REVIEW: A Chorus Line - Still One Singular Sensation

If you were a producer and someone suggested that you mount a 25-year old show, you might feel the need to clean it up, modernize it, add new songs, or change things just to try to freshen the show. You might feel that you need to think outside the box to help the show resonate with a modern audience, or alter the story-line to make it as relevant as it was when it first opened.

Fortunately, the producers of A Chorus Line, currently running at Washington DC’s National Theatre did none of those things. And it works.

Everything about the revival works. Tharon Musser’s original lighting design, adapted by Natasha Katz, makes for a dramatic evening of theatre. Theoni V. Aldredge’s costumes look as fresh as they did in 1975 when the show landed on Broadway. But the genius of the show is, and always was, Michael Bennett, whose direction and choreography lives on in the capable hands of Baayork Lee and Bob Avian.

Lee and Avian know A Chorus Line. Lee was the original Connie in the Broadway production, as well as the Dance Captain and Assistant to Bennett, and Avian was originally credited as Co-Choreographer. Every magical moment that Bennett created is here, from the opening rehearsal piano count off to the moment when the orchestra kicks in and the stage explodes in dance, to the iconic image of the line—each performer holding his or her headshot squarely in front of his or her face.

When that breathtaking image arrives, seemingly spontaneously, the electricity transcends the confines of the proscenium.

Since the show opened on Broadway in 1975, there have been many National Tours, bus and truck companies, college and community productions. When A Chorus Line closed on April 28, 1990 after a record-breaking 15 year run, a revival was only to be expected. This tour is truly exceptional. The energy is there. The performers convey the urgency and passion that any young performer must have to make it on Broadway. However, at the performance I saw, the role of Paul, a young gay Latino dancer with a heart-wrenching story to share, was played by an understudy who was not up to the task. Paul is a critical role in the show. His legendary speech has become iconic in Broadway history, and his knee-injuring accident onstage is the impetus for the classic ballad, What I Did for Love. This young actor labored through the monologue and seemed to be struggling to remember his lines. The result was a performance where the audience felt sympathy for the actor and not the character.

But the show’s weakness of this one character is made up for in spades by the overwhelmingly solid performances delivered by the rest of the cast. Sebastian Le Cause’s Zach, the Director, is unforgiving and demanding, yet shows his sensitive and vulnerable side. Sheila, the aging Diva, is played to perfection by Shannon Lewis. Judy, an often unforgettable character, is memorably played by Bethany Moore. And the down on her luck Cassie, the one-time love interest of Zach and played by Robyn Hurder, spares nothing in her breathtaking Music and the Mirror solo dance.

Overall, the cast suffered from pitch problems one rarely hears in a production of this caliber. It almost seemed as though the sound monitors, permitting the performers to hear the orchestra, was malfunctioning. And of course, that could very well have been the case, as Washington audiences have come to expect poor sound quality at the National Theatre. At this performance, there was an unnecessary amount of popping and static, and in at least one case, a completely missed mic cue.

The years have been good to A Chorus Line. And it was truly a joy to live for two hours and ten minutes in the lives and dreams of those young performers.

A Chorus Line continues a limited run at the Washington National Theatre only until March 22.