Review: A FABULOUS 50TH Celebrates CHICAGO and A CHORUS LINE Golden Anniversary

In the summer of 1975, a remarkable, historic coincidence happened on Broadway that saw the birth of two iconic musicals opening in the same season, just mere blocks from each other: CHICAGO, the vaudeville-inspired stage musical directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, and A CHORUS LINE, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the longest-running musicals of all time originally directed and co-choreographed by Michael Bennett. 

Since the time of their debuts, both groundbreaking musicals have become two of Broadway's most ubiquitous shows, with each musical producing some of the most beloved and most memorable songs ever created for the Broadway stage. CHICAGO, of course, features music by John Kander and Fred Ebb while A CHORUS LINE features music by Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban.

This shared milestone—their golden anniversary—is the raison d'être for Segerstrom Center for the Arts' incredibly entertaining one-night-only concert entitled A FABULOUS 50th! BROADWAY'S MOST LEGENDARY SEASON, which was recently performed at the Center's Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on the evening of Friday, April 18, 2025. 

Produced and curated by Spot-On Entertainment, the retrospective tribute concert—hosted, directed, and produced by NYC cabaret staple and walking Broadway encyclopedia Scott Coulter—featured a roster of amazing talents that included Tony Award nominees Tony Yazbeck (ON THE TOWN, CHICAGO, FINDING NEVERLAND) and OC native Eden Espinosa (WICKED, RENT, BROOKLYN, LEMPICKA). The cast also included Max Clayton (THE MUSIC MAN, MOULIN ROUGE!, CHICAGO), Jason Graae (A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING, FALSETTOS, WICKED), and Stephanie Jae Park (HAMILTON, THE KING AND I), and NYC Cabaret stars Klea Blackhurst and Carole J. Bufford. 

A FABULOUS 50TH also featured a very special extra treat with the appearance of Kay Cole, the actress who played the role of Maggie in the original production of A CHORUS LINE fifty years ago! The vocalists were all accompanied by pianist John Boswell and the "Fabulous 50" Pops orchestra conducted by Grammy Award winner Rob Istad.

CHICAGO and A CHORUS LINE, of course, could not be any more different in terms of style and content, but both shows are quintessential products of their era, marked by memorable music, vividly fleshed-out characters, and iconic dances that still resonate today and, arguably, have inspired the many musicals that followed in their wake.

While CHICAGO is a ribald, vaudeville-flavored, Bob Fosse pulp fantasy dreamscape set in the Roaring 20's that explores themes of fame, corruption, and the criminal justice system, A CHORUS LINE offers an intimate, often emotionally-introspective look into the lives of Broadway dancers auditioning for a spot in the chorus of a new musical and opening up about their personal lives, leading to a series of heartfelt monologues and musical numbers. The two shows' common thread, however, lies in the way each presents the line between truth and performance blurring, and how the pursuit of fame and infamy involves sacrifice or struggle or both.

The Segerstrom concert program began with a rousing overture featuring a medley of CHICAGO's signature tunes played by the assembled local orchestra followed by a steady stream of awesome performances that showcased not only the genius compositions of each show's respective composers but also the magnificent talents of the concert's ensemble. 

The show kicked things off with a couple of CHICAGO numbers, with Bufford—sporting the perfect Roxie Hart pixie cut—up first singing a rousing "All That Jazz" while accompanied by Clayton recreating Fosse's signature sultry dance moves across the stage with the widest of smiles, followed by the smiley Yazbeck with a terrific rendition of "All I Care About Is Love" sounding like a quintessential old school crooner.

Next, Espinosa sang a lovely, piano-accompanied version of "Nothing" from A CHORUS LINE, though I wish the entire orchestra could've joined her in the song to fill out the sounds missing from the original orchestrations.

Coulter—who came on periodically to not only introduce each artist (or sing with them) but to also dispense interesting factoids about the Broadway shows and personalities mentioned in the program—divulged that though CHICAGO and A CHORUS LINE got the most attention during that historic 1975 season, other outstanding shows also showed up alongside them.

One of these shows was THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM, a seldom-produced bluegrass-influenced musical featuring music and lyrics by Alfred Uhry whose original run on Broadway ran only a measly 14 performances. After a year long national tour, however, the show did return to NYC in a heavily revamped version that stayed much longer at 145 performances. That show's original 14-show run—most people tend to forget—featured a much younger Patti LuPone in one of her early Broadway roles, which also happened to be the one that earned her the first of her many career Tony Award nominations (she lost out to future Gilmore Girls star Kelly Bishop from A CHORUS LINE). 

For this 50th anniversary retrospective, Park was given the honor to sing LuPone's song from the show "Sleepy Man," which Park performed fabulously, adding her own gorgeous modern riffs to the song.

