Quick Chorus Line Question

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 8/8/04 at 8:51pm

Does A Chorus Line have one act or two? And if it is two, what is the last song of the first act? Thanks.

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 8/8/04 at 8:55pm

Depends on the production.
When I saw it, they ended it after the scene after Dance 10 Looks 3 and began Act 2 with the scene containing Paul's monologue.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/8/04 at 8:59pm

The original Bennett production that played on Broadway for 15 years and all of the national tours were performed without an intermission.

Updated On: 8/8/04 at 08:59 PM

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 8/8/04 at 9:01pm

Thank you both.

Posted: 8/8/04 at 9:02pm

A CHORUS LINE was originally performed in one act, no intermission.

That might have been changed over the years but anything you see in two acts is not as originally conceived by the brilliant Michael Bennett.

Updated On: 8/8/04 at 09:02 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/8/04 at 9:18pm

I saw ACL about 8 times over the years (mostly on Broadway) including the first production ever licensed for dinner theatre (in a suburb of DC) back in '88 (don't laugh -- several of cast members had been in one of the national companies and the actor playing Paul was snapped up shortly afterwards for the Broadway company). It was performed with intermission (during which the poor actors had to come out and take drink orders and hand out checks) which I believe was right after "The Music and The Mirror" and Act Two began with Paul's monologue ("Dance 10, Looks 3" comes right before "The Music and The Mirror").

Updated On: 8/8/04 at 09:18 PM

[nycdncr]

Posted: 8/8/04 at 10:21pm

ACL should never be performed with an intermission. The show is not that long. People should be able to sit through it in its entirety. An intermission messes up the flow of the piece.

[FinnFanatic]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 11:28am

The show isn't that long? Hmm the production I saw must've added stuff....I just saw it for the first time. It was a community theatre production and was cut into 2 acts. The first act was about an hour and a half long, and the second act was only slightly shorter. They put the intermission between "Dance 10; Looks 3" and "The Music and the Mirror".

I'm not sure what made their production so long. Perhaps some extended dances?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 11:54am

Perhaps it was very sluggishly paced (which is sometimes a problem with amateur productions of the show -- actors taking way too long with their monologues and between their jokes, orchestras taking much slower tempos to the make the choreography easier to dance).

The Broadway production ran almost exactly two hours, give or take a few minutes (certainly no longer than 2:05 -- especially while Bennett was alive; he was known for visiting ACL and Dreamgirls very frequently and keeping things whipped into shape).

[FinnFanatic]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 12:04pm

Margo-

Come to think of it, the pacing was a bit sluggish. I had never seen the show before, and I can see what all the hype about it is. It seems like it can be an amazing show. It provides several actors with the opportunity to really express themselves (and caters to both those who are more talented vocally and those who are more talented actorially).

The actors I saw, however, were all sub-par with the exception of one or two. My roommate played Paul. His monologue was the best part of the entire show (and I'm not just saying that because he is my roommate). It was one of the only moments in the show when I actually cared about a character and felt any sort of compassion for them. It was a truly moving performance.

The other moment that I felt compassionate about was the scene between Zack and Cassie and the song "The Music and the Mirror". The actress playing Cassie had a fine portrayal (while Zack's lacked a bit). She really carried the whole scene. Ironically, these two moments followed one after the other, right at the beginning of Act Two. I really needed them to keep my attention/interest with the show.

This may have been discussed in the "Revivals" thread, but do you know if there are any talks of a future revival of ACL?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 12:34pm

Bob Avian (the original co-choreographer of ACL who shared the Tony with Bennett) said in a recent interview that he is planning on bringing it back to Broadway in a year or two (he wasn't any more specific than that -- I imagine it'll happen sometime after the Dreamgirls revival that should finally get here either later this season or sometime next season).

Paul's monologue is almost always a big standout in the show (aside from being beautifully written, it's the longest stretch in the show without music so it obviously gets people's attention -- it's based on a real story, by the way, as are all of the monologues in the show; Nicholas Dante the co-book writer actually did dance for the Jewel Box Revue as a kid).

Cassie also always stands out and dominates that particular scene (and Zack usually comes off a bit cold). It's a heck of a show when it's done well. Hopefully Avian will get back up in the near future.

[FinnFanatic]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 12:45pm

Thanks for the great insight!

One more question...

I heard from a friend that the creators of the show came up with the stories by actually interviewing several young actors and getting their life stories. They then went ahead and created the show from these stories without giving any credit to the actors the characters are based on. Is there any truth to this? If so, were there any legal complications that accompanied the opening of the show back in 1975 (which is when it opened, correct?)

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 1:02pm

Since we're on the topic of Bennet productions
Margo & Jose', I'm slightly confused your comments:
"That might have been changed over the years but anything you see in two acts is not as originally conceived by the brilliant Michael Bennett."
&
"certainly no longer than 2:05 -- especially while Bennett was alive; he was known for visiting ACL and Dreamgirls very frequently and keeping things whipped into shape"

Was Dreamgirls performed without an intermission? I always thought Act 1 ended with "And I am Telling You I'm Not Going".

