About the work
A Chorus Line is a musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and a book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante, premiered in 1975. It won nine Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was for years the longest-running musical in Broadway history.
Plot
At an audition for an unnamed Broadway production, seventeen dancers must compete for a few places in the chorus line. The director asks them to talk about themselves. One by one the applicants reveal their hopes, wounds, dreams, and existential fears: from their first dance class through family conflicts to the fear of growing older in a merciless profession. From the individual life stories emerges a moving portrait of the nameless artists behind the spotlight.
Cultural significance
A Chorus Line revolutionised the musical by placing the otherwise anonymous ensemble dancers at its centre, drawing on real interviews with Broadway dancers. With the anthem What I Did for Love and the spectacular finale One, it became a love letter to the performing arts themselves. The work is regarded as a milestone of the concept musical and a timeless monument to the dedication and sacrifice of stage performers.