A Chorus Line

A chorus line - the musical, opened off-Broadway at The Public Theater on May 21, 1975. it was loves by the public and created such a demand for tickets that the entire run sold out immediately. Producer Joseph Papp decided to move the production uptown, and on July 25 it opened at the Shubert Theatre, where it held 6,137 performances. It held the distinction of being the longest running show in Broadway history until its record was surpassed by Cats in 1997 and then The Phantom of the Opera in 2006. It currently stands as the fifth longest-running musical ever, following The Fantasticks, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, and Les Miserables.This brilliant piece of art has been directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett with Bob Avian. The original cast starred Scott Allen, Kelly Bishop, Wayne Cilento, Ronald Dennis, Baayork Lee, Priscilla Lopez, Donna McKechnie, and Thommie Walsh, and featured Nancy Lane, Kay Cole, Ron Kuhlman, Rick Mason, Don Percassi, Renee Baughman, Pamela Blair, Sammy Williams, Clive Clerk, and Trish Garland.

It received 12 Tony award nominations and won the Best Musical, Best Actress (McKechnie), Best Featured Actor (Sammy Williams), Best Featured Actress (Bishop), Best Director, Best Musical Book, Best Score (Hamlisch and Kleban), Best Lighting Design, and Best Choreography. It also won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, one of the few musicals ever to receive this honor, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of the season.

The musical also toured successfully, including a run at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. A production mounted at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London's West End won the Laurence Olivier Award as Best Musical of the Year 1976, the first year in which the awards were presented.

The first show opened at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater on October 4, 2006 following a run in San Francisco. The show was directed by Bob Avian, with the choreography reconstructed by the show's original Connie Wong, Baayork Lee. The opening night cast included Brad Anderson, Michael Berresse, Charlotte d'Amboise, Mara Davi, Heather Parcells, Alisan Porter, and Chryssie Whitehead.

The story line goes like this director (Zach) and his assistant choreographer (Larry) need gypsies for their forthcoming Broadway production. Every dancer is desperate for work. After the first audition, 17 dancers selected: Al, Bobby, Bebe, Connie, Diana, Don, Greg, Judy, Kristine, Maggie, Mark, Mike, Paul, Richie, Sheila, Val and Cassie. Zach tells them he is looking for a strong dancing chorus of four boys and four girls. He wants to learn more about them, so he tells them to introduce themselves. Gradually overcoming their unwillingness they reveal their pasts. While the show uses different characters to move through the audition, the overall pattern of stories progresses chronologically from early life experiences through adulthood to the end of a career.

The first candidate is Mike, who explains he is the youngest of twelve children. In I Can Do That, Mike recalls his first experience with dance, watching his sister's dance class when he was a pre-school student. When day he took the class instead of her sister - and he stayed the rest of his life. As Bobby, who tries to hide the unhappiness of his childhood by making jokes, speaks, the 17 dancers have uncertainties about this strange audition process and debate what they should reveal to Zach, but since they all need the job, it cannot be stopped. Zach becomes angry from because he thinks that she is not considering the audition seriously. She reveals that her father neither loved nor cared about the family, so at 6, she realized that ballet was a relief from her miserable life, followed by Bebe and Maggie's version of ballet. Kristine, supported by her husband Al is a forgetful tone-deaf who her expresses grief not being able to sing. Mark - the youngest of the dancers, is more than eager to be on Broadway. He shares about his first experiences with female anatomy pictures and his first wet dream. Gregory speaks about his discovery of his homosexuality, and Diana recalls her horrible high school acting class. Don remembers his first job at a nightclub, Richie narrates how he nearly became a kindergarten teacher, Judy reflects on her challenging childhood and the Connie, being only 4'10 tall shares his pain over his shortness.

The dancers then move downstairs to learn a song for the next section of the audition, but Cassie stays onstage to talk to Zach, who has had some noteworthy successes as a vocalist. Zach tells Cassie that she is too good for the chorus and shouldn't be there at the audition - she should be out dancing solos. It is revealed that they both had a past together. After Cassie's plea, Zach allows her to go downstairs and join the rest of them. Cassie and Zach's complex relationship resurfaces in the first rendition of One. Cassie, due to her talent, is standing out. And argument take place between them, which also reveals what, had gone wrong between them as a couple.

Paul, apparently the best dancer in the group, trips and falls in a tap sequence and taken to a hospital. Zach asks the remaining dancers what they will do when they can no longer dance, followed by and emotional number, which leads to the final elimination process with final eight dancers are selected: Cassie, Bobby, Diana, Judy, Val, Mike, Mark and Richie.

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