Every Little Step

A documentary on the revival of "A Chorus Line" on Broadway in 2006. It goes over the rehearsals and has interviews with the casting directors, the dance instructor and Donna McKechnie (going over the original production). It focuses on various performers and shows their auditions. At the end we find out who gets the job--or doesn't. There's also some very grainy b&w footage from the original show.

I saw a "Chorus Line" on stage multiple times in the 1980s. I found the play funny, sad, touching and just brilliant. I haven't seen it in ages but I clearly remember all the songs and characters. This documentary only focuses on the characters who have songs. Nothing wrong with that but it gets repetitious. I don't think I can ever listen to "Dance Ten, Looks Three" or "At the Ballet" again--they're done virtually nonstop here! Also some of the scenes look very staged, the direction is clumsy and some people appear and disappear at an alarming rate. Still the interviews are fun and there are little facts dropped throughout the movie that some people might not know. The best acting done here is by Jason Tam. He doesn't sing but he has a monologue about coming out to his parents and breaks down crying (it's in the play). His acting in that was just perfect and more than a few people in my audience were crying along with him. That alone was a highlight. Worth seeing if you're a gay man or a lover of "A Chorus Line". Slightly recommended.

The directors of Every Little Step achieve their intended goal: getting the viewer's tear ducts to well up at least a couple of times, as we observe the travail of Broadway aspirants and young veterans vying for the coveted roles in a revival of A Chorus Line. But as a film and especially as a non-fiction (documentary) film, it is a complete failure. Instead of learning something, we are treated to at best misinformation and at worst a calculated distortion of history.

First of all, a documentary about the genesis of A Chorus Line in the mid-1970s and its impact makes sense -certainly it is a pillar in Broadway history and deserves that sort of attention. Its 2006 revival made a lot of money and entertained a lot of people, but is hardly a footnote in theater history, and does not merit this attention. So the subject of this documentary takes on a more universal theme, drawn from the play of course: "I Need a Job", and how difficult it is to compete with about 3,000 other people at auditions to get one. Sounds like "American Idol" and its many early weed-out episodes each year, and that is about the level of achievement here.

The distortions are crucial errors, either of omission or just plain intentional. The writers of the play, James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, are hardly mentioned at all, and this film leads the viewer to automatically infer that Michael Bennett created A Chorus Line on the basis of his marathon audio taping session of dancers, from which the play's characters and content were derived. The dancers Tony Stevens and Michon Peacock, who concocted these tapings in the first place, also get short shrift. Of course Bennett receives and deserves the lion's share of the credit and goes into the history books as Mr. Chorus Line, but to leave out his collaborators, especially as important as Kirkwood, is ludicrous. It took Pauline Kael to point out (quite forcefully) that Citizen Kane = Orson Welles was an exaggeration, bringing screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz back into the equation. The parallel in blowing up the director's contribution here is obvious.

Similarly, there are entertaining interview segments here with composer Marvin Hamlisch, who delightfully credits Marsha Mason with making a key suggestion to Bennett re: the fate of the character Cassie -that is one of the film's most informative moments. However, the film ultimately gives Mason, just a fan in the audience basically, more time and credit for A Chorus Line than Edward Kleban, who is never mentioned at all, yet wrote the lyrics for all the songs! Pretty damning omission -reminds me of the latter-day cult of Burt Bacharach -hardly ever mentioned in tributes to BB is Hal David, who wrote all those classic lyrics to Walk On By, Look of Love, Close to You, What the World Needs Now Is Love, Do You Know the Way to San Jose and so on.

I can see the cop out already: "we weren't making a film about A Chorus Line but just about the revival". But Bennett and especially the audio tapes leading to the original are central subjects in this film, so there is no excuse for distorting the record.

I grant that there are memorable moments in Every Little Step -such as the soon-to-be-legendary footage of an audition for the role of Paul by Jason Tam. But this is just footage culled from hundreds of hours of pseudo-vérité documenting of the 2006 auditions and rehearsals. The principals, especially director Bob Avian and his casting director, are on their best behavior because the cameras are running -the supposed "truth" of what we see strikes me as about as authentic as the whole corpus of Reality TV (I'm exaggerating, but the fallacy of cinéma vérité needs to be emphasized over & over again). What we have is more of a promotional video for the revival (who needs it?) than a documentary film, with about as much value (apart from preserving Tam's highlight for future excerpting) as the thousands of Making-Of promotions created for nearly every crappy movie coming out of Hollywood.