[FinnFanatic]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 1:04pm

I think those comments are referring only to Bennett's A CHORUS LINE. Updated On: 8/9/04 at 01:04 PM

[FinnFanatic]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 1:04pm

I think those comments are referring only to Bennett's A CHORUS LINE. Updated On: 8/9/04 at 01:04 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 1:57pm

That's a VERY long story I can't possibly try to get into all the details of here (there are several good books on the subject including "On the Line: The Creation of a Chorus Line" by Baayork Lee and Thommie Walsh; Ken Mandelbaum's "A Chorus Line and the Musicals of Michael Bennett" and "One Singular Sensation" by Kevin Kelly).

Basically there were a couple of sort of taped group encounter meetings that happened back in early 1974 late in the evening with a bunch of dancers who had just finished their Broadway shows. They were organized by a couple of dancers (who were aspiring writers) who were frustrated by the business and how it treated chorus gypsys and thought it might be interesting to bring together a bunch of their fellow performers for an all night quasi-group therapy session (which was just starting to get popular at the time) and out of the tapes they thought that maybe "something" might come out of it (a play? a book? it was unclear). Bennett wasn't there or involved with the first session, but once he got wind of it he was intrigued and showed up at the next one. Fast forward several months, Bennett decides that there's a musical in this material. Dancer Nicholas Dante (whose autobiographical story at the session became Paul's monologue) began trying to organize the many hours of tape and dozens of stories into a musical book (the two dancers who organized the original sessions were edged out of the picture entirely). When it was clear he was in over his head, Bennett brought in James Kirkwood who was a professional writer to organize the material (Neil Simon also later unofficially contributed some jokes, including the one about suicide in Buffalo being redundant). Bennett also brought in Marvin Hamlisch and Ed Kleban to write the score.

Bennett held the first workshop of the show in late summer of '74 and another in early '75. Once the material began to take shape, Bennett kept SOME of the dancers from those taped sessions and hired others who weren't there. Some people had to actually audition for their own stories (and in some cases they weren't cast) and in other cases people saw their stories become the basis of other characters (Donna McKechnie, for instance ended up creating the role of Cassie, although her stories on the taped sessions ended up going to Kay Cole who created the role of Maggie).

At one point during rehearsals, one of Bennett's people brought down a stack of release forms for all of the dancers to sign, in which they agreed to sell all the rights to their stories in exchange for $1 a piece. Some freaked out, some didn't want to sign, but the clear, if unspoken, implication was that, refusing to sign would mean that they and their stories would be out of the show altogether and somebody else would be hired immediatey in their place. They all signed, because they all desperately wanted to be in the show (which clearly was going to be something special). They also signed away their rights for their images to be used in the famous logo of the "Line" that appeared on merchandise, posters and on billboards for decades (they never got a dime for it).

Later, Bennett offered them all shares of his writing royalty in the show (1% split something like 26 ways). Those who participated from the taped sessions forward got a larger percentage than those who had just been hired for the final workshop (and their share would stop as soon as they left the show -- the folks from the original session continue to receive their tiny checks). In all, it wasn't a lot of money, but a decent symbolic act on Bennett's part.

As a result of the extraordinary success of ACL (and the fact the dancers were such an integral part of the creative process, but were never fairly compensated for it), Equity created an entire set of rules governing the use of actors in workshops (ACL was really the first show ever created through the workshop process -- which is now ubiquitous in the American theatre).

Anyway, just to finish it off, ACL opened to enormous acclaim at the Public in May of 1975, moved to Broadway's Shubert Theatre that July and remained there for the next 15 years. It spawned dozens of road companies and played all over the world (it's probably still out there running somewhere). And Bennett sadly died of AIDS in 1987.

Updated On: 8/9/04 at 01:57 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 1:58pm

Dreamgirls had two acts -- "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" ends Act One.

[FinnFanatic]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 2:39pm

Thanks for taking the time to type up that wonderful history, Margo! I'll have to look into finding those books.

[KMF_NYC]

Posted: 8/9/04 at 2:42pm

On the Line is a very good purchase -- I have not read Ken M's.

[SeeIreallycouldn'tSING!!]

Posted: 8/30/04 at 12:33am

When did he say this?! That he was bringing CHorus line back!!!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/30/04 at 12:42am

Bob Avian mentioned that he wanted to bring the show back to Broadway in an interview about two months ago or so. He said he was aiming for 2005 or 2006. Of course, nothing is settled or official yet, so we'll see (Avian being Avian, it'll happen as soon or as late as he feels is necessary).

It's one of my all-time favorites, but frankly, he should take his time -- he shouldn't rush it back. Give it another three or four years (or more) so people will be "begging" to see it again.

[SeeIreallycouldn'tSING!!]

Posted: 8/30/04 at 12:47am

I'm on my hands and knees, but if he waits a few years I can try out for Kristine! I wonder if hes really going to do it. I think its the right time. Revivals have kinda sucked latly. I don't like what Chicago did, how its got the band on stage, in my opinion only chorus line can pull off no costumes and a bare stage.