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.

I saw "A Chorus Line" on Broadway in the early 80's and didn't like the play. The movie, with Michael Douglas, is terrible. However, being a Cinophile, I was interested in seeing a film about the trials and tribulations of performers auditioning for a part.

The film had a good balance of the history of the play, the past performers and performances, and the new hopefuls. It was interesting to see that the audition process, with callbacks, went on for months. From the start, you can see the long odds against a performer being chosen. Three thousand people competing for thirty opportunities.

I laughed, cried, cheered, and felt the heartache of those who pursued their dreams. Happily, I would see the film again.

The device of looking at the creation of A CHORUS LINE through the process of the auditions for a revival of A CHORUS LINE works very well indeed, and everybody with grease paint in their veins will respond. I do think the film one of the handful of films about the theatre that gets some of the sweat of the process accurately.

My only reservation is that the names of some of the writers of the show aren't spoken in the film. I am glad to learn that this will be adjusted in the DVD release. And this shouldn't discourage anybody from the pleasure of seeing it in a theatre. I saw it surrounded by actors, and they broke into applause several times during the run.

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.

While "Every Little Step" is hardly cinema verite, it certainly seems to be a credible effort to document the Broadway process--from the first cattle call audition to the final call-back 8 months later. In between the filmmaker interviews old players from "A Chorus Line"'s impressive legacy and culls bits from the original tape archives that established the framework of the '75 classic as well as the Broadway revival.

Whenever innocence and passion are combined, something sublime occurs. I suppose that is why I wept through much of "Every Little Step". I was definitely rooting for several performers, and remember how (in a former life)disappointing it can be when you're the last to be cut or the first to be forgotten.