What Happened To The A CHORUS LINE Film?

One of my favorites! The movie most certainly didn't do it ANY justice!

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I don't know what happened specifically with that stage-to-film transformation. I loved the stage show and was disappointed with the movie, but it's been so long since I've seen it that it's difficult to comment. However, they are such very different mediums that I think it's always tricky to pull off, especially with something as theatrical as A Chorus Line. What's hardest seems to be the "showstopping" number, because you can't stop a movie (in that way) and the audience knows that its response makes no difference.

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Updated On: 4/25/05 at 01:08 AM

the opening number worked surprisingly well in the film, I thought.....and then it was very disappointing. The director, Richard Attenborough, was clearly NOT the person to bring this to film. The "script" changes (the Cassie arriving from the taxi-kinda "star like,"----Which had been in the workshops at the Shakespeare festival and quickly dropped--------Donna McKechnie said, "If I enter after everybody else with a mink coat on and stuff, the audience will hate me!" She was right. As we know, Cassie is there when A CHORUS LINE begins onstage. Foolish of them to change that in the film.)
Also, just poor choices in many places.........Losing the montage...Hello 12, Hello 13 in favor of that song "Surprise," losing THE MUSIC and The Mirror and adding a song, Let Me Dance for You(was that the title?) -- Why on earth would they cut The Music and The Mirror from A CHORUS LINE?? how odd......They turned What I did For Love into a kind of love song to do with Cassie and Zach. Yuch, how foolish. In the show What I Did For Love is about love of dance, performing and theater......
Tons of bad choices in this film. Hopefully a superior film version will be made some day.:)

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Updated On: 4/25/05 at 01:55 PM

Looking on the bright side, at least the film shows off the interior of the Mark Hellinger Theatre.

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Oh god I miss the Mark Hellinger. The last thing I saw there was Grind which was awful. I also got to attend the tonys there the year Me and My Girl was nominated and Angela Lansbury hosted.

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Ah, Grind. That show was not without its virtues. I wouldn't call it awful. It was ambitious, had some attractive songs, and was beautifully designed, with first-rate orchestrations by the late Billy Byers. (When the set spun around for the first time after the opening number, to reveal the entire backstage of the burlesque house at once, my jaw hit the floor.) It was very oddly constructed in that almost nothing happened in Act One, and then EVERYTHING happened in Act Two, to the point of ridiculousness, including Stubby Kaye's character's suicide, and the IRA bomber subplot. Still, I won't ever forget it.

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I read the Donna McKechnie story in the book: "A Chorus Line and The Musicals of Michael Bennett" by Ken Mandelbaum.

i kind of liked the movie...not the singing so much...but the acting! can't wait for the pre-bwy tryout in SF!!

Most vignette shows like A Chorus Line, or even Hair, don't transfer too well on film. Same thing with Sarafina - although I love that movie, I would have rather seen it on stage.

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The main flaw is that they took an ensemble show and turned it into a star vehicle. The show is about these dancers and "what they did for love," but when they make it about Cassie and Zach getting together (and her gross crazy wig in the flashback) it ruins what the show is about. It's MY opinion why when a regional company wants to do the show they're basically required to keep the show the same as it was on Broadway. All the songs they added were second-rate, the orchestrations are AWFUL, and the heart of the piece just isn't there anymore. If only Michael Bennett was still around so that he could direct it the right way, with original choreography.

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I liked the movie also...and i love Marquise's Mariah icon.

Updated On: 4/25/05 at 07:30 PM