If you were around during the ’80s, chances are you remember spandex, tube socks and a limber group of big-haired dancers from “A Chorus Line.”
The show, which is the longest-running Broadway show produced in the United States, tells the story of a group of 19 dancers who sing, jump, kick and shimmy their hearts out to get a part in a Broadway production. The show won nine Tony Awards and the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 1985, director Richard Attenborough adapted the production for a movie of the same name, staring Michael Douglas as Zach, the director.
The production weaves the dancers’ stories into their audition performances. In “At the Ballet,” aging dancer Sheila Bryant reveals that ballet was her escape from an unhappy childhood. The character Paul San Marco is a gay Puerto Rican who wrestles with his sexuality in “Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love.” And, in “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three,” Val Clark tells about what it took for her to get a part, finally.
In the end only eight dancers make the cut, but everyone joins together in the finale singing the famous song “One.”
See “A Chorus Line” at 7:30 p.m., April 20 and 21, at Thalia Mara Hall (225 E. Pascagoula St.). Tickets are available at http://www.ticketmaster.com.
