Customer Reviews

A Chorus Line (1975 Original Broadway Cast)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

My actual and painful experience with theatrical auditions has been from both sides of stage and only once involved an actual musical. Still, I can relate to the desperation and urgency that propels the characters in "A Chorus Line" towards their respective fates. Yes, I might be rather sick and tired of hearing "One," not to mention "One (Reprise)-Finale," but for me the songs I can hear over and over again from this Broadway musical have always been the ensemble numbers: "I Hope I Get It," "At the Ballet" and "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love." Not even "What I Did for Love" compares with those tracks as far as I am concerned.

What makes this musical works is that while it is about an ensemble, it is an ensemble of clearly defined characters. Even the "cute" songs, such as "I Can Do That" and "Sing!", are clearly character driven. I have always liked audition sequences in films (the openings of "All That Jazz" and "Fame" immediately spring to mind), and those moments when a person and a part become joined. Here the moment becomes a mixture of celebratory elation and funereal disappointment. In other words, exactly what it is like when you want to be a Broadway hoofer.

There are very few musicals that are actually about musicals, and given how successful "A Chorus Line" has been, there is little need for someone to try and come up with something new on the off chance it might be better. In a small collection of Broadway musicals, this is a necessary album to own. I have been listening to it again because I just discovered that Carole Bishop, who played Sheila and won the Tony award for Featured Actress in a Musical (While Donna McKechnie won for Leading Actress in a Musical), is now professionally known as Kelly Bishop and plays Emily on "Gilmore Girls."

"A Chorus Line"-was to broadway, what Beatles were to music. What Michael Bennet conceived, created and directed was unheard of in broadway-is still today. The proof was evident, as the musical was the longest running ever (till recently until CATS took over). TO come to the music. It is music that comes from within. The fact, that none of the performers were established artists, resulted in a phenomenon that was driven more from the heart and soul than vocal prowess and theatrical experience. The result- an energy driven, yet soft and heartfelt soundtrack. From the Powerful opening bars it goes on to Mike's histrionics on "I Can Do That! " followed by perhaps one of the most beautiful tracks on the CD "At The Ballet" The innocence and stark nature of the lyrics rouses goose pimples. "Montage" is the highlight of this REmastered Version. It contains Connie's "Four foot Ten" (Although it leaves out Mark's account of mistaking his first Wet dream for gonorehhea), Judy little bit on her humourous account and Greg's Scandalous "I'd Get Hard! " orginally omitted on the original version. This leads to Cassie's "Music and the Mirror", as her obvious desperation and desire to dance again comes forth so obviously. And Val's "Dance Ten looks Three" as always brings a wide smirk to one's face as one relates to the ever so popular use of Silicon today. IT ends with probably the 2 best tracks on the CD-"What I did for Love" and "ONE"..the former capturing the vision that like love-it could never be lost completely and ONE-which sums up the entire musical..that ultimately that is what everyone strived to get.. A place in the chorus- backing a star when jobs were so difficult to come.. ALl in all--it truly is "ONE SINGULAR SENSATION"

"A Chorus Line" may not have been the greatest musical to ever hit Broadway, but listening to this wonderful original cast recording, it's easy to see why it struck enough of a chord with audiences to keep it running for 15 years. We don't get Michael Bennett's supposedly amazing staging, but what we do get is a great score by Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban that rises above its charming, energetic but often dated 70s-pop orechstrations to create a mood of such energy, excitement and heartbreaking hope that you can't help but be drawn in to the stories of all these would-be Broadway dancers auditioning for a Broadway chorus. You also get the performances of a uniformly dead-on ensemble cast. There are no star performances here, as was intended, but each and every performer is a standout. What is often neglected is how well this score is constructed. It chronologically reflects the life of the average dancer through many different characters and viewpoints, starting with the first dance class ("I Can Do That-" an amusing song done well by Wayne Cilento) and explaining different reasons why a dancer may start to dance, whether it's to escape home life (the deeply poignaint "At the Ballet," beautifully and emotionally performed by Carole Bishop, Kay Cole and Bebe Lane) or because it's the one thing in show buisiness you're good at (The hilarious "Sing!", the one thing the character portrayed by Renee Baugham cannot do, and the serio-comic "Nothing," brilliantly sung by Priscilla Lopez, about being told you'll never make it as an actress). We then move to a professional career in dance and ways of, uh, making it ("Dance: Ten, Looks: Three," a guilty pleasure of a song about plastic surgery, especially as sung with deadpan timing by Pamela Blair). And finally, we arrive back where we started, at the audition where all the dancers are willing to bare their soles to the director just so that they can be picked and fulfil their desire to dance (The emotional "Music and the Mirror," delivered with a wham, bang and power-punch by Donna McKechnie). And of course, let's not forget the pulsating, nerve-jangling energy of the opening "I Hope I Get It," in which the dancers rehearse for the audition, the truly universal montage about adolescence "Hello 12, Hello 13, Hello Love," in which nearly everyone gets a great solo line or section, "What I Did For Love," which may be somewhat sappy on its own (It seems the authors wrote it against their will) but in context can be a very moving expression of the real reason why dancers dance, and of course, the legendary finale "One." While it may not be one of the most timeless, beautiful, moving or clever scores to be heard on a Broadway stage, all of those qualities often appear in it, and its brilliant construction and integration into the show is pretty impressive. And with a cast like this performing it, it only gets better. So what are you waiting for?...

