A Chorus Line reviews — Page 3

I am glad he liked Ken Alan.

amNY gives it 4 stars:

"Bob Avian has carefully restored Michael Bennett's staging. As a concept musical, Bennett's choreography is even more central to the show's success than Marvin Hamlisch's score -- easily the best work of his career -- or James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante's book, which probes an inner mentality that few musicals have ever conquered.

We could spend days contrasting the revival's performers with the originals. But the 19 actors that make up the current ensemble are collectively divine and well cast.

There may come a time when Broadway is ready for a visually reconceived "Chorus Line." But for now, this revival is a singular sensation in every capacity. Theatergoing doesn't get much better than this."

http://www.amny.com/entertainment/stage/am-chorusreview,0,2270121.story?coll=am-homepage-mezz

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Variety is Mostly Positive:

"When news emerged that "A Chorus Line" was returning to Broadway in a revival virtually identical to its 1975 debut production, the surrounding debate ranged from skepticism to cautious approval. Was it misguided to resurrect the iconic musical as a museum piece, or wise to acknowledge that Michael Bennett's superlative original staging couldn't be bettered? Was it too soon? Too dated? Those concerns are valid, but also immaterial. The thrill of discovery can never be repeated, and the legendary synergy of that first cast, many of whom were part of the development process, is lost forever. But this lovingly mounted replica gives ample evidence of what makes the show such a landmark.

For musical theater fans, "A Chorus Line" remains a transcendent experience, exposing the sweat beneath the spectacle, the human cogs that bring the machinery to life. Applying '70s-style group therapy principles in a then-revolutionary context, the show spins a line of dancers auditioning for a Broadway chorus into a universal metaphor for anyone struggling for recognition in a competitive world. Its stinging irony is that even as their individual hopes, dreams and vulnerabilities are explored, the dancers are being groomed to join an assembly line.

After 15 years on Broadway and countless regional, touring and international productions over the past three decades, "A Chorus Line" has fostered lots of warm memories in lots of folks, and the show provides emotional jolts of recognition that go beyond mere nostalgia. At certain key points -- when the cast turns away from the upstage mirror to face the audience for the first time in the opening dance combination; the high notes in "At the Ballet"; the ensemble coming in on the chorus of "What I Did for Love" -- a visceral charge can be felt coursing through the audience.

What's missing here is ownership. Reproducing Bennett's staging to the letter, original co-choreographer Bob Avian has assembled an appealing cast of accomplished singer-dancer-actors. But while everybody works hard, no one quite dazzles. That seems dictated not by any lack of talent but by the fundamental limitations of the production's approach. Fitting into the established contours of existing performances rarely generates the same sparks as creating them from scratch. The actors onstage feel like topnotch replacements rather than originators. It's the sense of duplication -- albeit lovingly executed -- that keeps the revival from soaring.

That the show is satisfying despite those constraints testifies to the strength and honesty of the material. Much has changed in the 31 years since its premiere, notably the prevalence of this type of confession in popular entertainment.
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Seeing Bennett's exhilarating dance sequences again, his choreography exactingly restaged by original cast member Baayork Lee, it's inevitable to note by comparison how poorly dance is integrated into most Broadway shows now. Inevitably in a musical conceived by a former gypsy and culled from the experience of those unsung ensemble members, movement informs almost every scene -- and it's only in a couple of draggy spoken scenes that the show's wrinkles work against it.
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Vocally, the production mostly matches the original. This is one area in which the cast is allowed to put its own imprint on the material rather than simply carbon-copying the cast recording. Among standouts, Chryssie Whitehead as tone-deaf Kristine gives a daffy, distinctive take on "Sing!," while Mara Davi, with her sweet, sure voice and unguarded stage persona, does a gorgeous job on "At the Ballet." Also registering strongly is Jason Tam as Paul, who gets the show's most emotional passage as he relives the pain of growing up gay. Casting of Deidre Goodwin as brittle Sheila makes the traditionally white character into a more familiar proud black mistress of the quick retort, but Goodwin looks terrific and does imperious sass with flair.

The closest the ensemble piece has to a starring role is Cassie, the humbled former featured dancer looking to slip back into the chorus and negotiating the baggage of her history with Zach (played with crisp authority by Berresse). In her extended dance solo during "The Music and the Mirror," Charlotte d'Amboise doesn't surpass the memory of Donna McKechnie, who created the role, but her Cassie has a lovely, understated melancholy quality -- possibly informed by d'Amboise's professional history as a perennial replacement.

