'A Chorus Line'
“A Chorus Line,” book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban. Directed and choreographed by Kevin Hill. At the Mac-Haydn Theatre in Chatham, N.Y.
"Kiss today goodbye," sings Diana Morales late in the second act of "A Chorus Line," the third musical I know of devoted to the busy, working professionals who back up the stars on stage on Broadway (the other two are Rodgers and Hammerstein’s "Me and Juliet" from 1953 and Hugh Martin’s "Look Ma, I’m Dancin’" from 1948).
Her song is a response to a question asked during the day-long audition for eight spots in a new show that 27 dancers are still trying out for at the beginning of the show. The question is, "What do you do when you can’t dance any longer?" The question is phrased when one of the aspiring youngsters collapses on a weak ankle and has to be sent to a nearby hospital.
These are two of the four highly emotional moments in the second act of the show now on stage at the Mac-Haydn Theatre in Chatham, N.Y., that never fail to choke up the audience. The young man, Paul, just has come through a cathartic monologue in which he reveals his history and his agony to a stranger. Tears. Then his accident while dancing brilliantly. Tears. Then her song. Tears. Finally the moment of truth with the final picks by the director. More tears. And that last one is the happy time.
These moments never fail and the current production, fortunately, has bright and beautiful people to suffer through the satisfactions and the losses.
Directed and choreographed by Kevin Hill, a survivor of other productions of this show, the work of Michael Bennett, who conceived the show and originally staged it in 1975, is lovingly recreated and enhanced in the limited circular space of the summer theater. The large and obvious mikes, however, do not satisfactorily bring all of the dialogue and lyrics to all the theater’s ears, and that is a problem. A need for crisp sound to let everyone hear the words of this dance-show is an urgent need. There are passions and secrets revealed at every turnout and plie and we don’t want to miss a single one if we can help it.
Hill does his best to let the relationships play to every seat in the house, but working in the round is tricky, especially when you need to make long straight lines every now and then. How he has managed to keep the dance rehearsal routines going on such a space is a miracle to behold.
His cast helps enormously. Colin Pritchard, whose character Mike soloed "I Can Do That," set the tone for the evening; he winningly sung and danced. Karla Shook’s Maggie was sympathetic and still strong. Robert Teasdale performed well, but his singing partner Tara Tagliaferro didn’t make herself understood, which was a pity as it strangled their duet.
Katy O’Donnell made Sheila into exactly what the authors intended and then some while Jackey Good, as Val, sent up the body beautiful perfectly in her second act song, a highlight actually, "Dance Ten, Looks Three." Kellie L. Shook in the pivotal part of Cassie, an almost made it ex-hoofer trying to return to the chorus line, gives an excellent, if cold, performance. The fire that made Donna McKechnie a sensation was sadly missing her performance, but her physicalization of the qualities that took her out of the line in the first place was chilling as the show began to draw to its conclusion.
Zach, the director, was played with too much compassion and fairness by Tony Rivera. When he turned, later in act two, into the taskmaster he should always be, the change was almost too abrupt and never took him far enough to cause the pain his part should always inflict. It’s a pity because he exhibited the ability to take this role into a whole different realm, the place it should have been.
Juan Torres-Falcon was an excellent, sensitive Paul and Lauren Palmieri made the most of Morales. Her performance was definitely stellar even when she had to sing the first chorus of "What I Did For Love" out of light while the Shook sisters stood upstage of her in glorious illumination. Other than that mistake, Andrew Gmoser’s lighting was effective. The costumes here were not the usual imitation Broadway run, but were a bit more personal for the most part, not including Sheila’s, Val’s and Greg’s. They were "styled" by Jimm Halliday.
This show has a winning streak, even in the worst of productions, and this current viewing is nowhere near the bottom of the list. Through the talents of its players and the work of a fine director, this is an excellent foray into the vastly under-appreciated world of the creation of a musical. Ensemble at its solo best.
“A Chorus Line” plays at the Mac-Haydn Theatre on Route 203 in Chatham, N.Y., through June 29. For ticket information, call 518-392-9292 or visit machaydntheatre.org.