"A Chorus Line" was the first Broadway production I ever saw ... and I was immediately "hooked". Even today, the musical ranks as one of my favorites!

While the staging & plot are simple, the score provides an intimate look inside the audition process and lives of the people vying for the few chorus slots of an upcoming show.

Best Tracks include:

I Hope I Get It [great opening number]
At The Ballet
Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love
Dance: Ten, Looks: Three [the show's big "T&A" number]
The Music & The Mirror [Tony-winner Donna McKechnie's big solo dance number]
What I Did For Love [one of the best eleven o'clock numbers ever]
One [the classic that doesn't escape you]

Get familiar (or reacquainted) with the show that "saved" theatre & its incredible music!

THE STORY:
A CHORUS LINE has a simple enough story: a director is holding auditions for chorus line members. After whittling the field down to 17 prospective dancers, he decides that he needs to get to know the auditionees personally in order to select eight that will work well together. After some awkward moments, the auditionees begin to tell their stories, and continue to tell them for over an hour with no break (even though the soliloquies of Paul and Cassie are a bit belabored). The show ends with the ultimate curtain call, the entire cast dancing the show-stopping choreography of "One."

What makes this show truly remarkable (and a Pulitzer Prize winner) are the stories of the auditionees. Ed Kleban's lyrics, based on interviews of New York City dancers conducted by the artistic team, ring true. These disparate characters' stories have much in common: an inexplicable devotion to a physically demanding, short-lifespan profession that rarely pays the rent, but more importantly, the stories combine to give voice to a new generation. This is the first musical to speak for those coming of age after the Protest Era. The subject content is for mature audiences only: we hear tales of dysfunctional families, sexual experimentation, and some of the coarsest language ever used in a Broadway show.

THE MUSIC:
Every tune in this score is a hit, and the lyrics are superb. The driving beat of "I Hope I Get It" conveys the frightening excitement of a dance audition. "At the Ballet" tells how three girls found beauty in a dance studio to replace ugliness in their home lives. A Hispanic woman tells of how she got "Nothing" out of her high school acting class. In "Dance: Ten; Looks: Three" (better known as "T&A"), a woman tells how her career took off after she visited a plastic surgeon. The cast ponders why they pursue such an unforgiving profession in "What I Did For Love."

THE RECORDING:
Surprisingly, there are very few recordings of this record-breaking show. The original cast members (including Donna McKechnie in her most famous role) are great singers, and their energy comes across in this recording. Unfortunately, due to the fractured way some of the songs are performed in the show, large chunks of "I Hope I Get It" and "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love" are missing, and the great "...And..." is completely missing.

SUMMARY:
The language is extremely crude, and some of the subject matter is very adult-oriented, but A CHORUS LINE is a must-have for everyone. This recording should be among every music collector's first Broadway purchases.

Reading the other reviews of this CD, I noticed a lot of disparity over the opinions of this show. I can easily say no one show can appeal to everyone.I think, however, one has to hear the recording and formulate their own ideas. The other reviewers clearly have done that. I choose, in this case, to focus on the SACD. This is the original recording, remixed for multichannel surround sound, with higher quality sound than the original CD or LP.When this recording was originally released, Columbia offered it both as a conventional stereo LP as well as an SQ quadraphonic counterpart. Just try to find that quad version these days; I have been in search of it for years. Now that Sony has released this album as a multichannel SACD, it's not as important now to find that SQ LP. At the beginning, you hear the voice of Zach in the rear speakers, as he instructs the dancers, who are firmly up front. This is really the only place where any special effects are used; for the most part, the SACD recreates the acoustics of thevirtual theater. Multichannel surround can more accurately do this than conventional two-channel stereo. But for the die-hard stereo fanatic, a high resolution stereo version in also included. It should also be mentioned that, as good as this SACD is, it is playable only in SACD players. There is no compatible CD layer that makes a disc playable in standard CD players. ALL SACD's should have this "hybrid" capability, if the format is to succeed. But if you own a suitable player, you need this disc.

