Required Viewing
Here's an NY TIMES article on the new documentary about the revival of A CHORUS LINE...
Can't wait to see this!
Every Little Step (2008)
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: April 17, 2009
Watching “Every Little Step,” a new documentary by James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo, is a bit like walking through a hall of mirrors. Life imitates art, art reflects life, and after a while the distinctions threaten, quite pleasantly, to blur altogether. The film follows a group of mostly young dancers and singers auditioning for parts in the recent Broadway revival of “A Chorus Line,” a musical which is itself built around the auditions of 17 mostly young Broadway-besotted dancers and singers.
The premise of “Every Little Step” is no less inspired for seeming so simple and obvious, and it pays tribute to the durability and continued relevance of “A Chorus Line,” which first opened in New York in 1975, before many of the performers in the movie were born.
The theater director Michael Bennett had an equally inspired, equally simple idea when he tape-recorded the confessions, dreams and fears of gypsy hoofers and chirpers and turned their reflections on show business life into the basis of a show that ran for 15 years and collected just about every prize there is. (It also collected hard feelings from some of the people whose voices and lives Mr. Bennett used, but that’s another story.)
“A Chorus Line,” with brilliant music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban, and a canny book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, gives voice to deep, widely shared anxieties and aspirations, but its big themes are grounded in the lives, voices and bodies of individuals. And so the thousands of auditioners who show up, at the start of “Every Little Step,” for the first casting call - and who over the following months are winnowed down to scores, then dozens and finally a few singular sensations - are hardly faceless or interchangeable.
Still, there is only time to become acquainted with a few of them, and the filmmakers, concentrating on the moment-to-moment drama of the casting process rather than on back stories or personalities, introduce us to the performers by way of the characters they are hoping to play. We learn some names and a bit of biography - one woman is the daughter of a retired ballet dancer; another arrives by bus from New Jersey - but most of what we glean about the potential cast members comes from their closeness to the archetypes represented by Kristine, Mike, Cassie and the others Mr. Bennett and his collaborators delivered from anonymity.
Cassie - a role originated by Donna McKechnie, who is interviewed in “Every Little Step” - is a step away from has-been status and desperate to keep working. Others sing and speak about their childhood love of dancing and one, Paul, delivers a heart-wrenching soliloquy about coming out as a gay man and an artist. The casting of this part is one of the most touching and least suspenseful moments in the film, thanks to Jason Tam’s tour de force audition. As a general rule, if you reduce an entire casting committee to tears, you’ll probably get the part.
Not that every decision is so easy. Among those casting the new production are Bob Avian, who choreographed the earlier show along with Mr. Bennett, and Baayork Lee, a fellow choreographer who originated the role of Connie, a tiny dancer with big desires. They and their colleagues survey the contenders with a mixture of compassion and rigor that quietly underscores the wised-up romanticism of “A Chorus Line.”
The musical, whose rich history is recalled between auditions for the revival, has become such a touchstone because it perfectly captures both the cruelty and the marvelousness of life in the theater. Mr. Bennett, who died in 1987, appears in archival clips looking like a slightly jaded elf, combining a weary knowingness with an ardent and undiminished capacity for wonder.
There is a superficial resemblance between “Every Little Step” (and, for that matter, “A Chorus Line” itself) and television reality shows in which ordinary people use their talents to scramble for the spotlight. But those programs are spectacles of amateurism chasing after celebrity, an impulse that could not be further from what Mr. Stern and Mr. Del Deo, taking their cues from Mr. Bennett, set out to honor. The 17 members of that chorus line - and the thousands like them, including those who dream of playing them - are professionals, and one of the names they give to the glory they seek is work. The other is love.
EVERY LITTLE STEP
Opens on Friday in Manhattan.
Produced and directed by James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo; edited by Fernando Villena and Brad Fuller; music by Marvin Hamlisch; released by Sony Pictures Classics. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes.
Can't wait to see this!
Every Little Step (2008)
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: April 17, 2009
Watching “Every Little Step,” a new documentary by James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo, is a bit like walking through a hall of mirrors. Life imitates art, art reflects life, and after a while the distinctions threaten, quite pleasantly, to blur altogether. The film follows a group of mostly young dancers and singers auditioning for parts in the recent Broadway revival of “A Chorus Line,” a musical which is itself built around the auditions of 17 mostly young Broadway-besotted dancers and singers.
The premise of “Every Little Step” is no less inspired for seeming so simple and obvious, and it pays tribute to the durability and continued relevance of “A Chorus Line,” which first opened in New York in 1975, before many of the performers in the movie were born.
The theater director Michael Bennett had an equally inspired, equally simple idea when he tape-recorded the confessions, dreams and fears of gypsy hoofers and chirpers and turned their reflections on show business life into the basis of a show that ran for 15 years and collected just about every prize there is. (It also collected hard feelings from some of the people whose voices and lives Mr. Bennett used, but that’s another story.)
“A Chorus Line,” with brilliant music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban, and a canny book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, gives voice to deep, widely shared anxieties and aspirations, but its big themes are grounded in the lives, voices and bodies of individuals. And so the thousands of auditioners who show up, at the start of “Every Little Step,” for the first casting call - and who over the following months are winnowed down to scores, then dozens and finally a few singular sensations - are hardly faceless or interchangeable.
Still, there is only time to become acquainted with a few of them, and the filmmakers, concentrating on the moment-to-moment drama of the casting process rather than on back stories or personalities, introduce us to the performers by way of the characters they are hoping to play. We learn some names and a bit of biography - one woman is the daughter of a retired ballet dancer; another arrives by bus from New Jersey - but most of what we glean about the potential cast members comes from their closeness to the archetypes represented by Kristine, Mike, Cassie and the others Mr. Bennett and his collaborators delivered from anonymity.
Cassie - a role originated by Donna McKechnie, who is interviewed in “Every Little Step” - is a step away from has-been status and desperate to keep working. Others sing and speak about their childhood love of dancing and one, Paul, delivers a heart-wrenching soliloquy about coming out as a gay man and an artist. The casting of this part is one of the most touching and least suspenseful moments in the film, thanks to Jason Tam’s tour de force audition. As a general rule, if you reduce an entire casting committee to tears, you’ll probably get the part.
Not that every decision is so easy. Among those casting the new production are Bob Avian, who choreographed the earlier show along with Mr. Bennett, and Baayork Lee, a fellow choreographer who originated the role of Connie, a tiny dancer with big desires. They and their colleagues survey the contenders with a mixture of compassion and rigor that quietly underscores the wised-up romanticism of “A Chorus Line.”
The musical, whose rich history is recalled between auditions for the revival, has become such a touchstone because it perfectly captures both the cruelty and the marvelousness of life in the theater. Mr. Bennett, who died in 1987, appears in archival clips looking like a slightly jaded elf, combining a weary knowingness with an ardent and undiminished capacity for wonder.
There is a superficial resemblance between “Every Little Step” (and, for that matter, “A Chorus Line” itself) and television reality shows in which ordinary people use their talents to scramble for the spotlight. But those programs are spectacles of amateurism chasing after celebrity, an impulse that could not be further from what Mr. Stern and Mr. Del Deo, taking their cues from Mr. Bennett, set out to honor. The 17 members of that chorus line - and the thousands like them, including those who dream of playing them - are professionals, and one of the names they give to the glory they seek is work. The other is love.
EVERY LITTLE STEP
Opens on Friday in Manhattan.
Produced and directed by James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo; edited by Fernando Villena and Brad Fuller; music by Marvin Hamlisch; released by Sony Pictures Classics. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes.