Cheryl Clark: Chorus Line's (2nd) Greatest Cassie? — Page 4

Not at all, Namo. I'm offering my interpretation of what I see, not everyone else's, and not the director's. I thought that was pretty clear when I said things like "for me" and "I think" and "what I see."

Maybe not.

EDIT: If you agree with my interpretation, that's great. If not, that's fine, too. It's just my personal impression or breakdown of Music and the Mirror. It's not the "bible" for it. Others may (and do) see it differently.

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Updated On: 7/20/10 at 02:35 PM

"Michael loved the kind of ambiguity that unnerved the audience and kept them guessing, while at the same time delivering the kind of razzle-dazzle steps and staging that would make them applaud. He liked to "mind-fu*k the audience" AND entertain them--simultaneously."

Exactly! Didn't he create the whole finale as a moment of frustration for the audience? He spends a whole evening showing us just how individual these people are, only to dress them up in the exact same costume, doing the exact same steps, so we have trouble figuring out who is who as they step forward for their final, individual bows. Granted, if you're in the first few rows it isn't that hard. But i remember the first time I saw the show, other than Ritchie and Val (her pigtails), I struggled from the m-teenth row to know who I was clapping for. They all sort of "disappeared" into the same person in the chorus.

A total ambiguous moment in the show. "Yay!!! Wait, who is that again?"

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Wow, walk away for a bit....

I side with Ghostlight, I think that Goldyn is a FANTASTIC performer, but her Cassie is way too young and while she is dancing the patooey out of the role, and was the strongest singer of all the Cassies in the revival, it does come off more as Goldyn saying "Hey look at me" not Cassie.

I do agree that the dance needs to be acted. However, I had never considered the flying mirror section to be a moment of her discovering her deep passion. I think it was just her moment of quasi-surrealism of, these are here. I can use these to show myself off. I think she is already aware of her passion. I read, one time, that this section was also what Zach saw in his head. A dancer so in tune that the music, mirrors and body are all synced up. I kind of like that.

I don't think the second point B12B mentioned is where she really proves herself as a "star." She needs to have sort of a "Now, I am going to knock your socks off" but where I think she really does it, and is missing from the revival, is towards the end when the footlights come back up and she does the turns back and forth to the mirror, and then does the hip shake. That's when she's saying "I'm a star, and if you didn't know it, watch me do about a zillion crazy turns, fold myself in half and then do them again!"

One thing a lot of Cassie's do is smile. Smiling, for me, only works when it's a natural "I'm doing what I love" smile and not a "I'm smiling because when you smile big and do jazz hands they don't notice your feet an audition!" which Goldyn, Richert and to a degree Nikki Snelson both did.

This is probably my favorite moment in ANY musical. I think it's interesting to see what the different women do with it. And, the more I look at Clark, the more I am inclined to agree that she is technically spectacular, but she isn't acting he piece. Goldyn is close, if she could lose her self in the role more (in 10 years, I would love to see her return) and I partially wonder just how much rehearsal time she had for the role. Would she have grown into it more? I think so.

This was a bit all over, but yea.

Oh, and PRS, the mirrors turn around when she starts the dance, and then just after the song break, the others fly in, until the tempo picks up, and they fly back out.

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^ Are you sure it's Palmer? From what I've found she only did 5 total performances, and was a replacement (McKechnie opened, Reinking and Fredrick were the early replacements). She apparently couldn't handle the similarities between herself and Cassie.

Also, I don't see how we were off the topic...considering it was a discussion of the number.

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Anyone interested in early Donna? Here's a Hullaballoo namber with a little Donna at the beginning and a solo in the middle (0:45-1:00):
The Yardbirds - I'm A Man (Hullabaloo)

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Thanks for that link, PJ. It doesn't get much better than Donna doing the frug in front of Jeff Beck.

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She's clearly out to say, "hey, look, my kicks are higher than Charlotte's. My turns are better than Charlotte's. Etc."

I don't get some of you on this board and your assumptions. What an obnoxious accusation. How do you know this for a fact? Were you in this woman's head while she was performing?

GET REAL.

All I see is an extremely talented, gifted performer doing an incredible job with a legendary musical number.

Updated On: 7/21/10 at 03:16 AM

Ultimately in these matters, there is no right or wrong. All that matters is our passion.

And Namo--Is Donna doing the Frug? or the Boogaloo? I could never tell them apart

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PJ, who said "right or wrong" but you?

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Why, exactly, did Marquise become CarlosAlberto?

CarlosAlberto certainly seems to be his angriest one yet.

husk, I found Patty's Cassie to be gentle in a way, but still filled with heart & passion. I loved her singing, IMO, the best singing Cassie out of the four I saw in the revival(sorry, Nadine, you were the worst).

BTW, was anyone lucky enough to see Lorin Latarro go on as Cassie? Never got to see her perform the role since she only went on a few times.

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Kringas was locked down when account was hacked, so you can push it next to my current screen name to make it look like I keep changing mine, but that's not the case Marquise/RetroBoy/Marquise/Dark Angel/Marquise/Usnavi/Marquise/CarlosAlberto.

You still usually come across unhinged these days.