EVERY LITTLE STEP

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One singular sensation of a movie!

Last night I went to the Landmark Harvard Exit movie theatre in Capitol Hill to see EVERY LITTLE STEP, the documentary about casting the revival of A CHORUS LINE.

FIrst of all, the Landmark Harvard Exit is one cool movie theatre! I'd never been before, and I almost drove right by it. The Landmark Harvard Exit is an old woman's club turned movie theatre.

From the theatre's website:

The theatre is located on a quaint, tree-lined street at the north end of Broadway, at Harvard and Roy on Seattle's Capitol Hill. The building in which The Harvard Exit currently resides was originally constructed as a clubhouse for The Woman's Century Club in 1925. The club continues to hold meetings in the lobby, although the building was sold in 1968 for conversion to a movie theatre. In the 1980s, a second auditorium was added in an unused ballroom space on the third floor of the building. One of the very first "art" theatres in Seattle, the Harvard Exit set the standard for the exhibition of independent film and foreign language cinema. Its large and glorious lobby retains a 1920s atmosphere, adorned with a fireplace, a grand piano and chandelier. A recent remodel adds a fully wheelchair accessible restroom on the main floor, expanded concession stand and an inside box office for those rainy Seattle nights.

I had seen the revival of A CHORUS LINE, so I was really excited to see the film. Also, a friend of a friend of ours, Natascia Diaz was figured prominently in the movie since it had come down to her and Charlotte D'Amboise for Cassie. I absolutely loved Natascia in JASQUES BREL at The Zipper.

What I didn't realize is how much footage we would get to see from the original 1975 production of A CHORUS LINE! As a "Hello 12, Hello 13" teenager I had lived and breathed that cast album (as a record of course) and sheet music when it was released, but had never seen the show until the revival in 2006.

Seeing Donna Mckechnie do The Music and The Mirror dance was unbelievable. She was other-worldly. Don't get me wrong, Charlotte D'Amboise was fantastic, but Donna Mckechnie defied description. You just have to see it. And she was just a wisp of a thing!


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It was really cool to seen the Director, Bob Avian, then (he had co-choreographed the original production) and now. He talked a lot about how casting was so difficult because besides the whole triple threat thing, the characters are really quite defined. You have a little bit of wiggle room in the type of person for each role, but not a lot. Marvin Hamlisch also provides commentary in the film and talks about the success of Dance Ten Looks Three only came when they changed the name to Dance Ten Looks Three from Tits and Ass. Giving away the joke of Tits and Ass in the title apparently killed the laughter. Also, in an earlier version of the show, Cassie doesn't get cast and the show got a lukewarm response from the audience. Once they changed the ending so Cassie got cast, they got standing ovations!

We also got to hear some of the the original tapes done by Michael Bennett with the original bunch of gypsies. This recording, done "one cold midnight" (January 18, 1974) was the material that spawned the characters and story lines for the final musical. Very, very cool.

The original Connie, Baayork Lee, was part of the creative team, and she was like a ball of energy. I loved the way she said the choreography for the opening number requires you to "eat nails". She was very particular about who got cast as Connie in the revival, and was hesitant to cast someone who people thought of as "cute"...as she says in the movie (and I paraphrase): "I'm not cute, I'm a survivor".

This casting process was incredibly drawn out ("four months later...eight months later") and must have been an incredible emotional journey for the dancers involved. When the director asks you to repeat the performance you gave four months ago and you honestly can't remember what it was you did, what do you do? The best you can. It was heart wrenching to see the ones who didn't get it, and incredibly uplifting to see the ones who did. What is also apparent is that there is a fine line between overly arrogant, and having good self esteem in such a tough, personal business. When is too much confidence a bad thing? You'll see in this movie.

And if you are wondering where to get your next pair of dance shoes, look no further than LaDuca's.

Kudos to everyone who came out for these auditions -- from the open call line up of people standing in the rain in New York's Time Square to the final recipients of the "you got it" calls.

This movie is a must see. So go see it. And hope they get it!




By Suzy Conn on July 2, 2009 12:28 PM | | Comments (0)


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