Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The quintessential ensemble Broadway musical, March 31, 2002
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."
|
|
|
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Broadway At its Subtle Best!, November 23, 1999
"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"
|
|
|
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic score, a classic cast, a classic recording, February 18, 2002
"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?...
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
DVD ~ Michael Douglas
~ Carol Lawrence
~ Alan Jay Lerner
~ Alan Jay Lerner
~ Stephen Schwartz
- the new music site from IMDb and Amazon.
