A Chorus Line [Remaster] - Original Cast (CD 1998)

A Chorus Line wasn't just a show. It was a phenomenon. Until Cats, it was the longest running show on Broadway. It took a group of people that few people had thought about much before (Broadway dancers) and turned them into cultural icons. It even changed the way musicals are produced. Although the thrilling dancing and cinematic staging that were most important to the show's success aren't documented on the cast album, it is still an essential recording, both for its historical significance and the listening pleasure it still gives.

The Show

The show began when a group of Broadway dancers decided to get together and record their memories and life stories. They had a vague idea that this might turn into a show or a book. Things became less vague when Michael Bennett got involved. Bennett was a brilliant young choreographer who had co-directed Stephen Sondheim's Follies with Harold Prince. Bennett saw the potential in the emotionally charged recordings and decided to turn them into a musical. First, he had Nicholas Dante work on the book alone. Dante, one of the dancers on the tapes, had told a story about his experience dancing in a drag show as a teenager that would become Paul's monologue, the emotional center and climax of the show. After a while, Bennett brought in James Kirkwood, a more experienced writer, to help with the book. For the score, an unknown lyricist named Edward Kleban worked with the already famous composer Marvin Hamlisch, best known for his movie work.

The story is overwhelmingly simple. We are at an audition for a Broadway show. After the opening number, several dancers are cut (they go sing in the wings from that point on). The choreographer, Zach, says that he wants to learn something about the dancers' lives and starts to interview them. Zach is an unseen, almost godlike figure for most of the show. He has previous history with many of the dancers, most notably former lover Cassie, a star dancer who has failed in an acting career and is desperate for work.

Through the interviews, we see how tough and courageous each of these people is. We grow to love many of them, so the final cut is a wrenching ordeal. Originally, Bennett wanted the actor playing Zach to choose different dancers each night, but this proved to be unworkable. The finale of the show is the remarkable "One," a star number staged without the star. In that song, the unique individuals we have spent the evening with become interchangeable, anonymous glittering figures. Although the number is thrilling, we hate seeing our heroes turned into a backdrop.

The Score

It's actually a little hard for me to give this cast album five stars. Like other post-Sondheim Bennett shows, the writing was far less important than the staging. What made A Chorus Line one of the best shows ever is nowhere to be found on the album. Still, the album is awfully good. Those who didn't see the show in Bennett's s original production don't know what they're missing. Those who did will not hear this album without remembering it.

What a difference a lyricist makes! Hamlisch's scores have ranged from the great (this one) to the good (Smile) to the ordinary (They're Playing Our Song) to the atrocious (The Goodbye Girl). Kleban and Bennett worked Hamlisch much harder than other collaborators have. The lyricist was a great believer in the Broadcast Music Incorporated Musical Theatre Workshop. He took all of their completed songs there for feedback and approval, much to the composer's consternation.

Hamlisch and Kleban found the "Montage" sequence the most difficult thing to write, and for good reason. It's an extended number in several parts that grew out of Bennett's wish that they could show all of the dancers being interviewed. It starts with a frank and funny sequence on adolescence called "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love" in which all of the dancers share snippets about their physical development and sexual awakening. It moves through three other sections, one of them totally separated from the rest on the cast album.

"Nothing" works so well as a self-contained song that it was wise to let it stand on its own. In it, Diana tells about the hard time she had with a nasty acting teacher at the High School of Performing Arts. It's a cute song that turns into something more when it reaches a numbing conclusion. And no matter how much you love it, you must never sing it at audition. It's right up there with "I'm Just a Girl You Cain't Say No" and "On My Own" in the category of songs that no auditor ever wants to hear again.

"What I Did For Love" was written specifically to be a "liftable" song, one that could be a popular hit outside the show. It worked for that. Opinions are divided on how well it works in the show- Bennett came close to cutting it and Kleban despises it. I think it's pretty sappy, but the appearance of a conventional song at that point in the evening was a major help to audiences, both as an emotional outlet and a respite between a dramatic injury and the final selection.

The Chorus Line album does not include huge portions of the score. The show was written with almost continual underscoring, which Hamlisch's experience as a film composer prepared him to do brilliantly. A huge crew of orchestrators worked on the show, including the legendary Ralph Burns, who did only the last forty bars of the finale.

The Recording

The original cast of a musical is rarely completely replaceable, and that's truer than ever here, where many of the performers are playing characters based on themselves. Especially since your only alternative is the odious soundtrack for the worse movie, this is the album to get.

Wayne Cilento, who would go on to a major career as a choreographer, is terrifically brash as the show off, Mike. Tony Award winners Carole Bishop and Sammy Williams do not have much to do, but her tough, emotionally guarded Sheila comes through strongly in her one verse of "At the Ballet." Williams' Paul was defined primarily by his monologue (it would be on the album if it were recorded to day), but you can hear him briefly singing the "Who am I anyway" section at the end of "I Hope I Get it." Donna McKechnie, who also won a Tony for the show, is more heavily featured, but her song is not especially satisfying without the dance that accompanied it.

If you're a fan of the show, you should consider replacing your cast recording with this new remastered version. Nearly two minutes of the Montage have been restored, including Baayork Lee's complaints about her height and Michael Stuart's reminiscences of excessive erectile functionality. Marc Kirkeby's notes are gushing, but it just wouldn't be Chorus Line if they weren't.