Thinking About "A Chorus Line"

In comments on a previous post, Jennifer Marks, who played “Bebe Benzenheimer” in Runaway Stage’s “A Chorus Line,” asked that dangerous question whose answer every actor and actress is secretly dying to know: “i was in rsp's a chorus line. i was curious what u thought of it?" It’s a hazardous question because it puts the audience member on-the-spot. A less-confrontational question is: “so, did you enjoy the show?” Then the audience member is free to elaborate as they please: “you were great,” “the script sucked,” “I thought this show was supposed to be for kids,” or whatever, without necessarily revealing one’s true thoughts.

Nevertheless, I’m not the typical audience member, since I played (however badly) a “Cut Dancer” in Woodland Opera House’s show in 1999, and actually got to play “Bobby (aka Joseph Henry Mills III)” in DMTC’s show in 2003. So, given that background, my opinion might actually carry a little more weight than most audience members.

One thing the Sacramento area actors need is someone who can intelligently review local amateur musical shows: someone who is both part of the community, yet distant enough to offer an objective opinion. The local newspapers generally do a poor job at this function, if they do it at all. I once suggested using my blog to perform that function, but all my DMTC friends thought it was a horrible idea, because:

• I’m not really an objective observer;
• I will thoroughly alienate all my musical theater friends and acquaintances with tactless opinions;
• What the hell does an air-quality meteorologist know about musical theater anyway?

Nevertheless, the need lingers. So I’m going to offer a few (hopefully) humble opinions about the two recent productions of “A Chorus Line,” produced by Runaway Stage Productions (RSP) and Vallejo Music Theater. I saw the Sunday, July 25th RSP show, at Sacramento’s 24th Street Theater, and the Saturday, July 31st Vallejo Music Theater (VMT) show, at the Fetterly Playhouse for the Arts. My ballet instructor, Pam Kay Lourentzos, directed the VMT show: Bob Baxter directed the RSP show, with Gino Platina as choreographer.

I had quite a few acquaintances in the Runaway Stage show (indeed, I just got a wedding invitation to Laurent and Amber’s forthcoming wedding, which really surprises me, given their large and dense web of friends and acquaintances – I’m pretty far out in the cheap seats), but I knew just a few people in the Vallejo show.

The big standout in the Runaway show, for me, was “Val” (Becky Snow). Of the four recent productions I've seen or been involved with since 1999 (Woodland, DMTC, Vallejo, RSP) Becky (not an acquaintance) was the best "Val" (stiff competition too: Woodland’s Julie Peak and DMTC’s Wendy Young Carey were excellent Vals, and Vallejo’s Sylvia Keuter wasn’t bad either). Like I told RSP’s Ray Fisher at the Vallejo show, Becky Snow was "Head and shoulders - no, tits and ass" above everyone else. And it's a difficult role to get right too.

The big standout in the Vallejo show was Regina Mancha as “Cassie”. Very professional! Even though she was playing a supposedly bad actress, her acting was excellent, her dancing was superb, and she sang pretty well too: a 2 ¾ threat! The second big standout at Vallejo was Jimmy Robertson, who played “Mike”. What a phenomenal dancer!

Vallejo’s casting was generally good: most of the people looked like they were from the right ethnic groups, etc. RSP’s casting was more problematic. One notorious problem all local musical theater groups have with casting dance roles is that the talent pool is not deep enough. Thus non-dancers, and dancers who don’t look like dancers, get major roles. As a chunky veteran Bobby, I sympathize with the dilemma. RSP had several players who, while otherwise excellent, jarred the eye. Vallejo had some of the same problems, but the resolution seemed to be better there, maybe because the dancers there were shorter.

At RSP, there were some solid performances: "Judy" (Blair Jimison) and "Kristine" (Katrina Bushnell) come first to mind: "Paul" (Jacob Montoya) too. Kris Knipp as “Maggie” was an excellent dancer, good actress and pretty good singer. I thought "Bobby" (Robert Campbell) rushed just a bit, and Colby Salmon was miscast as "Greg": wonderful dancer, but Colby can't quite do 'snob': Vallejo’s Matt Larson was a better snob, but not as good a dancer. Laurent Lazard was a fine “Mike”, but I worried about those grandmothers of Quebec leaning out their windows into the sleet, on their cold and icy little pillows.

The biggest problems at RSP were choreographic - maybe insufficient drilling. The impact of the opening number depends a lot on unison dancing, and the crowded stage worked against the dancers. Vallejo did a better job with more dancers on a stage of about the same size, but Vallejo had what might be called an advantage over RSP - totally dependable canned music - music I otherwise disliked (I prefer live music). In addition "Cassie's" dancing was too timid (I wondered if that was Amber's health, Gino's planning, or just lack of time).

At Vallejo, I liked "Sheila" (Linda Crebbin-Coates) and "Bobby" (John Greer) and "Bebe" (Amber Mohney) and "Paul" (Ted Bigornia). It was great to see Monica Parisi and Michael Miiller on-stage again. Michael is really nailing down the “Zach” role these days – he just gets better and better. Monica is pretty in pink.The weak point of Vallejo’s production was the music (not live). Also, because of the design of the Vallejo theater, it was vaguely unsettling to see the audience reflected in the mirrors during "Music in the Mirror": Cassie, the mirrors, plus all the rest of us too!

Two performances illustrated unsuspected aspects of the shows – it was like reaching a hilltop and seeing entirely new acting terrain in the distance.

Linnea von Ahn, who played “Larry” at Vallejo, did something quite striking: she breathed life into a quite minor role. “Larry” is supposed to be technically exact - an adult among overgrown kids – but certainly not a standout. Linnea was not a trained dancer, but she had a nice smile. Her voice was loud, but flat. The effect she created, when she bossed the dancers around in the Tap Sequence, was of a friendly but pompous blowhard – a novel characterization (I wonder how many other blowhards there are on Broadway?) It worked! Made me smile! Excellent work!

“Kristine” and “Al” at RSP (Katrina Bushnell and Spencer Tregilgas) were an interesting couple: Al’s slight rhythm problem (he’s supposed to be the better-singing half of the couple) led me to wonder whether the character “Kristine” can actually sing quite well and maybe all she lacks is self-confidence. I contemplated their rather two-dimensional relationship expanding, allowing for a much more interesting and tortured future together: “Al” suffocates his wife’s budding ambitions, she rebels against his tyranny, then: a terrible breakup, accidents, travails, addictions – what a mess!

Looking at Vallejo's show, I reflected on just how hard a show "A Chorus Line" is to do well. Casting is crucial, but the limited pool of available talent (particularly male) often forces compromises. Pam Kay Lourentzos has practically made it a specialty to do the show well, and she still got a mediocre review from a Bay Area paper. That fellow didn’t understand: doing “A Chorus Line” is a privilege, a rite-of-passage, and Vallejo produced quite a good show. The RSP show was more problematic, but featured strong performances.