Saturday, January 28, 2006

Didn't they just close "A Chorus Line"?


So, I am surfing Al Gore's internets and I found this item:
"Charlotte d'Amboise & Michael Berresse Set for B'way's Upcoming A Chorus Line"


Didn't they just close that show? Was it really 16 years ago? That hardly seems possible. I first saw the show in 1976 as a High School senior. It was the senior trip of Washington Free Academy in Salem NY. There were 78 of us in the class and 2 did not graduate, so 76 graduated in 1976. We tinfoil hatters think they administration failed two people on purpose to be...you know.... clever.

We were allowed time to see Manhattan and eat dinner. Then we went to the theater and saw "A Chorus Line" (some of the kids saw other shows). It was the second cast, so Ann Reinking was playing Cassie. She was great of course. I don't think there is a better dancer for that role. I was blown away by the production.

In the early 1990s I took production pictures of a production of the show in south Florida. I don't know where those pictues went to. I wish I knew, because they were some of my favorite work.



Click the "read more" link below to read the article about the coming broadway production.


... Tony-nominated actors Charlotte d'Amboise and Michael Berresse are set to play Cassie and Zach, respectively, in the upcoming Broadway revival of A Chorus Line., according to The New York Times.

D'Amboise recently left the company of Chicago, a show in which she has performed on and off for years. She won a Fred Astaire Award for her performance in the Broadway revival of Damn Yankees and earned a Tony nomination for Jerome Robbins' Broadway. Her other Broadway credits include Carrie, Song and Dance, Cats and Contact. At one point, she was also supposed to headline the recent Broadway revival of Sweet Charity, but instead she played the very beginning of the show's run and served as Christina Applegate's standby.



Michael Berresse
Berresse is currently appearing in The Light in the Piazza. He was nominated for Tony, Astaire and Outer Critics Awards for his performance as Bill Calhoun in Kiss Me, Kate. He also earned an Olivier Award nomination when he appeared in the tuner in the West End. Berresse originated the role of Fred Casely in the Broadway revival of Chicago before taking over as Billy Flynn both on Broadway and on tour. His other Broadway credits include Damn Yankees, Guys and Dolls, Carousel, Fiddler on the Roof and The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm. Berresse appeared on the big screen in AI: Artificial Intelligence. He will soon direct and choreograph the musical [title of show] at the Vineyard Theatre.

A Chorus Line, the legendary musical about a lineup of Broadway gypsies baring their souls for a grueling audition, features a book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, music by Marvin Hamlisch (who will orchestrate the revival) and lyrics by Edward Kleban. A Chorus Line was originally conceived by director/choreographer Michael Bennett out of a series of interviews with Broadway dancers. It premiered at the Public Theater under the watchful eye of producer Joseph Papp in early 1975 and quickly became the must-see show of that season. A Chorus Line opened ln Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on July 25, 1975 with Donna McKechnie as Cassie and Robert LuPone as Zach. It remained at the theater for a record-breaking run that lasted until April 28, 1990 (running a total of 6,137 performances). It won nine 1976 Tony Awards including Best Musical as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Richard Attenborough's film adaptation of the show premiered in 1985....




To read the rest of the article please click on the title of this post up above.
The graphic is found at The PBS Broadway site

1 comment :

TeresaInPa said...

Hi NC,

Yes, a trip to NYC is easy from here. I used to drive there often and probably will get in to see this. But first I would really like to see the new version of Sweeny Todd. I hear it is brilliant.