"A Chorus Line": One singular sensation, one new revival

Americans love a winner.

But they love a tough competition even more. And when the contest involves taut bods, frayed nerves, fancy footwork and great back stories?

Those qualities have stoked the success of such current TV dance programs as "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Dancing With the Stars."

And the same elements helped catapult the musical "A Chorus Line" into one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history (No. 4, behind "Phantom of the Opera," "Les Miserables" and "Cats"), and gave it theatrical staying power.

The latest demonstration of that comes to Seattle in the form of a national tour of the musical's current Broadway revival, opening Tuesday at the Paramount. (The same revival will end its successful Broadway run Aug. 17.)

Given the show was directed by Bob Avian, who co-choreographed the initial 1975 Broadway stand of "A Chorus Line" with its director-creator Michael Bennett, Seattle audiences will likely see a faithful facsimile of the original.

That means watching a multicultural crew of 17 largely unfamous performers play characters who are sweating out a keenly competitive Broadway audition for eight dancing jobs.

Longtime entertainment lawyer John Breglio considered this new revival such a sure thing, he decided to produce it solo — an exceedingly rare move on Broadway.

"I was involved with 'Chorus Line' from its beginnings," explains Breglio. "I represented Michael [Bennett] as a lawyer, and he was one of my closest friends in the business."

Breglio is also the executor of Bennett's estate. (The latter died at age 44 of AIDS, in 1987.) And he considers the original company of "A Chorus Line" to be "family forever."

As Breglio and many theater critics and historians will attest, "A Chorus Line" broke new Broadway ground. It was the first Broadway musical collaboratively incubated in a workshop, based on the life stories of some of its cast members.

In sung and spoken monologues, alternating with scenes from that white-knuckle audition, it spoke with landmark candor about homosexuality, cosmetic surgery and the harsher realities of being a professional "gypsy" (theater dancer).

"A Chorus Line" also represented the full flowering of the integrated dance musical, in which movement propels the plot, and memorable songs (by Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban) and dialogue (by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante) are seamlessly meshed with the choreography.

Thanks to its meaty singing-dancing-speaking roles for young adults, "A Chorus Line" has been a staple of college theater programs for decades. It's also been staged professionally around the globe. (Seattle has seen many productions, with the last national tour visiting the Paramount in 1997.)

Breglio says it was important to bring "A Chorus Line" back into the national spotlight now.

"I think Broadway needed to see the genius of Michael's work again," he says. "We've gone through the era of British musicals, and musicals that made fun of or imitated [earlier hits]. But we've lost sight of what I consider the pinnacle of the artform, when it comes to dance, direction and one man's creativity."

His wager paid off: The current, well-received Broadway stand of "A Chorus Line" (which opened in 2006) recouped its investment in several months. And, declares Breglio, "We're doing incredibly well on the road."

He is also looking to bring the show into a new medium. Acknowledging that the leaden 1985 Hollywood movie was a bomb, Breglio is exploring "a dramatic TV series based on the show, which we're developing now. Look how obsessed TV is right now with dancing, and look at all these reality shows.

"We could do a brilliant series about talented kids in New York trying to get theater jobs — how they live, what they go through. We've had enormous reaction to the idea."

That reaction may well cut both ways. And "Chorus Line" purists probably may not be thrilled with an upcoming edition of the musical staged by director-choreography Robert Longbottom, which will have what Breglio calls "a new, contemporary look." He says it will premiere in an unlikely place (Seoul, South Korea), and then tour before landing on Broadway in 2009.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com