The Cast and Creative Team of Every Little
Step –
The 2006 Chorus Line Documentary:
Producers/Directors
Adam Del Deo and James D.
Stern; Choreographer Baayork Lee; and Chorus
Line Cast Member Yuka Takara
April 13, 2009
Photo Credits:
Sony Pictures Classics
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The world is filled
with Chorus Line groupies, including this
writer. When the show first opened on Broadway,
it was totally new - an art form that had never
before played The Great White Way. And there has
never been a successful imitator. When the creators
(minus the late great Michael Bennett) decided to
stage a revival in 2006, filmmakers Adam Del Deo
and James D. Stern had the incredible opportunity
to film the casting. Their new documentary, Every
Little Step, is Chorus Line from the
other end of the telescope. Here is my review; be
sure to scroll down for the interviews.
Adam Del Deo and
James D. Stern's
Every Little Step
Opens Friday, April 17, 2009
Starring: Bob Avian;
Baayork Lee; Michael Bennett (archive footage);
Charlotte d'Amboise; Jacques d'Amboise; Natascia
Diaz; Ramon Flowers; Jessica Lee Goldyn; Yuka Takara;
Marvin Hamlisch; Megan Larche; J. Elaine Marcos;
Donna McKechnie; Meredith Patterson; Yuka Takara;
Jason Tam; and Chryssie Whitehead.
What they
did for love.
Michael Bennett's A
Chorus Line opened at Broadway's Shubert Theatre
in 1975 and ran continuously for fifteen years.
The show received twelve Tony Awards and still lives
today through its road company and multiple community
theater and college productions. (See
the show's official website.) Bennett had created
the original show from a series of recorded interviews
that he made in the summer of 1974 with the support
of Joseph Papp of the Public Theater. When Bennett
first recorded these interviews he did not have
a specific goal in mind. He simply recorded multiple
stories from Broadway dancers (known as gypsies)
about why they had started to dance and what dance
meant to them.
It was only later with the collaboration
of the dancers and composer Marvin Hamlisch that
he decided on the new musical's form, three distinct
periods in the life of a dancer as told through
the life story of multiple dancers.
The original show opens to great
acclaim and became an institution. And knowing what
we know now, it is easy to say that this result
was inevitable, but no one knew what would happen
while the show was being workshopped. Bennett had
had as many failures as he had success. But with
Chorus Line, the theater gods lined up
in the ultimate harmonic convergence. The show was
simply magic. Tragically, Michael Bennett died of
Aids in 1987 while Chorus Line was still
performing on Broadway.
In 2006, the remaining collaborators
launched a revival. And this time in the spirit
of life imitating art, the entire casting process
was filmed by director/producers James D. Stern
(Hairspray and Stomp) and Adam
Del Deo (The Blair Witch Project). The
documentary follows the casting process which began
with thousands of dancers lined up around the block
and ended with a cast of seventeen. Casting the
new productions are Michael Bennett's co-choreographer
Bob Lee and Baayork Lee, a choreographer and friend
of Michael Bennett's who originated the role of
Connie (the dancer who never grew tall) in 1975.
Charlotte d'Amboise
We follow dancers as they leave
their homes to travel to the auditions. We see the
life of a young New Jersey dancer as she leaves
her mother's home to travel by bus into Manhattan
to audition. We also follow the audition process
of from the viewpoint of Charlotte d'Amboise, the
daughter of famed danced Jacque D'Amboise, who beautifully
auditions for the part of the older dancer Cassie,
only to not be cast in the end.
One of the funnier parts of the
casting process is when the original Connie, Baayork
Lee, has so much trouble finding the perfect person
to play her part. No one is quite right. But in
the end Lee totally falls for her replacement, the
plucky young Taiwan-born Yuka Takara
The 2006 Chorus Line opened on
October 5, 2006 to wildly appreciative audiences.
Watching the documentary is bitter sweet because
the 1996 show was forced to close on Aug. 17, 2008
after only 18 previews and 759 regular performances.
The cause was undoubtedly the loss of momentum and
income from the Broadway stage hands strike of 2007.
But according to Playbill.com,
the show recouped its investment after only nineteen
performance, something that is nothing short of
phenomenal.
If you love dance or have every
loved a dancer, Every Little Step is must
seeing. It is a microscopic look at the heart of
dance and dancers, a chance to see just why Broadways'
gypsies will give up anything to have the opportunity
to just dance.
Baayork Lee
Interview with
Original Cast Member and 2006 Choreographer
Baayork Lee and Yuka Takara (the 2006 show’s
Connie)
Question
to Baayork Lee about show she felt about having
Yuka Takara play her part (Baayork was the original
Connie and the part was based on her life story):
Baayork Lee: Hey
she’s cute – come on!
Yuka Takara
Question to Yuka Takara about
whether she thought she would have such a long relationship
with Baayork Lee:
Yuka Takara: We
have a lot of fun.
Question to Yuka Takara about
how she felt when she was cast:
Yuka Takara: It
was like you saw in the documentary. I was on unemployment
and then I was cast. My best friend and I were up
for the role and Connie and in the end I thought;
it will be either me or my best friend and whatever
happens I will go on.
Question about the original show:
Baayork Lee: I did
several flops with Michael Bennett (Seesaw).
