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He recalls his first experience with dance, watching his sister Rosalie's dance class when he was a preschooler ("I Can Do That"). The first candidate, Mike Costa, explains that he is the youngest of 12 children. The stories generally progress chronologically from early life experiences through adulthood to the end of a career. Reluctantly, the dancers reveal their pasts.
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Wanting to learn more about them, he asks the dancers to introduce themselves. Zach tells them he is looking for a strong 8-member dancing chorus of four boys and four girls. After a round of cuts, 17 dancers remain. Every dancer is desperate for work ("I Hope I Get It"). The formidable director Zach and his assistant choreographer Larry put the 24 dancers through their paces. The show opens during an audition for an upcoming Broadway production. It began a lengthy run in the West End in 1976 and was revived on Broadway in 2006, and in the West End in 2013.
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A Chorus Line 's success has spawned many successful productions worldwide. It remains the seventh longest-running Broadway show ever.
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The original Broadway production ran for 6,137 performances, becoming the longest-running production in Broadway history until surpassed by Cats in 1997, and the longest-running Broadway musical originally produced in the US, until surpassed in 2011 by the revival of Chicago. An unprecedented box office and critical hit, the musical received twelve Tony Award nominations and won nine, in addition to the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A Chorus Line provides a glimpse into the personalities of the performers and the choreographer, as they describe the events that have shaped their lives and their decisions to become dancers.įollowing several workshops and an Off-Broadway production, A Chorus Line opened at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway July 25, 1975, directed by Michael Bennett and co-choreographed by Bennett and Bob Avian. Set on the bare stage of a Broadway theater, the musical is centered on seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. A Chorus Line is a 1975 musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and a book by James Kirkwood Jr.
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