“Every Little Step” builds beautifully in layers and then soars as a whole. When
Michael Bennett held auditions for the original “A Chorus Line” in 1974, he
decided to get to know the dancers and singers through individual conversations
that he preserved on a two reel tape machine. When work began on the revival in
2006, James D. Stern and Adam del Deo intercut clips from these tapes with those
of the new auditions. The result is a wonderfully unfamiliar look inside the
audition process for a Broadway show.
When the open
call audition went out for the revival of “A Chorus Line” in 2006, 3000 dancers
showed up to stand in line in the rain. The tape reels spun while the filmmakers
explored the talents, insecurities, needs, and dreams that became the structure
for the new show. Bennett’s original gift to laymen is an unprecedented look
inside the audition process for the Broadway show that turned into his
masterpiece. This documentary is all about process, something we in the audience
rarely see. We applaud a finished product without knowing what went into it. In
every way, seeing the process enhances our appreciation of the finished show.
One dancer says, “It’s hard work; it takes your soul.” Now we know.
Why is it so
moving? Partly because we care about the dancers as they reveal themselves; we
envy their passion and ache when they don’t make it. Perhaps the primary reason
is that some of the people who worked with Michael Bennett in 1974 worked again
on the revival. With the stage revival more than three decades after the
original and now this movie, these former colleagues have paid personal tribute
to the legendary choreographer who died in 1978. They have opened a seam in the
Broadway process.
Bob Avian
choreographed the original with Bennett; Marvin Hamlisch is on stage to work
with his original score; and Baayork Lee, dancer (the original Connie in ’75),
choreographer, and former teacher of Michael Bennett is present in all those
roles. When she starts a countdown in the chaos that surrounds her, a dance
snaps to perfect life.
Ms. Lee is a bundle of electrical wires that come together in perfect focus on the dancers she is trying to help at the moment. It isn’t surprising that a well of good will flows from her, from Mr. Avian and Mr. Hamlisch. They are all winners, all pros, and they know the agonies of audition. They know the delicacies just beneath the surface of the dancers and singers and they teach only with encouragement.
When Jason Tam nails his audition as Paul, he steps right into the hearts of the
judges who knew Michael Bennett so well and have lived with the play for so
long. Some of their colleagues are gone – Bennett and Joe Papp among them – but
their shadows stand marvelously over this uplifting movie not in sadness but in
creative triumph.
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