‘A Chorus Line’ Group D: Hoffman
An excerpt from The Great White Way, Benetton of Musicals
This excerpt gives the audience a great amount of background history about the musical ‘A Chorus Line’ and shows us how it all came to be in addition to how much it accomplished. First the excerpt begins with describing the magnificence of the musical, explaining how it was almost a fantasy, a dream, and an ideal piece of work. The musical had a great story line that, at the time, spoke to many people struggling in America. There was cultural, ethnic, gender, social, and sexual variations in the cast; this is the very attribute that made the musical one of the longest running musicals at its time. First the author, Warren Hoffman, spoke about the foundation of ‘A Chorus Line’ and how the plot was developed.
In January 1974, Michael Bennet had a midnight rap session where 20 dancers got together and spoke to him and each other about their biggest dreams, goals, fears, and disappointments. That rap session was insightful and inspiring. These talented dancers aren’t just dancers, but they are normal human being struggling in most cases to make ends meet just as we do. So, Bennet utilized that information to make a realistic fiction musical where hundreds of dancers all had to audition for only eight roles. However, Bennet brilliantly added a twist in the musical where unlike the dancers in the rap session, there would be no racial, gender, or sexual discrimination.
The Great White Way portion of the excerpt spoke mainly on how ‘A Chorus Line’ was truly a fantasy. Here we are in 1975 where there were still fights for civil, gender, and gay rights, but not in ‘A Chorus Line.’ Everyone had an equal chance in making it into the musical, it only depended on the level of skill you had and the level of transparency you showed during the interview. This was big step for 1975, a world where there was so much segregation, discrimination, and pure hatred. Out of the seventeen dancers there was one black man, Richie, and oddly while introducing himself to the contestants he ended with saying, “And I’m Black.” To the people auditioning it was humorous, but to the audience or the people watching the movie it was a powerful quote. Black people come from such a long way, in fact just a little over one hundred years before we would’ve have been slaves, and now 1975 on Broadway, not entirely free, but still succeeding.
The musical overall was a resplendent fantasy, it was liberating to see a world where people weren’t hated because of their bad looks, lack of talent, sexuality, their gender, but in fact we learned to embrace who we are and become better all around.
“The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical by Warren Hoffman.” Theatre Topics, vol. 24, no. 2, 2014, pp. 165–165., doi:10.1353/tt.2014.0013.
