The musical happens to be a genre with which I have a conflicted relationship. A usual champion of camp films or campy genres, the musical has always felt like camp disguised as haute couture to me. Not surprisingly, my preferred musicals happen to be in the strange/demented vein of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Hedwig & the Angry Inch (2001), or 8 Women (2002). Sometimes I will be surprised and fall in love with something a little less campy and more art-house, such as Les Chansons D’Amour (2007). And I love French musicals like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), and I can stomach fare like A Star Is Born (1954) – the Judy Garland version—because I can patiently wait for any number of song sequences to be over before we can sanely resume the plot. As for Broadway musicals, I tend to avoid them, relating them in my mind to the monstrous, exaggerated pretension of the Hollywood studio system---a lot of repetitive themes with often not a lot of bang for your buck. Plus, I sometimes find musicals making me feel anxious or embarrassed for the performers due to the extreme melodrama of the exaggerated necessity in which the musical was created. Sadly, my boyfriend’s favorite musical happens to be A Chorus Line, and we happened to sit down and watch Richard Attenborough’s 1985 film version, starring Michael Douglas. The ‘sadly’ adverb refers to the fact that I didn’t end up being a fan, though there were several aspects of the film I could enjoy and appreciate. My main problem with the film (and I have never seen this live, on stage---though I could tell that I may have enjoyed it more in this format) was Michael Douglas, seemingly plopped into the mix as the theater director for box office value, and also the character of Cassie, the Douglas character’s love interest. Cassie, the seemingly intelligent woman with extreme dancing talent who unwisely flies into NYC to be late for a chorus line audition for a show her ex-boyfriend is directing because she is so desperate for work and has no place to stay---yeah, I had a problem with her.
Anyhow, we caught the documentary, now playing in select cities, Every Little Step (2008), which is basically about how A Chorus Line originally came to fruition, and it also documents a recent Broadway revival that charts the complete auditioning process, itself a mirror of the show’s content, creating some delicious ironies and dynamics (such as one of the original cast members heading choreography for the new cast) that most fictional films would love to have. Strangely, I walked away feeling much more touched by this little documentary than the 1985 film version. Except for one moment where the old queens running the show go ga-ga over the young man auditioning for Paul (the troubled gay youth), whose audition is a little over the top (and also one of the most touching and realistic moments in the 1985 film with Cameron English as Paul). There seems to be a lot of heart and soul that went into the creation of A Chorus Line and I probably would like it better if it weren’t a musical (yes, I’m being an old curmudgeon). I choose to blame Attenborough as director of the film version, a man perfectly capable at excellent horror (Magic – 1978) or famous war films (A Bridge Too Far – 1977) and Best Picture winning monstrosities (Gandhi – 1982) may have not been the best choice to helm A Chorus Line. Maybe if Hollywood hadn’t been so ant-fag at the time (not that they’re so much better now) we could have gotten someone a little light in the loafers to direct a film with such overt queer sensibilities.
Anyhow, we caught the documentary, now playing in select cities, Every Little Step (2008), which is basically about how A Chorus Line originally came to fruition, and it also documents a recent Broadway revival that charts the complete auditioning process, itself a mirror of the show’s content, creating some delicious ironies and dynamics (such as one of the original cast members heading choreography for the new cast) that most fictional films would love to have. Strangely, I walked away feeling much more touched by this little documentary than the 1985 film version. Except for one moment where the old queens running the show go ga-ga over the young man auditioning for Paul (the troubled gay youth), whose audition is a little over the top (and also one of the most touching and realistic moments in the 1985 film with Cameron English as Paul). There seems to be a lot of heart and soul that went into the creation of A Chorus Line and I probably would like it better if it weren’t a musical (yes, I’m being an old curmudgeon). I choose to blame Attenborough as director of the film version, a man perfectly capable at excellent horror (Magic – 1978) or famous war films (A Bridge Too Far – 1977) and Best Picture winning monstrosities (Gandhi – 1982) may have not been the best choice to helm A Chorus Line. Maybe if Hollywood hadn’t been so ant-fag at the time (not that they’re so much better now) we could have gotten someone a little light in the loafers to direct a film with such overt queer sensibilities.
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