted: 9/19/09 at 1:19pm

Blaxx- the show ran 15 years, add one and you get 16. That would put it around 1991/1992.

But it's after its record-setting RUN, not its opening. Hence you add 16 years to the year it CLOSED, 1990.