Every Little Step

By Angie Bedford

Every Little Step

It has been nearly 35 years since the groundbreaking musical A Chorus Line opened on Broadway.

A Chorus Line went on to deliver over 6000 performances, bagging nine Tony Awards and the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Drama along the way.
 
Despite a fairly average 1985 film adaptation, A Chorus Line lives on for its insight into the motivations and journeys of 19 Broadway ‘gypsies’. 

In 2006, original co-choreographer Bob Avian took on the task of directing a Broadway revival, supported by Baayork Lee (the original ‘Connie’) who recreated the choreography.

Every Little Step is a documentary film that chronicles the process of casting this revival of A Chorus Line – forget Australian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, this is an agonising year long process to whittle 3000 hopefuls down to 19.

Every Little Step is life imitating art, and a worthy tribute to A Chorus Line.

Directors and Producers Adam Del Deo and James D. Stern beautifully weave the audition experience with the journey in A Chorus Line itself, and parallel the revival process with the original conception.

In 1975, noted dancer Michael Bennett sat down for hours with Broadway dancers, recording their stories that vary from the hilarious to the heartbreaking.

It is wonderful to hear these actual tapings, and see them realised in song and monologue by hopeful revival auditionees.

As the revival audition process climaxes at the final call backs and casting, it is hard not to be moved with applause for those who succeed and sympathy for others who just miss out on their dream role – Every Little Step highlights these performers as the modern gypsies.

Every Little Step also features interviews with the key players of the original show’s workshopping, including Avian, original cast members Lee and Donna McKechnie (‘Cassie’), and composer Marvin Hamlisch, who all share their insight into the intriguing and deeply personal developmental process of A Chorus Line.

Fans of the show will especially enjoy hearing both amazing and disastrous interpretations of Hamlisch’s classics such as Dance Ten, Looks Three and At the Ballet.

I loved the use of I Hope I Get It as the revival auditionees speculated on the casting panel’s thought process.

More than the average documentary, Every Little Step succeeds in many ways – the audience is given an insight into the bare beginnings to glamorous fruition of Broadway, as well as into the lives of the modern day gypsies, desperate for their big break, final hurrah or next meal.

Every Little Step reiterates the relevance of the individuals who all form A Chorus Line.

Every Little Step is a must see for the theatre savvy or novice. Audiences will be hooked by this thoughtful exploration into Broadway.

4 out of 5

Every Little Step
Australian release: 2nd July, 2009
Official Site: Every Little Step
Cast: Bob Avian, Michael Bennett, Charlotte d'Amboise, Jacques d'Amboise
Director: Adam Del Deo and James D. Stern