Tag: A Chorus Line

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A new adventure – A Chorus Line at Sacramento Music Circus

With my partner in crime, Kat Murphy

So a new adventure in the theater lies in store for me over the next ten days.

I’m currently back in Sacramento at the Music Circus where I staged Chicago The Musical last August.  I’m flattered to be asked back this year, and to stage a show near and dear to my heart, A Chorus Line.

(Regular readers of The Randy Report will know that the first half of my life was spent living in the theater.  I’m lucky to still work in this “temple” I call home.)

We began rehearsals today and the cast is really quite wonderful.  I’ll be choreographing the show, and the fantastic Stafford Arima is directing.

Also along for the ride – as I need her whenever I can get her – is my “partner in crime” associate Kat Murphy.  Kat has been my team mate for several theater productions now, and I can’t imagine these adventures without her.  She’s a formidable talent in her own right, AND she can read my mind.

I will be posting her throughout the next week, just on different timing depending on my rehearsal schedule.  So I thank you all in advance for staying with me as my posts may come at different hours.  Please check back here as The Randy Report keeps me sane connecting with you all.  This really is my time to take care of myself by being a part of the blogosphere.

For more info about Sacramento Music Circus, please click here.

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The original cast of A Chorus Line on Donahue

I hadn’t watched this in a long time.

The original cast of A Chorus Line on Donahue talking about the process and experience of creating the landmark theatre piece.

 A Chorus Line was a big part of my career for many years, and I was fortunate to work and appear with many of these fab actors – Donna McKechnie, Baayork Lee, Kay Cole, my fabulous Thommie Walsh and many others. There’s a tradition in theatre, and particularly dance, to “pass on” knowledge and skills to the next generation. And I learned so much from all of them.

This is just one segment of the show, but I’d encourage folks to go watch the other segments on YouTube as well. Cast members perform there original numbers, and talk about the pain and joy of being a part of something iconic and personal.

Baayork mentions a book that she and Thommie Walsh helped write, On The Line, about the birthing of the project on the TV show, and you can still find it on Amazon.  Simply fascinating. If you’re interested in Broadway and theatre, it’s truly a must read.

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Marvin Hamlisch, composer of “A Chorus Line,” dead at 68

Playbill is reporting that Marvin Hamlisch, who achieved theatre immortality as the composer of the iconic musical A Chorus Line, died Aug. 7 following a brief illness. He was 68.

Mr. Hamlisch’s other theatre works included They’re Playing Our Song, Jean Seberg, Smile, The Goodbye Girl and Sweet Smell of Success. His latest musical, The Nutty Professor, recently opened in Tennessee.

But it was with the groundbreaking A Chorus Line, which told of the frustrations and worries of a group of anonymous dancers trying out for a Broadway musical, that he made his mark as a theatre figure.

He was already famous as an all-around wunderkind when he began work on A Chorus Line. A child prodigy, he was accepted into Juilliard before he was seven. Before he was 30, he had received Oscars for his score and song to “The Way We Were” and his adaptations of Scott Joplin ragtime tunes in “The Sting,” which helped usher in a Joplin revival.

Mr. Hamlisch is one of only 11 people to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. On top of this, he also won the Pulitzer Prize for A Chorus Line.

I did 2 National Touring companies of A Chorus Line and due to that, I was fortunate to perform with Marvin a few times at benefit galas when the cast would be invited to perform the finale “One” and the most famous song from the show “What I Did For Love.” Marvin was always very easy to be around, but it was clear that he was a genius. And not in a cranky or showy kind of way. He was just brilliant at what he did and made things look easy – even when you knew they were not.

In an interview in July, Mr. Hamlisch talked about the emotional investment he put into each piece of music he composed.

“I’m not one of those people who says, ‘I never read reviews,’ because I don’t believe those people,” Mr. Hamlisch said. “I think they read ‘em. These songs are my babies. And I always say, it’s like having a baby in a hospital, taking a Polaroid and going up to someone and saying, ‘What do you think?’ And he goes, ‘I give you a 3.’ That’s what criticism is like. You’ve worked on this thing forever – ‘I give you a 3.’ And it’s part of you. That’s the bargain you’ve made.”

For years we’ve all seen Marvin do “celebrity music director” duty on major television specials and galas. And there was good reason for that. He really was “one singular sensation.”

Rest in peace Marvin Hamlisch.