This 'Chorus Line' zips right along
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 8, 2003
HUDSON - Get in your seat early for the Show Palace Dinner Theatre's A Chorus Line. It revs up quickly, takes off smartly and never lets up.
The 1976 Pulitzer Prize-winning script, based on interviews with Broadway chorus line aspirants, has as much drama as Our Town, without the funerals. It has heart-tugging stories, terrific dancing and beautiful songs.
As the show opens, two dozen dancers are trying out for a fictional Broadway show. The casting director asks the auditioners to tell something about themselves; the plot is their hopes, dreams, fears, failed relationships and self-discovery.
The stories have hauntingly similar themes: conflicts with parents, conflicts at school, feelings of being the outsider and being different, fear of aging and, always, escaping life through dance. The painful stories are offset by comedic numbers, and both must work for the whole to satisfy.
The Show Palace production works well, with a couple of flaws.
Katie Kerwin is marvelous in the lead role, Cassie, a former chorus dancer back in New York after a failed try in Hollywood. Kerwin belts a solid song as she makes virtual love to her dancing image in The Music and the Mirror.
Timothe Bittle is pure liquid as he moves around the stage in Richie's paean to painful adolescence, the "gimmie the ball" section of the Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love montage. Aimee Turner slithers like a python as the "mature" chorine, Sheila, all burnished gold leotard, glowing cigarette and cynicism.
As Paul, John Vincent Leggio nails pathos as he tells of his struggles with being gay in a straight world. The goal is to rouse compassion, and Leggio's Paul does that.
Liz George is appealing as quirky Judy, who still suffers because of her mother's blithe insults. Joseph Bishara and Andrea Schwartz are adorable as newlyweds Al and Kristine DeLuca.
The glaring casting bobble is director/choreographer Jillian Johnson as Val, the small-town girl who finds success only after surgical nips and tucks and tells her story in Dance: Ten; Looks: Three. Val should be a perky kid with lots of oomph, but as done by an out-of-breath Johnson, she comes off clunky.
And was it my imagination, or did the big closing number seem to segue to warp speed?
Review
A Chorus Line runs through Nov. 22 at Show Palace Dinner Theatre, 16128 U.S. 19, Hudson. Shows at 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Oct. 22 and 30; 3 p.m. Sunday; 1:30 p.m. Oct. 18 and 22. Doors open two hours before each show for buffet and full cash bar. Dinner and show, $38.50; show only, $27.45, all plus tax and tip. Call (727) 863-7949 in west Pasco; toll-free elsewhere 1-888-655-7469.
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