Baayork Lee
The show is up and running, so what are you rehearsing right now?
I've been doing the Cassie dance all day [laughs]. We're looking for summer replacements for the Broadway production, and we are also filling our files for cast members of the national company. I love passing on this choreography. It's 31 years old, but it still holds up—all of Michael's dynamics and subtleties and the orchestrations are still so thrilling. I'm in awe of it, and teaching the next generation of dancers is very exciting. And believe me, it's fun to do the Cassie dance. It really is.
Is Bennett's style purely physical, or is there something more behind it?
A real nuts-and-bolts question: How on earth do you remember all those steps?
How much do you have to explain when working with a young cast like the current one on Broadway?
A Chorus Line did not invent the notion of the triple-threat performer, but the show did make that the expectation on Broadway.
But there were already people like Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera who did it all.
How closely did you and Bob Avian work on this revival?
Was there a generation gap with this cast? Did you have to explain cultural references?
The careers of ballet dancers are even shorter.
People may not realize that you danced for a lot of different choreographers before Michael Bennett.
A Chorus Line requires many very specific performers, but none is quite so specific as Connie Wong. Is it a hard role to cast?
Was it weird the first time you saw another actress play Connie, the role that was based on your own life?
Do you miss performing?
Did you have a big finale, or did you just stop?
This major Broadway revival of A Chorus Line has renewed discussion of the rights and royalties for the original cast. Those people's life stories are being told up there, but some of them feel that they are insufficiently recognized, at least financially.
You have also done opera, among other things.
There were certainly lighter, silly shows in the 1970s, but the revival of A Chorus Line and the Encores! concert version of Follies, another Michael Bennett show, demonstrate that people were willing to make "important" musicals in the '70s. Is that the case today?
See A Chorus Line at the Schoenfeld Theatre.
I think we were ahead of our time. We were so on top of what was going on, and Michael was so innovative and creative that it holds up, and the dancers still have fun performing it. It's that Michael Bennett style, where you're moving really fast low to the ground; the jazz combinations get down low, but there's still an elegance to the body. Fosse had his style; Robbins had his style; Michael Bennett had his style. Nowadays there's no specific style for theater dancing. Nothing's being invented, just reinvented. Jack Cole, Peter Gennaro, Ron Field, Agnes de Mille—they created their own styles. And there's the Michael Bennett style that's still fantastic to do.
In everything that Michael choreographed for individual performers in A Chorus Line, there was an acting moment. There were definitely acting choices behind the steps.
[Laughs.] I haven't stopped teaching this show from the time we opened in 1975. Shortly after we opened, Michael sent me to London, to Australia, to Stockholm; I've staged A Chorus Line in Germany and Japan and all over. I have taught the show in some form or other for 31 years now, and if it's not a company here in the United States, then it's a touring production in Europe. I've never stopped doing the show, so remembering it is not really an issue.
We have to start from scratch. I think of it as a whole Chorus Line school. We do a 45-minute warm-up, and then I start with the choreography—which involves telling the stories of where these characters came from and how the idea for the show got started. Understanding all of that is really important. Also, we were so innovative in so many departments: In the original cast, we were acting and then singing and then dancing, and then we were back to being interviewed and telling our stories. It takes time for new performers to learn how to manage all that, and I want to share that information with them. The through-line was continuous in the fabric that Michael was weaving, because you are speaking, singing, dancing.
Actually, we did create the triple threat. The term came from our show. Just look at the original reviews and press coverage.
Yes, but they were stars. It wasn't expected from the chorus. You danced, or there was the singing chorus, and there were the actors. Now they're not hiring actors and singers and dancers; you're just in the chorus, and you need to be able to do everything. That's much better for the producers, from a financial perspective. But it's also better for the shows.
Bob was there from the beginning. He had a very interesting take: He said, "This is 2007; what can we do to make this show fresh?" He felt we could tweak the details because the foundation was solid. With his perspective, he saw that we could concentrate more on the book of the show if there wasn't quite so much movement in the background at certain moments. So in the tap number, we freeze for the vocal lines. Things like that. Back in the '70s, everything was movement. We were discoing until four in the morning, partying every night. When Bob looked at the piece again, he realized that we are a play with music—which is exactly how we were billed in the beginning. Look at the advertising and you'll see that we were called a "musical play." That was a first. And here we are, 31 years later, and we've come back to the same words. So we are really exploring the play with this production.
