One Singular Sensation

A Chorus Line changed the way we think about dancers forever

Michael Gruber, center, as Zach and the cast in the national touring productionat the Hobby Center.
Photo by Paul Kolnik
The cast in line. Updating the show isn't really a concern for director BaayorkLee. "What's changed are the dancers. They spin faster, jump higher and sing onpitch," she says. "We started the triple threat term. After Chorus Lineeverybody needed to act, sing and dance."
Photo by Paul Kolnik
Lee has directed several productions for Theatre Under the Stars. "I loveHouston, I've done some serious Tex Mex eating there," she quips.
Photo by Martha Swope
The story of casting the recent Broadway revival of "A Chorus Line" ischronicled in the 2008 documentary film, "Every Little Step."
Photo by Paul Kolnik

Rummaging through an old issue of Dance Magazine from the early 1970s, I found an interview with Michael Bennett. He had just finished Promises Promises, a huge Broadway hit. He wondered if he was done, if that was it, if he would be a one-hit wonder. He had no idea what would come next.

I wanted to whisper through the yellowed pages, "Michael, relax, you are going on to create A Chorus Line, the longest running musical in Broadway history. It will change the way we think about dancers forever. You will win seven Tony awards and the Pulitzer prize. You will be known as the father of the "dansical" and pave the way for Moving Out, Contact and other dance-based musicals. It will be big.

How's that for "what's next?"

Bennett holds a special place in my heart for two reasons. First, he's from Buffalo, my hometown. He studied with the legendary Beverly Fletcher and went on to become Buffalo's most famous dance son. Second, he told the real life stories of my tribe, dancers. A Chorus Line was culled from interviews with real life Broadway gypsies. Bennett gathered a room full of dancers and turned on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. At one point he says into the microphone, "Our lives are interesting, there could be a show here, and it will be called A Chorus Line."

Bennett holds a special place for Baayork Lee too, who is in town directing A Chorus Line for Broadway Across America at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. The role of Connie was based on her life. "I was the short Asian who wanted to be ballerina. Who would want to hear about that? Yet, Michael thought my story needed to be told," remembers Lee. "It was great. I didn't need to act, i just had to be myself."

Dance boomed in the 1970s. "Jane Fonda had everyone even dressing like dancers with leg warmers, dance bags and leotards," recalls Lee.

Lee went on to see many a Connie tell her story. "Early on, I remember spending too much time with the role and realized I was losing sight of the whole. I was an unemployed Broadway dancer then, I am not that girl anymore. I am a director and choreographer."

Houston has seen many of Lee's works. She directed The King & I, Bombay Dreams and another company of A Chorus Line for Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS). "I love Houston, I've done some serious Tex-Mex eating there," she quips. "Bill White even gave me the key to the city on Asian Heritage Day."

At some point, Bennett wanted to move on to other things and handed Lee the reigns. A Chorus Line had become a huge machine by then, with simultaneous shows in Los Angeles, Chicago, Australia, London and New York. "Go east, be like Christopher Columbus," Bennett told her. "This show can be done anywhere, from a flat bed truck to a huge theater. The important thing is the people on stage. We have to know them, feel for them and understand what we do to get a job."

Updating the show isn't really a concern for Lee. It happened in the 1970s and it's still set in the 1970s. "What's changed are the dancers. They spin faster, jump higher and sing on pitch," Lee says. "We started the triple-threat term. After A Chorus Line everybody needed to act, sing and dance."

The story of casting the recent Broadway revival is chronicled in the 2008 documentary film, Every Little Step, where you get to see plenty of footage of Lee auditioning many a "Connie."

Like many, Lee wonders what Bennett might have gone on to do. He had a five-picture deal with Universal before he died in 1987. "He could have done anything, film for sure, maybe even politics. Michael was larger than life. He dreamed big. He was so ahead of his time. You know, A Chorus Line was the first reality show."

A contributing editor at Dance Magazine, Houston and Dance Source Houston, Nancy Wozny blogs at dancehunter.blogspot.com.

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Movie Review

New horror movie Faces of Death puts a modern twist on cult classic

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy — in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks — is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

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