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Whatever the merits or shortcomings of reproduction vs. reinvention, it's unquestionably a plus that "A Chorus Line" is now accessible to new generations of theatergoers. Whether or not the show sticks around another 15 years, its unique place in musical theater history and heartfelt insights into the dedication and sacrifice of its below-the-title workers make it deserving of a permanent home on Broadway."


http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931781?categoryid=33&cs=1

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I heard Jeffrey Lyons on the news tonight. He was very positive about the performance.

Eileen

Newark Star-Ledger is a Rave:

"Certain viewers (like middle-aged me) are likely to watch the new revival of "A Chorus Line" through a haze of sentiment about their own youthful experiences when this great American musical first hit Broadway so powerfully in 1975.

Others know the show from later in its 15-year run here, thousands of subsequent stagings elsewhere, or even the dismal film.

But plenty of younger people probably have never witnessed "A Chorus Line."

They're fortunate -- and so are the rest of us -- that the production that opened Thursday at the Schoenfeld Theatre is a faithful and altogether loving re-creation of the late Michael Bennett's masterpiece.

Welcome back, you beautiful thing.
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Anyway, "A Chorus Line" was truly state-of-the-art musical theater 30 years ago and remains pretty terrific today. (Musicals have evolved very little for the better over the years.) Lean and keen in its conciseness, the intermission-free show rolls along rapidly toward its high-kicking finale.
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In this era of mostly ironic, self-reverential musicals, perhaps the most breathtaking quality about "A Chorus Line" is its utter sincerity. That's really the most old-fashioned thing about the show and its characters. They did it for love. "



http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-0/1160110846210210.xml&coll=1

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Newsday is Mixed-to-Positive:

"For the gazillions who loved "A Chorus Line" on Broadway from 1975 until 1990, who adored it on the road and around the world, who laughed and cried and felt they had come of age with every confession that Michael Bennett culled from the lives of Broadway chorus dancers, this is the chance to hug one another all over again.

But those of us who admired the show more for its brains than its manipulative soaper heart: Prepare to be accused again of kicking puppies.

Is 16 years too soon to justify a full-blown nostalgia-fest for the Pulitzer Prize-winning phenomenon? Ask someone else, please. Bob Avian, protege of Bennett and co-choreographer of the original, has put together a tracing-paper revival that plays as if the long-running show had never stopped running.

This is good and not so good. We're delighted that no one decided to update references to Troy Donahue and Ed Sullivan to improve comprehension by desirable young demographics. On the other hand, the treatment of every step-kick as holy scripture brings the faint whiff of mothballs to memory lane.

To Avian's credit, he did not try to replicate the look of every member of the original gang of two dozen gypsies auditioning for just eight jobs in the chorus of a new Broadway show. But to our surprise, neither did he always match them in quality.
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But the banality of the plot's psychodramas, especially in the two big scenes, have always left us wanting to rub Bennett's fingerprints off our sleeves. The gay confessional and abrupt punishment of Paul (played with deep sweetness by Jason Tam) suggests that mawkish works if you can dance it. The confrontation between director Zach (the appealing Michael Berresse) and his ex-lover, Cassie, would be laughed off a stage if this were a play instead of a dancing musical. ("Why did you leave me?" "You already left me!") But we get to watch the marvelous Charlotte d'Amboise and those beautiful little bones in her back go from floppy rag doll to jazz queen, then pull herself through a hole in her gut in "The Music and the Mirror." Won't someone please create a new musical for her?

Deidre Goodwin brings a fresh and flirty black-diva attitude to Sheila, the sophisticate who doesn't want to be called a "girl" but opens up to share "Everything Was Beautiful at the Ballet." Natalie Cortez amuses with "Nothing," the anthem against arty drama teachers. Most others are fine; a few are bland, even miscast."

http://www.newsday.com/features/printedition/ny-etledew4918668oct06,0,3619619.story

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John Simon (of all people) is Mostly Positive:

"When ```A Chorus Line' premiered in 1975, it struck me as a great new musical with all the traditional virtues, plus some remarkable innovations. Thirty-one years later, in its first Broadway revival, the show is still terrific and utterly fresh.
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Michael Berresse acts and dances Zack compellingly, and Deidre Goodwin, as the oldest and most hardened of the girls, is close to a match for the original's stellar Kelly Bishop.

