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| Who is it anyway who's responsible for the 'Chorus Line' changes in the movie? | |
| Last Edit: WaymanWong 12:14 am EDT 05/22/23 | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 12:00 am EDT 05/22/23 | |
| In reply to: The film of “A Chorus Line” is on TCM tomorrow (Sunday) night at 9:45. nm - kieran 11:27 pm EDT 05/20/23 | |
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| I hadn't seen the movie of ''A Chorus Line'' since it came out in 1985, so I rewatched it tonight on TCM and was left wondering: Whose idea was it to make the various changes? Richard Attenborough, the director? Arnold Schulman, who adapted the screenplay? MGM? Why did the new song ''Surprise, Surprise'' basically replace ''Hello, Twelve. Hello, Thirteen. Hello, Love''? I imagine they wanted a new song that was Oscar-eligible, and this song did get nominated. For the record, it lost to Lionel Ritchie's ''Say You, Say Me,'' but it's still inferior to what it replaced. Why did ''Let Me Dance for You'' replace ''The Music and the Mirror''? And what did Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban think of these changes? I Googled around, but couldn't find the answers. Also, did Michael Bennett, Bob Avian or Donna McKechnie ever see this film? What did they think? I did find this quote from Kelly Bishop, who played Sheila (and won a Tony) from the original Broadway cast: "It was appalling when director Richard Attenborough went on a talk show and said, 'This is a story about kids trying to break into show business.' I almost tossed my TV out the window; I mean what an idiot! It's about veteran dancers looking for one last job before it's too late for them to dance anymore. No wonder the film sucked!" |
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| re: Who is it anyway who's responsible for the 'Chorus Line' changes in the movie? | |
| Last Edit: pecansforall 10:45 am EDT 05/22/23 | |
| Posted by: pecansforall 10:32 am EDT 05/22/23 | |
| In reply to: Who is it anyway who's responsible for the 'Chorus Line' changes in the movie? - WaymanWong 12:00 am EDT 05/22/23 | |
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| It's fascinating that some of the changes made for the film were already tried onstage but the creatives quickly discovered that they didn't work. A perfect example would be Cassie's late arrival to the auditions. And all that Flashdance choreography. Oof. |
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| re: Who is it anyway who's responsible for the 'Chorus Line' changes in the movie? | |
| Posted by: bobby2 12:52 am EDT 05/22/23 | |
| In reply to: Who is it anyway who's responsible for the 'Chorus Line' changes in the movie? - WaymanWong 12:00 am EDT 05/22/23 | |
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| Attenborough once spoke at my college and someone asked him about the changes. He was very non-committal saying they were just choices they made that they thought would work better on screen. Bishop is wrong. Her character is the older one but some of the characters are younger. Mark explicitly says he's never been in a Broadway show. I'd guess Let Me Dance for You was put in for it to be more of a love song about Zach and not about dance (just like the movement of What I did For Love from Diana to Cassie. |
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| re: Who is it anyway who's responsible for the 'Chorus Line' changes in the movie? | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 12:12 pm EDT 05/23/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Who is it anyway who's responsible for the 'Chorus Line' changes in the movie? - bobby2 12:52 am EDT 05/22/23 | |
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| Bishop isn't wrong -- part of what she says is specific to her character, but they are all (newbies and veterans) facing the end of the dancing chorus, of Broadway doing the kind of musicals they used to, of there being the kind of dancing and kind of musical that would employ this kind of dancer to dance, to support a glamorous leading lady, etc. Also, having not done a Broadway show before doesn't make you new to dancing in musicals. And having done a couple doesn't mean you've been doing them your entire career. Many people have large gaps in their employment on Broadway. (to be fair, when ACL was written, Broadway had not seen revivals become such a big part of every season yet, and other than No No Nanette, I don't think they had a sense that old fashioned shows would have life in revivals on Broadway... even if not all that often.) |
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| re: Who is it anyway who's responsible for the 'Chorus Line' changes in the movie? | |
| Posted by: simbo 03:52 am EDT 05/22/23 | |
| In reply to: re: Who is it anyway who's responsible for the 'Chorus Line' changes in the movie? - bobby2 12:52 am EDT 05/22/23 | |
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| Bishop isn't wrong, she's just speaking from the perspective of her character. The dancers in Chorus Line are not a homogenous mob, they're individuals with mixtures of motivations, and Attenborugh clumping them all as young hopefulls was equally wrong in the other direction. Did nobody ask Hamilsch or Kleban? |
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