A Chorus Line London: 2 Acts?

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?

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.

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

---

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

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

***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.

---

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

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!

"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.

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!