a chorus line-movie — Page 2

Isn't "Audrey Landers" and "Miscast" redundant?!

I've never seen the stage version but I like the movie. I guess if I saw the stage version I wouldn't like the movie anymore.

This was one of those train wrecks you just have to witness to believe! A former dance inctructor of mine, Jan Gann-Boyd, played Connie in this film, and it was very hard to be kind. Unfortunately this was so bad, that the film production of Dreamgirls that was in the works was pulled back from the estate of Michael Bennett in fear of what would become of it. I'm sure anyone who does not have a stage reference will really enjoy the film, but really...and I agree with the Michael Douglass casting. Did anyone recognize his assistant Sharon Brown? Another casting misjustice - she has a petty non-singing role, and a couple of years later she was playing the hell out of the Effie White role in the touring production of Dreamgirls. Hollywood just gets it wrong!

Terrance Mann in his best movie role.

Oh wait...forgot about "Critters 3"

---

A former dance inctructor of mine, Jan Gann-Boyd, played Connie in this film, and it was very hard to be kind.

Vicki Frederick (Sheila) is a good friend of mine..... trust me, I know what you mean.

---

Alyson was terribly miscast

---

wow you're friends with vicki frederick, i loved her in the movie too.....funny she was also in "all the marbles" with peter falk! sorry i did an imdb.com search.

i remember going to see this movie with my drama class in high school, my drama teacher was a HUGE fan of the stage show, he disliked the movie, but when Audrey Landers was up on that screen and sang "Dance 10..." he said "Wow, thats one of the best renditions of the song i've heard"... and he was one tough critic. but the movie as a whole wasn't very good, there are still bits and pieces of it that were well done but not enough to compensate for the whole film.

Updated On: 8/30/04 at 07:14 PM

It was depressingly bad.

You wanna talk about Audry Landers miscast? 18 years ago I saw her in I'M GETTING MY ACT TOGETHER AND TAKING IT ON THE ROAD - playing woman who complains about being middle aged and out of shape - about men no longer finding her attractive... give me a freakin' break!

I saw the entire original cast of ACL 6 times and the show at the Shubert a total of 34 times...........it changed my life.......

the movie was a dismal disappointment.........Richard Attenborough, the man who directed GHANDI, directing ACL? that was so foolish......also, some of the changes:

A CHORUS LINE without "The Music and the Mirror" ......how lame


Turning "What I did For Love" into a love song Cassie sings about Zach as opposed to being an anthem for love of theater and dancing, ............that was simply moron time.

Cassie arriving late to the audition like a diva on the run? (the many books about ACL mention that originally they thought of having Cassie do this in the stage production.....but Donna M and Michael Bennett correctly realized that if Cassie "entered" in that fashion, the audience would hate her.....so in the stage production, Cassie is there with everyone else the moment the show starts.)

Of Interest: the first few performances of ACL at the Shakespeare festival (where it premiered and workshopped) had Cassie NOT getting hired for the show. Neil Simon had been asked by Michael Bennett and Joe Papp to "supply some witty lines and help make the show funnier" (Mr. Simon mentions this in his most recent book, he also mentions he never had a formal working relationship with ACL and therefore never got a penny for his contributions.)

At the time Neil Simon was married to Marsha Mason. Marsha Mason told Bennett and Papp "You can't do that! You can't have Cassie NOT get hired for the show, you've got to Let People Have Hope."

They took Ms. Mason's advice.

There were a few fun moments in the film and the opening number was better than I thought it would be in the movie......

ACL may be the singular worst adaptation of stage musical to screen......the obscure film of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC starring Elizabeth Taylor and Len Cariou is pretty awful also (although Hal Prince did do an exciting job of directing the Weekend In The Country sequence)

---

Updated On: 8/31/04 at 02:06 PM

I've never noticed anyone fall...clearly I have to watch the finale more closely! (Or maybe just readjust my focus some...)

---