Different Is Nice But It Sure Isn't Pretty
Written: Oct 13 '08
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: entertaining, lots of live dancing, true ensemble
Cons: story subordinated to song and dance, some weak singers, no intermission
The Bottom Line: You can't reproduce the feel of live dancing in a movie and that alone is enough to make me recommend seeing A Chorus Line live if you get the chance.
|
|
|
| quasar's Full Review: A Chorus Line On Tour |
The stage is bare other than a couple of mirrors in the back. Dancers blaze across in front of the critical eye of director Zach and choreographer Larry. After a minute or two, the crowd of dancers is narrowed down to eight boys and nine girls and the fun really begins. By the time the final four boys and four girls are selected, they'll all be emotionally and physically wrung out.
A Chorus Line follows the audition process for the dancing chorus of a new Broadway show. The finalists have different backgrounds, different personalities, different strengths as performers, and different levels of tolerance for the invasive and personal interviewing process they're undergoing. Some are veterans toiling away after years of the occasional national tour or chorus spot. Some only came to New York a few years ago, hoping to be discovered and make it big only to come up against the reality of the audition grind. Still others are trying to recussitate dying careers, looking at the chorus gig as a chance to start over in the career they love but somehow lost.
This is very much an ensemble piece with no real leads. Zach perhaps has more lines than anyone else, but he's off stage during most of the show. Cassie - Zach's former girlfriend and a former featured dancer who's fallen on hard times professionally - was the ostensible lead in the movie version of the show, but her role is greatly reduced here. Diana Morales probably gets the most solo singing time, but almost everyone has at least a verse or two on their own and at least half of the characters get entire songs to sing on their own. Paul San Marco gets the meatiest acting scenes, but several others tap into past hurts and disappointments.
The music in A Chorus Line ranges from group numbers about life in the theater to personal stories both funny and sad to showy numbers meant to be part of the production within the production. The vast majority fall into the second category, often related to how a particular character became interested in dance or steps they took to further their career. "At the Ballet" looks at how trips to the ballet as young girls inspired three of the characters and how ballet helped them escape their less than ideal family situations. "Nothing" recalls the method acting pushed by a teacher at the High School of the Arts and how much this particular student hated it. "I Can Do That!" is a funny look at how one boy tagged along to his sister's dance lessons and eventually surpassed her in both interest and talent. The real show stopper is "Dance, Ten; Looks, Three" where one of the more physically blessed applicants explains how she wasn't always so well endowed and how she corrected her less than stellar looks.
Several of these songs are intertwined with "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love" in this production. The result is an incredibly long stream of music and short dialogue interludes that jump around from character to character and from theme to theme. The ostensible tie is dealing with life as a young teenager but some of the songs barely fit and one or two segments feel completely out of place. It's disjointed and difficult to follow and, unfortunately, consumes a good quarter of the show. Some of the better musical moments of the show fall within this odd medley and are diminished by the presentation and odd segueways from one bit of this section to the next.
The up and down nature of some of the music is not helped by the casting. Most of these actors were obviously cast based on dance ability and, while several are good singers, no one is superb and some voices are well below the quality I expect from a national tour. Emily Fletcher as Sheila and Gabrielle Ruiz as Diana were probably the best singers of the bunch while both Natalie Elise Hall as Val and Stephanie Gibson as Judy both were pretty shaky. Most of the men were fair to middling singers; no one really stood out as particularly good or particularly bad. I also noticed that some of the performers declined to sing while dancing in a group (where, presumably, other voices would help mask their absence); in particular Nikki Snelson as Cassie didn't sing at all during the practice and evaluation runs through the dancing accompanying "One". This was particularly noticeable as she's the only woman dancing with the men at one point and thus all of the voices you do hear are male.
The dancing is generally excellent, but there are a few moments of sloppiness in some of the individual numbers. In particular, Clyde Alves as Mike gets a bit spastic and out of control in portions of "I Can Do That". In addition, while the finale is crisp and in sync, much of the group dancing during the auditions is a bit sloppier than I'd expect even during the audition process. The best dancing actually comes as the backdrop to "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love" and is, unfortunately, very far back on the stage with one or more characters interacting or posing in front of the dancing. Thus, it's not always easy to see or to get the full effect of the numbers.
The show runs a bit over two hours and does not have an intermission. I think this is supposed to make it feel like a real audition where breaks are few and far between. However, the show isn't linear enough for it to work. We get a taste of the process and we get a hint of what the various characters are like, but I never felt like I knew many of these people or really understood what they were being put through during this audition process. This is definitely one area where the movie does a better job than the live show.
The result is a show where the story feels like a weak excuse to tie together a bunch of songs and, particularly, show off some dance moves. That's still entertaining, especially in a live format where you can really see the energy and power in the dancing, but it's not exactly great theater. I'm not sorry I went to see A Chorus Line but I actually think I liked the movie better than the live show. That's pretty disappointing. At the same time, you can't reproduce the feel of live dancing in a movie and that alone is enough to make me recommend seeing A Chorus Line live if you get the chance.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.