Last night, I went to a great local community theatre's production of A Chorus Line. I noticed a song that I didn't know was in the show, And. I have the 06 Broadway revival cast album, and it's not on there. Is it on the original cast album?
Quite often songs are left off of cast albums, and for many reasons, some of them as simple as time constraints. One that comes immediately to mind is from the OBC of Parade.
Reporter Britt Craig has a song that I think was titled "On and On", that occurred during the course of the parade. It was not included in the album (cd?) release. In that case, I believe the cut was made because Craig already had two other songs and they were trying to downplay the character a bit. By the time Parade was rewritten for Donmar and the Taper, both "On and On" and "Big News" were cut from the show entirely. JRB said this was done so that Craig wasn't pulling focus from Leo and Lucille Frank.
As far as "And" goes, there are short book scenes (Bobby's monologue, I think) interspersed throughout the song, and that would be my guess as to why it wasn't included.
A Chorus Line opened shortly after I left home. The first time I saw it, I was actually homeless and saving up for my first apartment and to me it meant survival. I saw it five additional times, and I was always taken with 'And' and actually remembered it-even without a recording. It always bothered be not being included. And...
The BBC did a radio broadcast of A Chorus Line in 1996 which has And on it. It also has the "Let me see that I-love-to-dance-smile" music as well which is also wonderful, and all the dialogue.
Donna McKechnie is in there as Cassie and it is riveting to hear her act Cassie's dialogue.
"Why should it be an exclusive? Why isn't it on the cast albums?"
Because the producers of the revival were a-holes who wanted to wring every single additional penny they could out of the good will of fans of the show.
The BBC did a radio broadcast of A Chorus Line in 1996 which has And on it. It also has the "Let me see that I-love-to-dance-smile" music as well which is also wonderful, and all the dialogue.
Does anyone know where I can find a copy of this broadcast?