Next, it's back to CHICAGO for a pair of songs, one familiar and another not so much. First, Graae brought comedic hilarity to a deleted song called "Ten Percent," which didn't make it to the final Broadway iteration of the show. As sung by a theatrical agent character that was also cut from the show (it was folded into the Mama Morton character), Graae added some extra showmanship to the very funny song. This was followed by a fierce rendition of "When You're Good to Mama" sung by Blackhurst who earned very loud cheers for the fab performance. I have to say her voice sounded absolutely perfect as Mama Morton.

Then the cast's energetic boys came back for a pair of A CHORUS LINE tunes: first with Yazbeck on "I Can Do That" with added smile-inducing dance interludes followed by a lone, but beaming Clayton doing "One" dressed in a sharp tux doing memorable moves. Again, I have to ask… why no orchestra accompaniment for these Hamlisch songs? I think both needed that—and the orchestra was, like, right there.

And then, in one of the evening's most memorable highlights, Coulter introduced original A CHORUS LINE cast member Kay Cole, who gave the audience some insider notes about playing the original Maggie, one of the three ladies featured in the emotionally heart-tugging "At The Ballet," which she reprised for the concert, albeit by herself (her particular sequence in the trio involved dancing in her childhood living room with her dad).

"Do it a little higher!" she recalled being urged by both director Bennett and composer Hamlisch when it came to tackling her stratospherically ascending notes on the pre-instrumental climax song. Remarkably, she recreated her high notes for this anniversary concert and she sounded fantastic—a feat that would be rewarded with a much-deserved standing ovation, which took Cole adorably by surprise (and now I gotta dig up the original cast album and re-listen to how she sounded fifty years ago).

The concert then shifted to a section that highlighted other significant songs from other properties written by the trio of composers being honored at the show. 

First, Bufford, Coulter, and Park did an excellent job revisiting the memorable title song from the film The Way We Were, which earned Hamlisch two music Academy Awards in 1973 (Best Original Song and Best Motion Picture Score). Then Espinosa walked in from the wings barefoot (carrying her shoes daintily) before giving it her divalicious best in "Ring Them Bells," a song from Liza Minnelli's groundbreaking 1972 TV concert film Liza with a Z  that featured an entire songbook composed by Kander and Ebb (coincidentally, Hamlisch served as the broadcast's music coordinator). Espinosa's lively rendition involved wonderful phrasing and, as expected, spectacular belting!

Next came Park and Coulter singing a duet of Carly Simon's 1977 Oscar-nominated "Nobody Does It Better," from the tenth James Bond action film The Spy Who Loved Me written By Hamlisch and then-girlfriend Carole Bayer Sager, followed by Graae with the very playful "They're Playing My Song," from the 1978 Broadway musical THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG which featured a book by Neil Simon, lyrics by Sager, and music by Hamlisch—loosely based on the real-life working/romantic relationship between Sager and Hamlisch.

Coulter then re-introduced Blackhurst to sing a song from the last musical theatre project that Hamlisch worked on before his death, a stage musical adaptation of THE NUTTY PROFESSOR featuring book and lyrics by Rupert Holmes. Blackhurst herself was in the cast of the show's 2012 trial production in Nashville (directed by Nutty Professor actor Jerry Lewis himself), so it seemed appropriate that she got to revisit the song her character sings in the second act, a beautifully introspective ballad called "While I Still Have Time," which she performed gracefully.

Clayton and his power pipes then kicked off a suite of Kander and Ebb's greatest hits, starting with the title song from their 1993 Tony Award-winning KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (soon to be released as a big-screen adaptation produced and starring Jennifer Lopez), followed by a pair of 11 o'clock-caliber numbers from the duo's greatest early success, 1966's CABARET: first with Bufford's exhilarating, highly theatrical performance of the title song, followed by an absolutely spectacular rendition of "Maybe This Time" by Espinosa (reminding one and all why she is still considered one of the best actresses to ever don the pointy hat of Elphaba on Broadway).

To cap off the glorious, tuneful evening, the sparkly, adorable pair of Yazbeck and Clayton gleefully entered to recreate step-for-step Fosse's signature choreography from the CHICAGO finalé "Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag" (to an explosion of cheers) backed by the voices of the entire cast. And as a fitting, emotionally-heightened closer, the entire cast flanked A CHORUS LINE original cast member Kay Cole who provided endearing lead vocals in the show's memorable theme "What I Did For Love," which was just a beautiful way to end the tribute concert. From where I sat, many were buzzing about how remarkable Cole sounded fifty years after her debut in that groundbreaking Hamlisch-composed musical.

Overall, this exquisite concert was truly one of the most entertaining musical showcases I have seen on this stage, providing the audience with an inspired collaboration of vocal and orchestral performances.

Cast headshots courtesy of Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

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Tickets to upcoming performances of Segerstrom Center for the Arts' 2025-2026 Headliners Series can be purchased online at www.SCFTA.org, by phone at 714-556-2787 or in person at the SCFTA box office (open daily at 10 am). Segerstrom Center for the Arts is located at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa.

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