Original Cast of A Chorus Line on The Donahue Show (1990)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 10:04am

The entire Donahue show from 1990, posted in 7 parts:

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1nfSdx6HAA

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJp7FWujLDA

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgdmvMkHw20

Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-dBgS7_AGU

Part 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW6RdLRyJjo

Part 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT8yLVl_IjY

Part 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FOLV-trZRo

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 10:40am

Part 6 is "At the Ballet."

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 11:08am

This is fascinating!

[BwayLover]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 11:33am

Oh my goodness. Thank you SO much for posting this!!

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 12:22pm

Thanks PJ - that was a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning.

[mominator]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 12:49pm

Thanks PJ!! I remember watching that PD show!

[mateo]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 1:34pm

Did anyone else cry?

Thanks PJ!

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 1:37pm

Amazing! Thanks, PJ!

[uncageg]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 1:44pm

Yup. I am wiping the tears right now. At the Ballet brought me to tears. God, I can remember the day I saw it on Broadway in 1978. Paul's monolouge pretty much changed me. I was with a school friend that I went up to NYC to see shows with. he didn't know I was gay (Hell, I didn't know I was "gay"!) and I was afraid to let the tears flow but couldn't stop them. But boy it was one of the best cries I ever had.

I was standing in line at TKTS a few weeks ago looking at the marquee for A chorus line and was actually offered a comp seat for the show while there and decided not to see it since I have seen it twice. (The second time was a bad touring company in the 90's). Well, after seeing this Donahue show, I will probably see it when the National Tour opens here in Denver this year and I am now going to pop it into the CD player! Thanks for posting this PalJoey.

[pushdabutton]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 1:54pm

Thanks PalJoey. Those were wonderful.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 2:56pm

And for those of you on the Main Board who are afraid to venture to the Off Topic Board, here is the thread YouWantItWhen??? started before the revival opened about listening to the original cast recording again.

Listening to ACL OCR

Updated On: 1/6/08 at 02:56 PM

[Ftworthguy]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 3:13pm

Pal --

WHAT A TREAT -- wow -- these are amazing -- to see the original cast (well most of them) perform this material FIFTEEN years after it opened and in the MORNING was amazing!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

[Ftworthguy]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 3:13pm

Double post Updated On: 1/7/08 at 03:13 PM

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 3:16pm

This is somewhat unrelated. When was Melody Rogers ever in A Chorus Line? She played Zack's mother on Saved by the Bell, and I remember in the commentary they said that she was in A Chorus Line on Broadway. I can't find her credited anywhere. Does anyone know anything about who she played? Thanks.

I actually asked this before, so never mind:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardname=bway&thread=905656#2368371

Updated On: 1/6/08 at 03:16 PM

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 3:50pm

Man,

I didn't even make it through the first part without crying...

[mateo]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 3:54pm

Me too Diva.

I was a mess during "At The Ballet."

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 3:58pm

I didn't even make it through the first part without crying...

I couldn't keep myself from getting teary-eyed when they all started singing "What I Did For Love." It's so sad to know Thommie Walsh is not with us anymore.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 4:02pm

Thommie Walsh and so, so, SO many others, not just from the original cast but from all those replacement casts and touring companies all throughout the 80s and early 90s.

Thommie Walsh was good friends with one of my friends from the West Side Story revival, Mark Fotopoulos, whose beautiful dancing can be seen in the movie of Best Little Whorehouse--he's one of the sexy Aggie boys.

[singingbackup]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 4:26pm

I am a wreck thank you. :)

I had taped this and had it for so long and lost it, or lent it to someone who didn't return it, so I am thrilled to know I can see it again. Bless you for posting this.

[mywonderwa11]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:15pm

A friend of mine was in the original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line and I just went into his office and showed him these videos. He loved it and so did I! Amazing!

We cried...

Thanks for posting :)

[EugLoven]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:36pm

Astounding. Especially astounding for me as I was only 5 years old when this TV episode aired! How I wish I could have lived to have experienced this first hand. Not to say what's happening today isn't experience-able, but so much LORE happened just before I was born, you know?

Look at their HAIR! For goodness sake, didn't they believe in product? Haha

This is really something to watch. Thank you.

Dare I ask how many of the original cast are still alive? This taping was about 6-years into the AIDS epidemic, right?

I just take a deep breath when I watch these kinds of videos and IMAGINE as hard as I can what it must have been like to see and do and feel and hear the way things were during this time, you know? That pulse that you can only barely hear (if you listen hard) when standing on 44th Street today.

On an unrelated note: "Donahue" will always have a distinct place in my heart, as it was what my father watched every day after he picked my sister and I up from elementary school. I would lay on the living room carpet reading books while my dad ate chips and salsa and drank a beer, watching the white-haired man at 5PM in California. I also remember on October 17, 1989 when "Donahue" fizzled out the second the Loma Prieta Earthquake hit.
Updated On: 1/6/08 at 07:36 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 10:18pm

Yikes, how time flies. I remember watching this when it originally aired. I kept wondering if they were going to do "Dance 10; Looks 3" and then Phil said something to the effect of "I hope networks don't bleep this, especially when they show what they show on soap operas". I also remember thinking how sad it was that the show was more popular than any of its actors and that they were really having to ask themselves the question: What do you do when you can't dance anymore?

Poor Donahue. For several years he had a pretty good show. Many of his shows were more than just fluff. Then he began to feel the ratings pressure from Morton Downey Jr. and the trash talk show gang and Donahue tried to do more edgy stuff and couldn't compete. And of course, Oprah brought her feminism viewpoint to the airwaves and Donahue completely lost his audience.

[Silbee]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 4:34am

This episode of Donahue should be released to DVD. I would most certainly buy it.

[lesmis]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 6:28am

Me Too. That was great.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 8:08am

This was wonderful!!! Thank you for posting. I remember watching this when it was on as a child. We had just moved and it helped me