Every Little Step, 2008

I really wanted Rachelle Rak to play Sheila!

Generally, I agreed with Bob Avian’s choices in casting his 2006 revival of A Chorus Line, but I think he (unintentionally) confused Rachelle when he told her in the finals call backs to perform as she did eight months before in the open calls. She struggled to remember what it was about her initial audition that would have stood out, and it threw her. Not that I know a thing about theatre casting, but I wish Bob had let her find her vulnerability from a present place, not from eight months before.

Still, that was one of the things I really liked about this movie – learning the ins and outs of the casting process, how these iconic roles are cast after all this time. I enjoyed learning the story behind the show, how Michael Bennett came up with the idea, and how he and his producers shaped in into what it eventually became.

I had no idea that these stories are actually all true. I figured they were generalizations; stuff overheard in the audition rooms. I didn’t know they were actual, almost word for word the same, stories of Bennett and his friends. I got chills when I first saw the trailer for this, and heard the old tapes of voices and stories and then Michael Bennett says “I think this could be a show … called A Chorus Line.” It’s all real life, and the genius of Bennett and Marvin Hamlisch who wrote the music and Edward Kleban who wrote the lyrics is so evident is how they transformed the story into this heartbreaking and funny show.

The stories of the auditioning performers were interesting, too, as they always are (hence the show itself). It’s all big breaks and dreaming, and it’s nice to see some genuine people get their moment in the spotlight. I’m glad the filmmakers resisted the melodrama of, say the opera doco In the Shadow of the Stars, opting to retain much positivity throughout. A Chorus Line shows us the downside of the performing life and so we didn’t need to see it again here. I liked that choice – to keep it bright. That said, there’s a few sad or ego-soaked moments, when Nikki Snelson realizes Jessica Goldyn is a better “Val” than she is; when Rachelle gets her knock back; when Tyce Diorio talks about “his party”. But, overall, the vibe is a good one.

If I can have one more complaint, I would have loved to have seen how the “Morales” role was cast, and to perhaps meet the original Morales, as we meet original “Connie” and original “Cassie”. Morales was always my favourite.

I’ve always loved the film version, and while I’m not a dancer or a singer, and have no such designs, songs from the film have repeated in my head over and over at key points in my life, particularly “I Can Do That” and “I Hope I Get It”. It’s often said that A Chorus Line is the performer’s story, but it’s everyone’s story – everyone who has a dream and strives to fulfill that dream but knows that on stage, as in life, places are limited.