Dancers Behind A CHORUS LINE Sold Their Life Stories for $1

In an excerpt from his new book "Razzle Dazzle The Battle for Broadway", writer Michael Riedel discusses the origins of the iconic Broadway musical A CHORUS LINE.

Riedel reveals that back in January 1974, Michael Bennett had sat down with Broadway dancers at the Nickolaus Exercise Centers in New York City to record stories of their theater experiences. The director ultimately shared the tapes with Joseph Papp, the head of the Public Theater, in order to pitch his revolutionary idea for a new Broadway musical. According to the book, after listening to the recordings for just 45 minutes, Papp exclaimed, "OK, let's do it."

Explains choreographer Tony Stevens of the dancers chosen for the show, "We wanted the biggest cross section possible so that we could try to find what the common experience was." He adds, "And Michael wanted some enemies in the room, so there were rivals there, people who had histories that were not so great."

Riedel reports the shocking news that the dancers who participated in the tapings waived their rights to their life stories for a dollar each and agreed that if their stories were chosen, their names would be changed. Years later, when the show became a bona fide hit on the Great White Way, Bennett drew up a contract that gave a share of his royalties to the dancers. At the peak of its Broadway run, the royalties earned approximately $10,000 for each dancer.

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With music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban and a book by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante, A CHORUS LINE centered on seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line, the musical is set on the bare stage of a Broadway theatre during an audition for a musical.

Following several workshops and an Off-Broadway production, A Chorus Line opened at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway July 25, 1975, directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett. An unprecedented box office and critical hit, the musical received twelve Tony Award nominations and won nine, in addition to the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The original Broadway production ran for 6,137 performances, becoming the longest-running production in Broadway history until surpassed by Cats in 1997, and the longest-running Broadway musical originally produced in the US, until surpassed in 2011 by Chicago. It remains the sixth longest-running Broadway show ever. A Chorus Line's success has spawned many successful productions worldwide. It began a lengthy run in the West End in 1976 and was revived on Broadway in 2006, and in the West End in 2013.

Source: The New York Post

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