A Chorus Line delivers a timeless message to today’s audience – the value of work
By MARRIE STONE
Photos by Jason Niedle
As theater doors reopen after two years of pandemic darkness, few musicals hit closer to home for their cast than A Chorus Line, which runs at the Laguna Playhouse through June 12. This string of actors relates in new ways to old roles. They’ve all been out of work for a while. They’re eager, they’re hungry and they’re ready to return.
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William Nelson (top) stars in “A Chorus Line,” directed and choreographed by Luis Villabon
“My character is auditioning for this show. She hasn’t worked in two years and she’s just desperate to get on the stage and dance again, in whatever capacity she can,” said Katie Van Horn, who plays the role of Cassie Ferguson, former love interest of the show’s director. “With the pandemic, it’s been exactly two years for me not being able to dance. It’s crazy how on-the-nose it is. Just like the musical, this opportunity arose and I feel so lucky.”
The 1975 musical opens on a bare Broadway stage with 17 dancers auditioning for a few coveted spots on the chorus line. The director (played by Jonathan Van Dyke) puts them through their paces, grilling each applicant on their backstories and why they want the part. The irony is that we learn each character’s unique story just as they aspire to dissolve into the anonymity of the chorus line, whose beauty and power is homogeneity. One of the musical’s major themes – the sacrifice of individual stardom to work selflessly and tirelessly as a team – feels resonant at a time when our culture is at once pulling apart while recognizing the need to pull together.
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AJ Love, playing Mike, (front) stars in “A Chorus Line”
When A Chorus Line debuted almost 50 years ago on Broadway, our country looked a little different. Discussions about sex and homosexuality still felt taboo. News about scandals within the Catholic church hadn’t yet made headlines. Plastic surgery wasn’t so ubiquitous. Not to mention, back then, Broadway directors tended to bully their casts. But universal issues endure. Theater remains a tough industry for actors. Roles are hard-fought and self-doubt lurks in the background of a business that requires confidence.
Couple these evergreen themes with iconic music, compelling choreography and a young cast of enthusiastic dancers and you’ll experience A Chorus Line like it’s never been done before. The production feels both nostalgic and topical at once.
“Our cast is young, vibrant and just starting out,” said Van Dyke, who plays Zach, the director of the chorus line. “Many of them share the qualities of the characters they play, so it feels real. We know these people. We are these people.”
Van Dyke, who turns 50 this month, played the role of Mark in A Chorus Line when he began his career at age 24. “I feel so grateful to have this show come back to me 25 years later in a very different role. I now have a much deeper understanding about the show, but also about life, the theater business and how special A Chorus Line is.”
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Jonathan Van Dyke, playing Director Zach (front), stars with the company of “A Chorus Line”
For director and choreographer Luis Villabon, the cast’s youthful post-pandemic energy has been a boon. “They’re very young and I have to tell you that makes them very eager and attentive and hungry, especially after two years of not doing anything with respect to their vocation, their passion and their art.”
Villabon has a long history with the show. He was mentored by Tony Award winner and original Broadway cast member, Baayork Lee, who gave Villabon his first acting job 30 years ago and has since hired him as an Associate Director/Choreographer for many productions of A Chorus Line, both domestically and abroad.
“What’s kept me engaged in this musical is the brilliance of the piece itself. It’s a timeless, universal message about doing what you love to do, and trying to survive and thrive within that craft/vocation. It’s a vocation that some of us choose but, in some cases, it chooses us. Right now, I feel like it chose me and I had no choice but to throw myself into it.”
How have his perceptions of the show changed over those three decades? “The only way the show changes for me is how deeply I can connect with it. It shocks and surprises me that, after 30 years of doing this piece, I’m finding new things about it that I hadn’t thought about before,” said Villabon. “As I get older and learn things about myself, the show serves as a mirror and reflects my lessons back to me. It’s remarkable.
“For example, it has taken me a long time to understand what self-love means. I recently discovered self-love at the age of 47. This is going to get a little deep, but I realized that when I was a young man I was searching for two things – my career and love. I felt very love empty. I was trying to fill that love hole by desperately looking for partners or relationships. I was 20 when I first did this show. I wish I could tell my 20-year-old self: love yourself enough to give yourself the gift of doing what you love to do, rather than looking for someone to love you to fill some need. Go do what you love, which is this craft. Pursue it as much as you can and, in doing so, you will elevate your vibrations to meet other people that have loved themselves enough to do what they love to do. There you will meet your partner or your love. Giving yourself the gift of pursuing the craft will be enough to sustain you. You don’t even need someone else.”
“What I Did for Love” – which debuts in the penultimate scene after one of the auditioners suffers a career-ending injury – speaks stronger to Villabon today than before. “The song is about how this craft, this gift, that we’ve been given is only ours to borrow. Zach poses the question: What do you do when you can’t dance anymore? Well, the ultimate answer is found in the response, which is our anthem: ‘Kiss today goodbye, the sweetness and the sorrow. Wish me luck, the same to you. But I can’’ regret what I did for love.’ That is at the crux of the love of your craft. But, in my older and wiser days, I also find it to be my love for myself.”
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(L-R) Kristen Daniels, Natalie Kastner and Ellery Smith star in “A Chorus Line”
“We are very lucky to have Luis Villabon at the helm of this production. He started with the show in 1992 and has done maybe hundreds of productions as a performer, but later began to direct and choreograph a variety of tours and productions around the country and around the world,” said Van Dyke. “Luis had such a connection to the original because that’s how he learned it. It’s a real gift because he got to know the show and learned it from people who were involved in the original production. So he has stayed really true to the original show.”
The strength of Villabon’s direction is his close relationship to the material and his willingness to honor the text while giving his cast some freedom. “Every actor is a little different, so there are moments we want to be sure to hit,” said Van Dyke. “That’s the mark of a wonderful director – to have a clear picture of the past but allow us to take our own journey.”
Still, the dancing is difficult (as it’s made out to be in the script), so it becomes a kind of meta experience for its actors. “The role is very physically demanding. I have a 10-minute-long number, so it’s been challenging,” said Van Horn, who plays Cassie. “Even before rehearsals began, as soon as I found out I got the role, I started taking cycling classes and making sure my stamina was where I needed to be. It is quite a daunting role, but I’m very lucky to be working with someone who has trained so many Cassies and knows what it takes to get a performer to that place. I’m putting all my trust in Luis and doing the work. But it’s been tough.”
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Katie Van Horn plays the role of Cassie, former love interest of Zach
“The writing is so good and timeless,” said Van Dyke. “Obviously, this was created for an audience to feel and be moved by this show. But performers feel it on a completely different level. It’s very emotional to be a part of this because it is all too real. Actors experience all of these things on a daily basis – the good, the bad, the heartbreak. Of course, there are positive things that happen in your career, but the show is a constant reminder of the ups and downs and the short window of opportunity that performers have.
“Actors constantly put their hearts, their talents and themselves out there to be judged. So it’s good for an audience to not only be entertained and moved and drawn into this story, but also see the truth and see how a performer’s life actually is.”
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The company of “A Chorus Line”
The Tony award-winning musical features music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban. It is based on the book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante.
“A Chorus Line is a love letter to performers, and it is amazing to be able to start off our summer by honoring those who keep bringing us back to see theater live,” said Executive Producing Director Ellen Richard.
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“A Chorus Line” is now playing at the Laguna Playhouse through June 12
For tickets and additional information, visit the Laguna Playhouse website at https://lagunaplayhouse.com/.