Well, they don't know who Jill St. John is. They had never heard of Troy Donahue.
That was about it. They certainly know who Gwen Verdon was. But what makes this show relevant and timeless is that it continues to ask the same question it originally asked: What are you going to do when you can't dance anymore? No matter what your age, eventually the bodies will give out. Even though these kids are 21 years old, it's something they have to consider. Nowadays there are organizations to help you when your dancing career is over. You can go back to school or talk to Career Transitions for Dancers or become whatever you want. Back then, we just limped away and prayed.
On Broadway, our life is a little longer. Since dancers have to be able to sing now, we can go on as singers, or go to acting class, or get a career on television or what have you.
Ages ago, the goal was to work with one choreographer—you did everything that choreographer did, whether it was theater or television or film. I was bopping around auditioning, and I worked with Michael Kidd, did one show with Peter Gennaro, and worked with Nora Kaye and Herbert Ross. But once Michael hired me for A Joyful Noise, I became a Michael Bennett dancer. I was home.
You've got to be short, you've got to be Asian, and you've got to be tough enough to be on the Broadway scene [laughs]. And that's on top of the requirements for dancing and singing and acting.
When Michael allowed me to direct my first company of A Chorus Line, which was in Australia, I spent much more time with Connie than with Cassie and Zach. Once I had dealt with that and gotten it out of my system, I really settled into becoming a director.
Absolutely not. I've done everything: 12 Broadway shows, Ed Sullivan shows, Milliken industrials, movies, the whole thing. Michael realized that staging A Chorus Line was a good opportunity for me to make the transition from performing.
It was not a formal thing. I went off to direct A Chorus Line in Australia and we had five companies running; I was in London and San Francisco, and one day I wasn't putting on the tights any more. I have not looked back and have not missed performing one day. What I am doing now is giving back, passing on everything I've learned throughout the years. What a thrill to see these dancers absorb it! They are so hungry for knowledge and information. Ann Reinking and Gwen Verdon taught the Fosse style to all those dancers for Fosse. I am doing the same thing with Michael's work, and ensuring that Michael's legacy is being passed on to the next generation.
Everything has been resolved on that front, and it's all positive. It was just the wording of contracts and the semantics, but it has all been worked out in a positive way. I did not have any problems, but then I am considered an author since I am recreating the choreography. The other original company members were not involved with this production, yet their characters and images are on the stage. I understand. However, it has all been resolved and it's all positive.
I had directed The King and I for the producer who obtained the rights for the touring company of Bombay Dreams. It was a very short rehearsal period, and he thought I was the only one who could do it. I spent a lot time restructuring the book with Tom Meehan, because many things in the show would only be understood by the Broadway audience or Southeast Asians. The show was going to tour all over the United States, and we felt we had to explain things. We developed one of the characters into a newscaster so she could talk about things that people might not know. I had the assistant choreographer from the London production; I just directed the show.
Right, I directed a Porgy and Bess touring company that ran for 10 years all through Europe. I have directed a lot of things in Asia, but people here don't know what I've done. I started a musical theater school in Korea and in Japan. I spent a lot of time outside the U.S. directing and choreographing because there was a period when there was just no work here. What I really wanted was the opportunity to direct, and I had to go out of the country to do it.
Theater goes through different stages. Today, you've got the Disney camp, with Beauty and the Beast and Tarzan and The Lion King: They bring in young people and help us for the future of theater. If you see a musical when you're five years old, then maybe when you're 10 you will want to see something else. That's a positive. But you know, things change in the theater all the time. In the 1980s, there were all those big musicals like Phantom and Les Miz that basically had no dancing. Think way back to Oklahoma!, and how it changed what theater is, and then along came A Chorus Line with no sets and no costumes. Plus, now there are shows like Avenue Q—small shows that have a big impact. Broadway goes through so many transitions, and they are all part of the life of theater. I'm just so glad that I'm still hanging around to see it all happen.