I think some of the reviewers have mistaken Every Little Step for a documentary on the creation of A Chorus Line. It was a documentary on casting the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line with some archival information. The archival information did focus on Michael Bennett and Marvin Hamlisch was interviewed extensively, but to say that it excluded others is, I think, way off base. This was not a documentary on the creation of A Chorus Line. The contributors were all listed at the end of Every Little Step.

Having said that I thought the archival information was very interesting. Some of the original recordings were played and they appeared to be included in the play almost verbatim, not to diminish the fine work of Kirkwood and Kleban. They showed the various singer/dancers competing side by side, or singing a song line by line with one doing the 1st line, another doing the next and so one. You did hear some songs multiple times but certainly not to the point where it became annoying or anything.

Very interesting and entertaining to see how the cast was put together, who they chose and who they didn't. I HIGHLY recommend this film.

Greetings again from the darkness. A Chorus Line is a mainstay and iconic piece of Broadway history. Now we get a documentary on the behind the scenes process of auditioning for a revival of a musical about the process of auditioning for a musical stage production. Luckily, Michael Douglas is not involved in this one. Sadly, Kirkwood and Kleban seemed to be overlooked while the genius of Michael Bennett is the focus. His original co-choreographer Bob Avian is directing the revival.

While American TV viewers have been brainwashed into believing American Idol and Dancing with the Stars are somehow what show business is all about, directors Adam Del Deo and James D Stern show us what the world of a singer/dancer/actor is truly like. The pressure and stress of having to compete for sometimes only a few seconds against hundreds of other talented people ... sometimes while rushing to one's "real" job are just excruciating. These people are trying to realize dreams and relentless hard work for their entire lives and so few actually "make it".

This documentary approach is centered on the famous audio recordings that Michael Bennett held with the initial group back in the early 70's. Marvin Hamlisch recalls going through those transcripts and creating the songs that would become Broadway staples. Mr. Hamlisch also brings us insight into the impact that actress Marsha Mason had on the success of the play after she attended (with her husband Neil Simon). Good stuff.

Sure the auditions tug at the viewer's emotions a bit, but that is because we are rarely exposed to the pressure cooker of what happens prior to the curtain rising. Jason Tam's audition is worth the price of admission alone.

Were egos involved in making this film? Absolutely. But in reality, ego is what drives these creative forces. When it is damaged, it immediately impacts the talent. We get a first hand look at that. If you are fan of A Chorus Line, this is a must see. If you are intrigued by the Broadway process, then you will certainly see aspects you have never seen before.

A Chorus Line and I came of age right around the same time, so it has not only an aesthetic appeal for me but a nostalgic one as well. I've seen several live versions and of course the movie, which could never measure up to any live performance just because of the nature of the subject, but made the show accessible to those who couldn't see it live. I did not know what to expect upon viewing Every Little Step, but how could I be disappointed given the subject matter and its irresistible music?

Reviewers here have criticized a variety of omissions in the film, charging that it is inaccurate and/or incomplete. However, I see Every Little Step as more of a multi-media magazine piece than a documentary. How amazing to listen to the interviews with the dancers back in 1974 which provided the inspiration for the musical! I thoroughly enjoyed the blending of footage of original auditions and performances in the 70s with the current audition process for the 2006 revival. Though I was disappointed not to see auditions for Morales and wondered why some of the stories were not completed, I did learn some things in retrospect that I had never known back then (eg, the Kelly Bishop I always enjoyed in Dirty Dancing is the Sheila I have been listening to all these years on the Broadway cast album). The film successfully engaged me emotionally and made me realize that it is A Chorus Line which inspired my interest in American Idol throughout these years and why that show continues to be a separate entity from these other wannabe reality shows. ELS also sent me right to the internet to dig up more Chorus Line history and cast info and You Tube performances to keep me involved and singing all afternoon, even after finishing the extra features on the DVD (there are plenty). What a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

I didn't set out to be a critical viewer of this film, only to find out more about this timeless piece, and I enjoyed every little step of it.