Pictures: Marc Brenner    

A Chorus Line

Birmingham Hippodrome

*****

A group of nobodies on an empty stage auditioning for roles in the chorus, the bottom rung of the musical pyramid, for an unnamed show might not seem like theatre magic, but in the hands of director Nikolai Foster that’s what you get – and then some.

It was a groundbreaking musical back in 1975 with no stars, no traditional storyline, no big numbers, yet it grabbed hold of people, drawing them into a world of theatre they never saw or felt any emotional pull for, holding the record of Broadway’s longest running production for some 22 years.

This superb revival has that same appeal, that same ability to make the seemingly mundane on an empty stage spectacular.

Zach, played by Adam Cooper

It would be hard to find a more precarious profession than theatre, with 90 per cent said to be unemployed at any one time, and A Chorus Line feeds on that desperation. When an audition comes up a disparate group of hoofers line up bright eyed and worried tailed and we start with 24 put through their rapid paces by director Zach, played by Adam Cooper, and his assistant choreographer Larry, played by Ashley-Jordan Packer.

The process is brutal, dancers are called by number not name as the 24 are quickly culled to 17. The business like Zach then decides they can all dance, but he wants to know why they dance and who they are as he works towards his target of four men and four women for his final chorus line, meaning nine of the group are already doomed.

Zach calls them out to tell their stories starting with Mike, a remarkably athletic Redmand Rance, one of 12 children who learned to dance at his sister’s dance lessons, then there is Bobby (Toby Seddon) who jokes his way through life – and we are not quite sure whether setting his brother on fire was a joke – but it hides an unhappy childhood.

Amy Thornton’s Sheila is the hardnosed, in yer face, don’t mess with me one, until she reveals her mother, who wanted to be a dancer, married young and her father neither liked nor loved either her or her mother, who he stopped from dancing. Sheila took to ballet at six as an escape, a similar ballet route taken by Maggie (Kate Parr) and Bebe (Lydia Bannister) in At The Ballet.

Then we have Katie Lee’s Kristine . . . ah, Kristine who is no mean dancer, but let’s say her singing leaves a little to be desired – such as the right notes or even something approaching a tune. Her sentences are completed by husband Al (Joshua Lay) in a fun Sing.

Mark Anthony (Archie Durrant) is the youngest and tells of his first wet dream, which might not have been what Zach was really looking for, but there you go, and it does give other dancers a chance to sing about their own adolescence, that sometimes difficult journey from child to adult, with Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love.

Connie, she’s the little one over there, played by Rachel Jayne Picar, moans bout being short while Diana (Jocasta Almgill) remembers her dire high school acting classes with Nothing. We have Don (Louie Wood) and his first job, Greg (Bradley Delarosbel) finding he was homosexual and Richie (Mireia Mambo) almost became a teacher.

Then there is Val, silicon valleyed, as one might say, Val, played by Chloe Saunders. Val was a brilliant dancer but had one, or perhaps to be more accurate, two failings as she saw it, so turned to plastic surgery and silicon implants to improve both her confidence and career prospects, related in Dance 10, Looks 3.

You feel for Cassie, danced by Carly Mercedes Dyer. Back trying for a part in a chorus, the big star who rose from the crowd as a rising star only for her light to dim, with the harsh realisation that she wasn’t good enough, wasn’t star material, wanting to return to where she started, a return home. It didn't help that Zach was the one who made her a star and the pair had history.

Then there is Paul, sad, lonely, lost Paul played by Manuel Pacific, ending up in a drag act and both loved and disowned by his parents. He is to collapse as the audition continues which sees the remaining dancers question what they will do when they can no longer be dancers which leads to a quite moving What I did for Love, the classic song from the show, sung quite beautifully by Jocasta Almgill.

Zach picks his chorus and those that didn’t make it leave, the stage clears and Zach leaves the traditional theatre ghost light, left so the theatre’s ghosts can see to perform on the empty stage in an empty theatre.

A surgically enhanced  Val, played by Chloe Saunders, centre, with  Redmand Rance as Mike and Rachel Jayne Picar as 4ft 10in Connie

The chorus are an essential element of any musical yet they hardly ever get a mention and never by name, yet here they are afforded a spectacular finale, with no individuals, no stars, no rejections, 17 dancers, all dressed the same in shimmering gold with fireworks and glitter, dancing as One.

With no scenery apart from mirrors Grace Smart’s set cleverly conveys and emphasises what it is, an empty stage in an empty theatre with the excellent seven piece band under musical director Matthew Spalding, hidden at the back of a truck of scenery travel cases at the rear of the vast Hippodrome stage.

Howard Hudson’s lighting is given free rein and is always full of interest with rigs raising and lowering from the flies, some quite stunning highlighting and it creates its own ballet of light in Cassie’s solo The Music and the Mirror with different spots in turn following her movement.

As the musical is essentially about an audition for dancers the choreography can hardly be seen to be run of the mill and Ellen Kane does not disappoint. Every trick in the book comes out and some of the clever routines are just a sheer joy to watch.

The musical has its 50th birthday next year, but it is still as relevant today as it was back in 1975, there are still far more wannabes than Iamabes and more are added every year as graduates from stage schools, academies and pretty well every university add to the band of hopefuls. It is a sobering thought that one study has found just two percent of actors make a living from their profession. So it really is doing it for love in most cases.

The auditions continue at the Hippodrome to 14-09-24.

Roger Clarke

10-09-24 

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