Music Circus in Sacramento is celebrating its 64th season and the new season started this week with A Chorus Line. This is the fourth production of the show at Music Circus’ 64 years, yet it’s my first time to see at Music Circus. Mind you, the stage is round at Music Circus surrounded by the audience, so mounting a show, especially one like ACL (having all the cast standing on a “line” most of the time) is a huge task. I think Stafford Arima directed this production admirably.
ACL was my first live theatre show I saw, so it’s near and dear to my heart. Actually it’s the first OBC recording (yap LP record) I bought. So forgive me to be a bit critical, but it was a little difficult to get used to the cast standing in circle facing inward at the beginning. Although I know each line by heart, it was difficult to figure out who was speaking sometimes because you don’t see their faces. Also because the cast were facing inward (the character who was speaking each time was in the center of the stage trying to face 360 degrees during the dialogue) But this is the limitation of a round stage. I don’t know what else Mr. Arima could have done.
Things changed once they broke the circle “line” though. During “And” Bobby stood off stage, so the rest of the cast faced to his way rather than inward. “At the Ballet” also placed Sheila, Bebe and Maggie on the stage and the rest of the cast were in the four aisles. But what I loved about was during “Hello 12, Hello 13, Hello Love.” Even though the cast were in the middle of the stage most of the time dancing, I could feel the explosive energy from them.
Two Sacramentons, Kate Levering (Cassie) and Jenifer Foote (Sheila) dance their heart out and both are indeed strong cast in this production. Ms. Levering danced around facing 360 degrees during “The Music and The Mirror,” can you imagine how hard it would be? Another actor who stood out was Xavier Cano who played Paul. Paul has a great scene anyway but Mr. Cano’s delivery was sincere and I could feel his pain.
Last production was produced in 1999 and I wish I could have seen to compare them. I guess I have to wait another 15 years to compare the round stage version of ACL.
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