The Randy Report: Happy 40th Birthday A Chorus Line!

Think of the theater history made 40 years ago today when A Chorus Line opened off-Broadway at the Public Theater on April 16, 1975.

How to write about a show so special it would go on to move uptown to Broadway and win every major theater award possible including 8 Tony Awards, 7 Drama Desk Awards and the Pulitzer Prize?

Every thing about the show was new and fresh. From the stark realism of the "audition" setting, to the exuberant and cinematic choreography, to the raw and emotional performances that anyone who's ever applied for a job could relate to.

Give me somebody to dance for, give me somebody to show. Let me wake up in the morning to find I have somewhere exciting to go...

I can remember listening to the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the show in my bedroom in Fort Worth, Texas, at age 12. What I would give to recapture the awe and images conjured in my mind listening for the first time to songs like "What I Did For Love," "At The Ballet," and "The Music and the Mirror." Did I really understand it? No. But I was organically drawn to the material.

There's a lot I am not certain of. Hello twelve, hello thirteen, hello love.

I had just begun my journey as a performer, with no clue that 10 years later I would perform in my first professional production of the show. And just a few years after that I would be in a National Touring company of the show with the original star and Tony Award winner Donna McKechnie.

(True story - I got the offer for the tour via my "phone service" at the time. I called the casting folks from the subway. They made the offer and said "take a day and think about the offer." I said, "I'll take it." They said, "No, feel free to think about it." And I said even more emphatically, "I'LL TAKE IT! MARK ME DOWN AS YES!" Can you imagine saying "no" to doing A Chorus Line with Donna McKechnie???)

The show became very important to me, as I think it does everyone who's ever stood on that line. It is a show about "us." We may not know who we are, but we know it's about us.

Who am I anyway? Am I my resume? That is a picture of a person I don't know.

It was one of those shows that just "fit" me. From my first rehearsal I felt so comfortable with the steps; with the concept; with the music; with the open, honest approach of the stories.

I made sure it was the first show I ever saw on Broadway. A breathless experience. I'll never forget how it moved so fast. Number after number. It just kept coming at you.

Kind of like life.

After two National touring companies, twice I almost replaced in the Broadway company. But fate had other plans.

The sweetness and the sorrow.

I went on to be in other Broadway shows I never dreamed of. And that's a part of the life of a Broadway dancer.

But the show continued to impact my life as I performed the show under the direction of many original cast members. And eventually, I passed that wisdom on in companies I've staged. I think at last count, I've put 9 companies on the boards across the country; the most recent being last summer at Sacramento Music Circus.

Over the years I got to know and work with many of the original cast members: Donna McKechnie, Thommie Walsh, Baayork Lee, Kay Cole, Priscilla Lopez, Kelly Bishop and more. Can you imagine? What a gift. All of them sharing this tribal experience.

Wish me luck, the same to you.

I always loved hearing what the "originals" had to say about the show and how to approach it. I hate to say "how it should be done" because the one constant in every "original's" recounting was that Michael Bennett - the original director/choreographer - always brought the focus back to each performer. And each replacement got that respect. Because THAT's what the show was about - the individuals who make up the chorus of a Broadway musical.

We're all special. He's special, she's special. And Sheila, and Richie and Connie. They're all special.

If a new cast member had a different line reading or thought on a line, they didn't have to just regurgitate their predecessors performance.

So, when I stage the show now, I let every cast and creative team member know that while I want to honor the integrity of the show, and the choreography will be as close to the original as possible, it's important to not get caught up in starting on this foot or that foot. The tiny details that everyone might swear they know as the "original" way, but no one seems to have a flawless memory of what it really, really was. The point is the intention behind it. It's about US.

Gone. Love is never gone. As we travel on, love's what we'll remember.

And that lesson informs me now every time I approach a new production. It's never "what was this?" It's "what is this about?"

And ultimately, it's about "what we did for love."

Happy birthday A Chorus Line.