Currently running at the London Palladium.
The London cast of A Chorus Line. Picture: Roy Tan
A major London revival of the iconic Broadway musical that is A Chorus Line has been a long time coming for those of us who weren’t around to catch the original West End production in 1976.
Sadly, as the programme credits so poignantly point out, most of the original creative team are no longer with us. Since the premature death of visionary director/choreographer Michael Bennett in 1987, the theatre community has also lost the show’s librettists James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, lyricist Edward Kleban and, only last year, composer Marvin Hamlisch (to whom the current producers wish to pay tribute).
Fortunately, though, Bob Avian (who stood beside Bennett as co-choreographer on the original Broadway staging) is on hand to direct with a true flair and a deep respect for the concept his former colleague so carefully nurtured.
There is no attempt to relocate the piece anywhere but backstage at a New York theatre in 1975. Sure, this means that occasionally some of the dialogue seems a little contrived or dated. Casual mentions of homosexuality that may have turned heads nearly 40 years ago are hardly shocking now, but who wants them contemporised? Once the longest-running show on Broadway, A Chorus Line is a slice of theatrical history and it is just as thrilling to see the show as originally intended as it would be with a classic straight play or opera.
Lisa Martland
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