A Chorus Line

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Autumn M A Chorus Line is the story of a group of Broadway-hopefuls all competing for the coveted spots in a chorus line. The audience learns about each person's backstory and what has inspired them to dance. It felt a bit like a bottle episode. The songs were okay, but I really do not understand how they could have built an entire musical around an audition. I just was not impressed. Not recommended. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 12/10/23 Full Review Robert C Lost the edge of the Broadway show. Far too artsy-fartsy. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 11/21/23 Full Review Joel H At the beginning of A Chorus Line, the director says, "since I need great dancers, I can't expect you all to be great actors." That seems to hold true with this film adaptation of the Broadway musical. The cast is full of talented dancers, but the acting was hit and miss. I didn't connect with any the characters, either. They all seemed like miserable people leading miserable lives. And we're supposed to be happy for those who were cast in the show, but I just felt bad for them. Also, what was Michael Douglas doing in this movie? I guess one, singularly sensational song doesn't make a musical great. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 11/03/23 Full Review Gerald O I really liked this movie a lot. Granted, I never saw the stage play, but this movie stands alone with the dancing, the drama and the singing. I really don't see how the critics could give this movie such a low score. So totally unfair and so completely inaccurate. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/05/23 Full Review Mike P A notorious misfire. This was supposed to be an iconic, ultimate backstage musical about Broadway. About the love of theatre itself; a peaon to actors who masochistically sacrifice everything following it's sirens song in slavish devotion to it; and in particular to the dancers that make up a chorus line. This show was a legend before Attenborough got to it. And yet this adaptation was so bad it made people question the original source material in the first place; (you know you've failed when that happens; I'm looking at you Cats!) This source material which was a huge smash: a phenomenon infact for the Sam S Schubert theater where it originated in 75, helped launch Broadway into a new era of adult oriented theater; won both a Tony and a Pulitzer prize. But the problem here really is the script. It doesn't work. This just isn't compelling enough. Examining the hopes of and dreams of audutionees in a dance show is a big so what? It's meh. Fame did the same thing 5 years earlier, much more effectively. Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (which ironically also features Chorus Line creator Michael Bennett) was a much more stunning, incisive and moving peaon to the life of a Broadway dancer. Another problem is like why is Zack terrorizing all these dancers into spilling their guts? What does that have to do with anything? In the original 1975 production Bennett started a series of workshops at the Sam S. Shubert Theater where he interviewed dancers to get to the heart of their experience; with an understanding that the most moving would be featured in this live workshop show called a Chorus Line. The auditioners understood that: the audience understood that; and saw this show for what it was; a real documentary and expose type show; taking alot of the real dialogue and conversations that happened back then; and alot of the real life stories; and characters, based on real-life people; and fashioning it into a real workshop show; it was kind of like reality tv for Broadway. So we understood why the director was grilling his actors; because Bennett himself was creating realty-tv type theater; and so it made sense; and also knowing that the actors in the show were mostly playing themselves, saying things they had originally said in the audition, gave it a thrilling level of realism never before seen in the theater. But Attenborough seems to have missed this point; as these are just actors reciting lines that were written for them; this isn't authentically them; and the audience is aware of that. The point is none of it really works. It's boring, trite; no more fascinating than your average American Idol or Masked Singer episode; which have come to replace this show anyway for that fly-on-the-wall ultimate backstage experience. Honestly you'd be better off watching any other backstage musical: All that Jazz; Fame, 42nd Street, even Bennett's own Dreamgirls is a much better backstage musical experience than this is. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 06/26/23 Full Review Audience Member I had to immediately go to the original cast album to get the sound of this gutless wimp of a production. None of them can *really* sing. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Read all reviews

A Chorus Line

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