Then he asked me to be party of this 24 hour tape
session about why dancers came to New York and why
they want to dance. He let Joseph Papp listen to
the tapes and Papp told him to go ahead and do a
work in process; they did not even call it workshop
back then. It was an entirely new idea.
I started out as Michael’s assistant as he
first developed the show. My part was not even created
until the second workshop. I could not believe that
anyone would be interested in a short Asian who
wanted to be a ballet dancer. He named my character
after Connie Chung.
Yuka Takara: I (had
the same story as Baayork). I started dancing at
five until someone told me that my butt was too
big – it was coming out of my tutu. I stopped
growing in the sixth grade. I love Baayork’s
line: “Whatever I am, I am.” Baayork
and I were both fighters inside.
Question about the popularity
of the new dance shows:
Baayork Lee: Dance
has come full circle. In the 70’s we had Dance
Fever and disco. Now we have Dancing With
the Stars. Chorus Line was the mother
of all these show.
Yuka Takara: It’s
been done already.
Baayork Lee: These
TV shows are Johnny Come Latelys. We are never as
cruel as Simon when we are casting. The dancers
have their agents and their teachers to give them
feed back. Dancers can audition four or five times
a day. They would leave our audition and go across
the street to Shrek or Mary Poppins
(Baayork was referring to casting for the current
road show)
I really wanted the 2006 Broadway show to go on
forever, but then there was the stage hands strike.
Chorus Line
has a touring company and there is a show performing
right now in Milan in Italian. .
Question about whether you think
Michael Bennett was a giant:
Baayork Lee: When
you grow up with someone you don’t think he
is a giant. When we started to develop Chorus
Line, we started with an empty sheet. We were
just dancers who were unemployed. We did not even
know what the structure would be. We could have
been dancers in a therapy session in an asylum.
I always loved dancing the chorus; I never wanted
to go in front of the line.
Most of us had never taken an acting class. Chorus
Line was the first reality show. People are
interested in people.
We did not realize that we had a hit; the realization
came slowly when we saw Jackie Onassis and her children
in the audience. We saw the limousine out in front
of the Public Theater and thought – what is
this?
Question about what they are
doing now:
Yuka Takara: I am
presently touring with Rent. I will be
in LA for the pilot season but right now I will
complete this interview and fly back to join the
road company of Rent.
Yuka Takara: I hope
that some day I can do what Baayork did for the
newer kids.
Baayork Lee: I have
been doing the same thing for 35 years; screaming
“Eat Nails” at the dancers (meaning
that the dancers should up the energy). They just
put it on the screen.
As a dancer you don’t have a voice. Michael
Bennett gave me my voice. This show is about love
– it you love it, you just keep on going.
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Adam Del Deo
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James D. Stern |
The Interview
with Directors/Producers Adam Del Deo and James
D. Stern
Question about how the two directors divided their
responsibilities:
Adam Del Deo: We
did not really divide the responsibilities.
James D. Stern: Adam has a strong background in
shooting Dance and I have a strong attachment to
the theater – Broadway theater. I grew up
with Broadway musicals; my parents played the sound
tracks on the stereo every Sunday. (Stern produced
Legally Blonde, Hairspray, The
Producers etc. )
Question about what was the impetus for making
the documentary:
Adam Del Deo: We
knew the history of Chorus Line. And when
the show was revived, we saw chance to follow thousand
of dancer trying to get a job on Broadway. Making
this documentary would be an organic mirror of the
beginnings of the Bennett show.
Question about the documentary
and the tie in to the popularity of the TV dance
shows:
James D. Stern:
I don’t get too tied up in that subject. I
produced Stomp and when I was putting the
show together everyone in New York passed on it
and I did it anyway.
Chorus Line is the antithesis of So
You Think You can Dance. Chorus Line
is about kids who will give up lunch to pay for
a dance class.
Question to Adam Del Deo
about whether he can dance:
Adam Del Deo: I
do the white man’s overbite at weddings.
Question about whether they agreed with the director’s
casting choices:
James D. Stern: At
the end of the day, yes.
Question about whether they had anyone they were
rooting for:
Adam Del Deo: I
have great respect for the dancers who love Broadway
so much that they would make shelter and food secondary
in their lives.
James D. Stern:
Two thousand nine hundred and eight dancers did
not get cast. And all were skipping lunch the next
day to pay for a dance class.
Question about whether there are any Michael Bennett’s
working on Broadway right now:
James D. Stern:
Bennett and Fosse were great innovators. But I don’t
think there is a great auteur on Broadway right
now. I don’t know of a dominant person.
Question about whether it was
difficult to gain access to the archives:
James D. Stern: No.
The most important part of the archives was the
actual audio tapes which were actually in a safety
deposit box and not in a museum.
How difficult was it to
put together the documentary:
Adam Del Deo: We
spent a year in the editing room looking at a lot
of footage.
Question about why the 2006 show
closed in 2007:
James D. Stern:
The stage hands strike certainly did not help.
Question about the alchemy of the 2006 show without
Bennett:
James D. Stern: I
will answer that question with a story. I saw the
Jerome Robbin’s version of West Side Story
- it was spectacular. And then I have seen other
version of West Side Story.
Question about how you choose your projects:
James D. Stern:
I have two small children and I want to do things
they will be proud of. My next project will be a
TV show about entrepreneurs – about the Steves.
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