The star of A Chorus Line was always Michael Bennett's choreography, but it's nearly impossible to tell it's missing from this stellar recording. Featuring the irreplaceable and unquestionably perfect original cast, this recording is essential in every cast recording library, and is a wonderful representation of the show. Though not all of the material in the show is included on the CD (though some has been restored for the remastered recording), there is a large selection of truly fine classic musical material here. Songs like "One" and "What I Did For Love" leap off the CD and straight into your heart or feet as appropriate. A Chorus Line has always been "one singular sensation," and short of a time machine to take you back to 1975 to see the original cast, there's no better way to experience the show.

A CHORUS LINE is probably one of the best and most-beloved musicals in Broadway history. A CHORUS LINE is a timeless classic about the unsung heroes of the musical theater business: chorus dancers. The concept and several character creations for A CHORUS LINE were drawn from real-life interviews with professional dancers. To put succinctly, A CHORUS LINE is the story about 17 dancers who are auditioning for 8 spots in the chorus of a never-named Broadway musical. Through songs and monologues, the dancers tell us something about themselves. This smash Broadway hit endured as long as it did (1975-1990: 6,137 performances) because the music and the monologues were raw, honest, and emotional. A CHORUS LINE struck a chord with and appealed to millions of people because they could all relate to being an "unsung hero", an "underdog", to having been at one time or another in the shadows of another person. We all want to be recognized as special individuals and these dancers are definitely that. Each song, from the opening ("I Hope I Get It") to the finale ("One: Finale"), keeps you engaged. The classic songs include: "Dance: Ten; Looks: Three" (the ode to T&A, what a woman needs to succeed in the entertainment business), "What I Did For Love", "Nothing", "At The Ballet", "The Music and The Mirror" (amazing music and vocals by Donna McKechnie) and "One: Finale" (a very ironic song in which these individual and special dancers become one chorus and you can't tell them apart physically or vocally). Be sure to check out the "Montage" sequence (the dancers sing about sexuality, growing up, adolescence, family pains, shaving a sister's head, erections, basketball, and many other things.). I have never heard a musical before that was so honest and blunt...a musical that reflects the pains and joys of life poignantly, comically, and accurately. Cheers for A CHORUS LINE.

An essential score for any Broadway fan. The expanded version is excellent with much better sound and the great extras already mentioned (Connie, Judy and Greg's solos). There is also a different sound to "Music and The Mirror" which is interesting. You can hear a lot more of the synthesizer.

As for the score itself, it doesn't always make sense if you don't know the show, but it absolutely grows on you, even the now dated wah-wah guitars! Particular favorites are the driving opening instrumentals to "I Hope I Get It", the dixie-like "I Can Do That", the poignant and beautiful "At the Ballet", Montage 3, especially Richie's "Gimme the Ball" section which is cool early 70s rock/gospel, and of course "What I Did for Love" and "One (finale)".

Only critique is we are still missing some numbers, and others (Opening, Hello 12) are *severely* shortened.

Also worth checking out is the movie soundtrack. Although it has a lot of thin-sounding synthisized tracks, the Opening with lots of new music, Richie's "Surprise", and Cassie's "Let Me Dance for You" are interesting. I also like the salsa orchestrations for Diana's "Nothing".

This is the peerless original cast of A CHORUS LINE, the legendary Broadway musical which opened in 1975 and ended up running for fifteen years and 6,137 performances. The cast, largely made of unknowns and up-and-comers, is still amazing. Donna McKechnie is a revelation as Cassie, belting out "The Music and the Mirror" like nobody's business, Priscilla Lopez is still the definitive Diana Morales with her dynamic "Nothing" and "What I Did for Love". Kelly Bishop, Nancy Lane and Kay Cole sing the angst-ridden, beautifully-bittersweet "At the Ballet". The Marvin Hamlisch-Edward Kleban score fairly crackles with excitement and boundless energy. This is still the best of the bunch.