Redmand Rance (Mike Costa), Chloe Saunders (Val Clarke) and Rachel Jayne Picar (Connie Wong) in A Chorus Line at Sadler's Wells - © Marc BrennerSo, is the iteration which wowed audiences at Leicester’s Curve Theatre back in 2021 and has just opened at Sadler’s Wells for a run until 25th August, full of triple threats, or a bunch of wannabes?
The history of the show’s creation is well documented. Director/Choreographer Michael Bennett was invited to join a group of dancers who, late at night, sat discussing what it meant to them to train, audition, rehearse and be in a show. Soon he was taking charge of the sessions, recording them and from the 24 hours worth of tapes which resulted, he created A Chorus Line with music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban. After workshopping, the show had a brief off-Broadway try-out, followed by a run which started at the Schubert Theatre in July 1975, opening to huge critical and box office acclaim. When it finally closed at the end of April 1990, it had become the longest running show in Broadway’s history, having clocked-up 6,137 performances and having spawned a movie version. Bennett himself had died in 1987, one of many victims of the AIDS epidemic which ravaged the performing arts on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the production directed by Nikolai Foster, Adam Cooper and Carly Mercedes Dyer play Zack and Cassie the show’s sparring former lovers — a control freak and his one-time leading lady. Disappointingly, there was very little chemistry between the two and Cooper was particularly stilted and unconvincing as the impatient director demanding raw truth from the performers. The pair imbue an awkward atmosphere to the audition space when Cassie reveals she hasn’t worked in some time and pleads Let Me Dance For You, humbling herself before an array of young and eager auditionees, half of whom won’t make the final cut, but all of whom have a back story to tell. It is through these stories and their associated routines that we as audience members get to feel an affinity and choose our own favourites.
At Thursday evening’s opening night, this reviewer felt an especial glow reliving the various tales and seeing the show for the first time in many years. It was designed to be a strong ensemble piece, reflective of the company camaraderie any musical needs to foster if it is to be successful. Having said that, there were stand-out numbers, notably At the Ballet delivered by Sheila, Bebe and Maggie (Amy Thornton, Lydia Bannister and Kate Parr) and some terrifically sharp silhouettes thrown by Mike (Redmand Rance) and Larry (Ashley-Jordan Packer)before One the big closing number delivered by the entire company in their requisite glitzy gold costumes and top hats.
Finally, Greg Gardner standing in line giving us his full Jewish name “…Sidney Kenneth Beckstein or Rochmel Lev Ben Yokov Meyer Beckstein”, was always one of the funniest lines in the show and in Bradley Delarosbel’s assured delivery every guttural nuance and rolled Hebraic “r” is delivered with hilarious, disdainful panache.
