'A Chorus Line' opens at Manatee Performing Arts Center
Not too many people anywhere know and love "A Chorus Line" better than Dewayne Barrett. He estimates that he has performed the show 1,700 times, all around the country. He rattled off a list of the characters he's played in various productions, and it includes about half of the male characters.
"I got to perform it in Michael Bennett's home town, Buffalo, N.Y.," Barrett said. "I got to meet his mother."
There's still a hint of awe in his voice, and he talks about visiting people and places that Bennett, the Broadway legend who choreographed and directed "A Chorus Line" back in 1975, knew as a child.
Now Barrett is directing and choreographing "A Chorus Line" himself. He's at the helm of the new Manatee Players production that opens this week. He's also playing Zach, the director for whom the show's characters are auditioning.
Forty-one years ago, few people would have predicted that "A Chorus Line" would have become a popular and critical hit of unprecedented proportions. It was a designed as an Off-Broadway show that looks at the lives of rank-and-file theater performers, the ones whose characters didn't have names and who sang and danced in unison a few feet behind the big stars.
"They didn't even know it was going to be a show," said Kathryn Parks, who plays Cassie in the Manatee Players production. "They gathered together all these performers and asked them about their lives. And their stories became the show."
The show has 17 young and aspiring Broadway performers audition for eight ensemble roles in an upcoming show. The director asks each of them to talk about themselves and their lives, which often turn out to be heartbreaking. It was thematically unlike anything else in the musical theater scene of its time.
"You have to look at it in the context of the '70s," Parks said. "Usually shows were, like, boy-meets-girl. This is nothing like that."
Bennett's choreography was "perfect for its time," she said, and Barrett is replicating Bennett's choreography as closely as possible.
The choreography is in
tricate, Barrett said, and it has to be performed perfectly. If one person missteps, all the dancers in the show can tumble like a line of dominoes.
Fortunately he said, his large cast is up for the challenge.
The original staging of "A Chorus Line" had a few months of an Off-Broadway run before its success led to a move to Broadway. It ran for more than 6,000 performances, and it was the longest-running show on Broadway for years, until "Cats" surpassed its record. (Barrett, coincidentally, also directed the Manatee Players production of "Cats" earlier this season.)
"A Chorus Line" won nine Tony Awards out of the 12 it was nominated for, including wins for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical (James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante), best original score (Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban), Best Direction of a Musical (Bennett) and Best Choreography (Bennett and Bob Avian). It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was adapted into a film that most people who love the stage musical didn't like.
But for people who love the "A Chorus Line," Barrett said, the Manatee Players production will not disappoint.
"I love this cast," he said. "And one great thing is that they're all age-appropriate. A lot of times in community you don't get to do that. You end up with someone who's 35 playing a 20-year old. We have a great young cast."
Details: Jan. 7-24, Stone Hall at the Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 Third Ave. W., Bradenton. Show times: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $27-$37. Information: 941-748-5875, manateeperformingartscenter.com.
Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.
This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 5:06 PM with the headline "'A Chorus Line' opens at Manatee Performing Arts Center ."