Jason Tam commendably resists oversentimentalizing Paul, the touching homosexual waif, and the other guys are good enough, without effacing memories of their prototypes. The trouble is with the women.

As Diana, the underprivileged Puerto Rican who comes into her own in the chorus, Natalie Gomez falls well short of the enchanting Priscilla Lopez. And Jessica Lee Goldyn cannot rival the adorable Pamela Blair as Val, who lacked certain frontal and rear endowments until she discovered plastic surgery.

Alisan Porter and Mara Davi, playing girls who escaped dreary existences as dedicated ballet-goers, are also less winning than their predecessors. Chryssie Whitehead, though soundly supported by Tony Yazbeck as her chorus-boy husband, shoots way over the top as the scared and overanxious Kristine.

But the greatest loss is in Charlotte d'Amboise's Cassie, Zack's former girlfriend who is back in New York desperate for work after flopping in Hollywood. Though an able actress and fine dancer, d'Amboise comes across too hard, where the original's Donna McKechnie was much more vulnerable and moving in her great solo, ``The Music and the Mirror.'

Yet ultimately none of this matters much.

With its ravishing score, engrossing book (you really care about who will make the final cut), superb scenic effects and riveting choreography, ``A Chorus Line' easily outclasses most recent and current hit musicals.

Tickets are hard to come by, but there are always hardy souls who, by determination and perseverance, manage to get them. The show is well worth whatever sacrifices are made for it."



http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aHUUhxigv2PA&refer=muse

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Updated On: 10/6/06 at 03:59 AM

Clive Barnes gives it Two-and-a-half stars:

"It certainly isn't the greatest musical of all time - but it held a particular place in the hearts of almost all who saw it, partly because of the originality of Bennett's idea and partly because of its theme of everyday effort, or as one of the chorus guys cries out: "I Can Do That!"

Though it closed 16 years ago after 6,137 performances, there are still plenty of people who didn't see it that first time around.

And it's probably these people, even more than those driven by nostalgia, to whom Bob Avian's resuscitation of "A Chorus Line," which opened last night at the Schoenfeld, will most appeal.

Avian was Bennett's co-choreographer, and assisted by original cast member Baayork Lee, he has produced what looks like a facsimile.

Bennett's concept - of chorus dancers, or "gypsies," auditioning for a job and, in the process, telling their life stories - is absolutely fantastic.

Brilliantly, he based the musical's book - eventually pulled together by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante - on the taped confessionals of a group of dancers, many of whom eventually appeared in the show. That in itself gave the original, to quote lyricist Edward Kleban, a very "singular" authenticity.

What comes off best now are a few individual performances and the Marvin Hamlisch score, which strides and swirls through the show as if it were memory's music box.

As Zach - the director doing the auditioning - Michael Berresse lacks authority, but Charlotte d'Amboise is a pure delight as Cassie, Zach's sometime lover and a one-time star seeking to reinvent her career by starting afresh in the chorus.

Avian, helped by the original design team of Robin Wagner (scenery), Theoni Aldredge (costumes) and Tharon Musser (lighting, here adapted by Natasha Katz), has done a pious job of all but embalming Bennett's creation.

What remains is a good reproduction of a great original. But if you've seen it before, you needn't run to see it again."


http://www.nypost.com/seven/10062006/entertainment/theater/embalming_fluidity_theater_clive_barnes.htm

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I couldn't care less what any of them have to say. Wild horses couldn't keep me from this production.

"The later it got, the better the reviews were"

I'm like that at bars and parties.

I was glad to see someone nail the soap operatic feeling of the Cassie/Zach romantic confrontation. It's not suprising to learn it doesn't update well. I always found their screeching at one another in this professional context embarrassingly awkward and out of sync with the more reality-based behavior in the rest of the show. Brantley's plea to give Zach a modicum of warmth (reality) strikes me as justifiable. He can come across as arch and Svengali-like in the wrong, ludicrous way. I feel sorry for Berresse, having to bark at a desperate woman on stage about moving out on him, etc. And Zach suddenly opening a vein, "I was directing my first play! If I could prove I could do a non-musical..."

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folkyboy gives it a RAVE