A Chorus Line

PG-13

Released Dec 10, 1985

1 hr. 53 min.

Musical

List

48%

44 Reviews

Tomatometer

61%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Hundreds of hopefuls congregate at a cattle call for Broadway dancers. A sour director, Zach (Michael Douglas), and his brusque assistant (Terrence Mann) whittle down the ranks until they're left with 16 dancers. All tell their life stories -- some tragic, some comic -- and explain their love of dance. Tension mounts when Cassie (Alyson Reed) -- once both a big star and the director's lover but now desperate for a part -- auditions. But Zach must choose only the best for his show.

Read More

Read Less

Prime Video

Apple TV

Rent A Chorus Line on Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Prime Video, Apple TV.

Critics Consensus

On stage, A Chorus Line pulled back the curtain to reveal the hopes and fears of showbiz strivers, but that energy and urgency is lost in the transition to the big screen.

Read Critics Reviews

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 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 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 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 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 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 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Richard Attenborough

Director

Michael Douglas

Zach

Terrence Mann

Larry

Audrey Landers

Val

Michael Blevins

Mark

Yamil Borges

Diana Morales

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

56%

69%

Tap

20%

39%

Shout

43%

88%

Sing

20%

50%

Mack the Knife

18%

71%

Graffiti Bridge

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Joe Pollack

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

I think the film version suffers badly by comparison, but more important, I think that even if there had been no stage production, the film would not have worked very well.

May 25, 2023

Full Review

Perry Stewart

Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com

Is it good? Yes. But is it, in the words of the finale, a "singular sensation?" Well, no, it isn't.

Rated: 3/4

May 25, 2023

Full Review

Bill Cosford

Miami Herald

A Chorus Line is overblown and self-conscious, a travesty upon its celebrated source material and, for a film about dancers, much too casual in recording their art. It is also one of the singular pleasures of this movie year.

May 25, 2023

Full Review

Bob Ross

Tampa Tribune

While conceding that the film medium cannot convey the same intensity as Michael Bennett's ingenious play, one still finds plenty of musical and emotional kicks in Richard Attenborough's conscientious screen adaptation.

Rated: 2.5/4

May 25, 2023

Full Review

Robert W. Butler

Kansas City Star

It lacks the stunning theatricality of the stage production, but it is reasonably diverting and every now and then lit up by flashes of genuine excitement.

Rated: 3/4

May 25, 2023

Full Review

Richard Freedman

Newhouse News Service

On film, it has its own -- often glittering -- pleasures to offer, suggesting a less original All That Jazz merged with a less frenetic Fame.

May 25, 2023

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

Hundreds of hopefuls congregate at a cattle call for Broadway dancers. A sour director, Zach (Michael Douglas), and his brusque assistant (Terrence Mann) whittle down the ranks until they're left with 16 dancers. All tell their life stories -- some tragic, some comic -- and explain their love of dance. Tension mounts when Cassie (Alyson Reed) -- once both a big star and the director's lover but now desperate for a part -- auditions. But Zach must choose only the best for his show.

Director: Richard Attenborough
Executive Producer: Gordon Stulberg
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia Pictures
Production Co: PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Musical
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 10, 1985, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 8, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $14.2M
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo

Most Popular at Home Now