Courtesy of The Muny
Mackenzie Bell and the cast of "A Chorus Line"
There are some shows that, when you leave the theater, you feel as if you’re still in the space of the story. As you walk to your car, the songs linger in your head. You can’t stop thinking about the characters: what becomes of them after the curtain closes? You want to tell everyone about the show. Productions with this kind of staying power are rare. Luckily for St. Louisans, we have the chance to see precisely this kind of show at The Muny this week. Their production of A Chorus Line is heartwarming, heartbreaking, powerful, innovative—I could go on—and playing in Forest Park until August 4th.
On the show’s opening night, The Muny’s seats were packed for good reason. Since its Broadway opening in 1975, A Chorus Line has often been called “the best musical ever.” If you’re not familiar with the show, on first watch that title might surprise you. A Chorus Line doesn’t have one star—it has 17. Seventeen dancers auditioning for a spot in a Broadway musical, to be exact. And yes, there are breathtaking dance numbers and incredibly impressive vocal stylings throughout the show but don’t expect over-the-top musical theater grandeur. A Chorus Line is simple, and therein lies its beauty.
After “I Hope I Get It,” the show’s grand opening number, director and choreographer Zach (Ivan Hernandez) asks the seventeen remaining dancers to talk about themselves. From this point, A Chorus Line could easily turn into a kitschy, staged get to know each other game. But it’s the show’s honesty and its willingness to be vulnerable and intimate that saves the production and sucks the audience in. Mike (Sean Harrison Jones) tells how he got into the industry by watching his sister in his sweet song “I Can Do That”; Mark (Drew Redington) makes the audience howl with laughter at his all too familiar stories of puberty; Sheila (Holly Ann Butler), Bebe (Caley Crawford) and Maggie (Bronwyn Tarboton) sing of their dancing safe havens in a truly powerful rendition of “At The Ballet.”
And that’s the gist of it. Of course, I’m simplifying here, but A Chorus Line is not about the drama. It’s about the people that make up those performances. The idea for the 1975 show came from director and choreographer Michael Bennett’s own experience with other Broadway dancers in New York City—specifically, 19 dancers who shared their stories about their beginnings, their time in the industry, their lives. Fourteen of those 19 dancers were Muny veterans. Perhaps that’s part of why this production seems to hit so close to home, but it’s the artistic decisions that give the show its success.
Paige Hathaway’s scenic design imitates the feel of an audition room. The mirrors used throughout the production give a 360 view of the cast, but also allows the audience to truly see themselves on the stage with the performers. The Muny’s video screen, with designs by Nathan W. Scheuer, features headshots of the cast as they audition and a scroll of old baby pictures as the characters tell of their youth. To accompany this, director Denis Jones uses the Muny’s youth ensemble to act out the childhood memories of the dancers as they are retelling them—making those stories all the more palpable. The show also runs without an intermission, unlike most Muny productions, and that decision ensures the audience stays locked into the atmosphere and intensity of the auditions in their entirety.
A Chorus Line closes with a barrage of powerful scenes. Cassie’s (Bianca Marroquin’s) performance of “The Music and the Mirror” showcases the actresses’ strong vocals and the sheer emotion she brings to both her movements and her song. A silence falls on an audience of more than 6,000 on opening night as Paul (Ian Paget) tells his story of growing up, coming out, and finding himself. In the end, the show closes with chorus numbers “What I Did for Love” and “One,” and the cyclorama raises to reveal the Muny’s bare-bones backstage. We end with the true pillars of the show: the simplicity and intimacy of the set, but also the passion, the unity and the power of the chorus all coming together for their love of the stage.
See A Chorus Line at The Muny (#1 Theatre in Forest Park) from July 29-August 4. For tickets and more information, go to muny.org.
