Michael Bennett’s revolutionary Broadway musical, based on real-life testimonies, comes to Edinburgh to bring glitter and glam to a dreich autumn.
The longest-running production in Broadway history until Cats in 1997, A Chorus Line takes us to the spartan stage of a theatre where seventeen dancers are put through their paces in a gruelling audition where only eight will make the cut. With the only decoration a set of risers and the live band tucked away under a ‘Live: Recording’ sign, the focus is fully on our hopefuls.
Fresh from Sadler’s Wells, this performance showcases A Chorus Line’s groundbreaking format; we’re thrust into auditions in a cacophony of New York traffic, and we stay in the middle of the action thanks to some innovative directorial techniques. The imperious Zach often leaves his desk to grill the candidates from among the stalls via a roving microphone, and his assistant Larry frequently thrusts a handheld camera into the dancers’ faces. It lends a reality TV aura to proceedings that’s often humorous – especially with vertically challenged Connie and Kristine’s tuneless warblings.
Adam Cooper and Carly Mercedes Dyer shine as Zach and Cassie, though for me the individual stories of the other dancers were the most poignant as the issues raised remain sadly topical. Manuel Pacific as Paul handles the topics of childhood abuse and coming out with sensitivity, and Chloe Saunders as Val’s frank discussion of casting’s obsession with ‘tits and ass’ in Dance: Ten; Looks: Three is a scathing commentary on the judgement of women in the industry.
Original director Michael Bennett called it ‘a show about hope’ in its initial run and numbers like At The Ballet and What I Did For Love demonstrate this in heartbreaking clarity, with Jocasta Almgill as Diana in particular bringing outstanding vocals. The mix of funk and disco giving way later to discordant, almost jazz improv, sections nicely illustrates the dancers’ descent into exhaustion and despair before they emerge at the other side with renewed enthusiasm. Of course, the famous final number One is laden with pyro, glitter and high kicks as the chorus line once more becomes a group of indistinguishable dancers – I left on a high but also contemplating the price of a precarious career where everything can be taken away in an instant.
With A Chorus Line director Nikolai Foster and choreographer Ellen Kane have brought a gem to Edinburgh that sparkles with talent and gritty realism.
A Chorus Line is at the Festival Theatre from the 24th-28th September.