#1
Posted: 9/30/06 at 5:24pm
Some excerpts from the Times:
"On a snowy Saturday night in January 1974, after their curtain calls, 19 of Broadway’s best dancers gathered at the Nickolaus Exercise Center on East 23rd Street. They all sat in a circle on the floor. A tape recorder was turned on.
For the next 12 hours they spoke about their lives, telling stories of divorce, child abuse and the plight of the professional dancer. These tales, shaped by the choreographer Michael Bennett, would become the foundation of “A Chorus Line,” one of the most successful musicals of all time.
The dancers who told their stories that night sold them to Mr. Bennett for $1 each. And though Mr. Bennett later arranged for them to receive royalties from the show — at times up to $10,000 a year — they have always questioned whether they have been fairly compensated and acknowledged.
Now a revival of “A Chorus Line,” which opens at the Schoenfeld Theater in Manhattan on Thursday night, has reopened some of these old wounds, particularly after the dancers realized they would receive no money from this latest production because of those agreements.
The revival is being produced by the executor of the Bennett estate, John Breglio, who is also one of Mr. Bennett’s heirs. A longtime theatrical lawyer, Mr. Breglio said he had no authority to renegotiate an agreement Mr. Bennett made with the dancers three decades ago.
“I only know what Michael intended by the words on that document, which are crystal clear,” he said. “I’m bound to uphold the terms that Michael agreed to.”
The legality of the arrangements is not an issue. “At one point, when we were young and stupid, we kind of signed our lives away, and they exploited that,” said Wayne Cilento, who played the role of Mike in the original production. But reflecting the feelings of some of the other dancers, he added, “We were the authors of the show, and we should have been paid accordingly.”
The question of authorship on any collaboration can be tricky. There is no doubt that the dancers provided most of the stories, and in some cases large chunks of their words show up verbatim in the show. There is also no doubt that it was primarily Mr. Bennett who took 20 hours of interviews and had the vision to shape them into a groundbreaking musical.
“There never would have been ‘A Chorus Line’ without Michael,” said Kelly Bishop, who told her story in the character of Sheila, “but there never would have been ‘A Chorus Line’ without us, either.”
_______________________________________________________________
"When the dancers heard there would be a revival, most assumed they would receive royalty payments, with several recalling that Mr. Bennett once told them that the A and B groups would have a piece of any “Chorus Line” production in the world.
But they were puzzled by a letter Mr. Breglio sent last autumn asking permission to use their real names on any future projects that would entail publication of the tapes themselves. E-mail messages and phone calls went back and forth among the dancers, some of whom had not been in contact for years.
“We’re basically advising one another to hold off,” said Ms. Bishop, who has recently been working as a featured character on the television show “Gilmore Girls.”
In the end, only three people gave their consent, including Mr. Boockvor and his wife, Denise Pence.
The original dancers began examining the release form and the agreement, some for the first time. When they consulted lawyers, they discovered that the royalty agreement covered the original production and that show’s subsidiary rights. According to the terms of that document, the 2006 revival fits neither category.
Mr. Breglio said the only way the arrangement could be changed would be if all of the interest holders in the Bennett estate agreed to have the interviewees’ royalties taken out of their shares.
The original dancers are continuing to meet with lawyers, but acknowledge that they are in a tough place."
For the entire article click here
"On a snowy Saturday night in January 1974, after their curtain calls, 19 of Broadway’s best dancers gathered at the Nickolaus Exercise Center on East 23rd Street. They all sat in a circle on the floor. A tape recorder was turned on.
For the next 12 hours they spoke about their lives, telling stories of divorce, child abuse and the plight of the professional dancer. These tales, shaped by the choreographer Michael Bennett, would become the foundation of “A Chorus Line,” one of the most successful musicals of all time.
The dancers who told their stories that night sold them to Mr. Bennett for $1 each. And though Mr. Bennett later arranged for them to receive royalties from the show — at times up to $10,000 a year — they have always questioned whether they have been fairly compensated and acknowledged.
Now a revival of “A Chorus Line,” which opens at the Schoenfeld Theater in Manhattan on Thursday night, has reopened some of these old wounds, particularly after the dancers realized they would receive no money from this latest production because of those agreements.
The revival is being produced by the executor of the Bennett estate, John Breglio, who is also one of Mr. Bennett’s heirs. A longtime theatrical lawyer, Mr. Breglio said he had no authority to renegotiate an agreement Mr. Bennett made with the dancers three decades ago.
“I only know what Michael intended by the words on that document, which are crystal clear,” he said. “I’m bound to uphold the terms that Michael agreed to.”
The legality of the arrangements is not an issue. “At one point, when we were young and stupid, we kind of signed our lives away, and they exploited that,” said Wayne Cilento, who played the role of Mike in the original production. But reflecting the feelings of some of the other dancers, he added, “We were the authors of the show, and we should have been paid accordingly.”
The question of authorship on any collaboration can be tricky. There is no doubt that the dancers provided most of the stories, and in some cases large chunks of their words show up verbatim in the show. There is also no doubt that it was primarily Mr. Bennett who took 20 hours of interviews and had the vision to shape them into a groundbreaking musical.
“There never would have been ‘A Chorus Line’ without Michael,” said Kelly Bishop, who told her story in the character of Sheila, “but there never would have been ‘A Chorus Line’ without us, either.”
_______________________________________________________________
"When the dancers heard there would be a revival, most assumed they would receive royalty payments, with several recalling that Mr. Bennett once told them that the A and B groups would have a piece of any “Chorus Line” production in the world.
But they were puzzled by a letter Mr. Breglio sent last autumn asking permission to use their real names on any future projects that would entail publication of the tapes themselves. E-mail messages and phone calls went back and forth among the dancers, some of whom had not been in contact for years.
“We’re basically advising one another to hold off,” said Ms. Bishop, who has recently been working as a featured character on the television show “Gilmore Girls.”
In the end, only three people gave their consent, including Mr. Boockvor and his wife, Denise Pence.
The original dancers began examining the release form and the agreement, some for the first time. When they consulted lawyers, they discovered that the royalty agreement covered the original production and that show’s subsidiary rights. According to the terms of that document, the 2006 revival fits neither category.
Mr. Breglio said the only way the arrangement could be changed would be if all of the interest holders in the Bennett estate agreed to have the interviewees’ royalties taken out of their shares.
The original dancers are continuing to meet with lawyers, but acknowledge that they are in a tough place."
For the entire article click here
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 9/30/06 at 05:24 PM
