Check out the movie summary of Every Little Step by Michael The Moviegoer.
EVERY LITTLE STEP = ***
“One Singular Sensation”
The documentary “Every Little Step”, about the casting of the Broadway classic “A Chorus Line”, has now been made possible by the success of reality TV. The original show is about singers and dancers auditioning to play singers and dancers auditioning for a Broadway show. “Every Little Step” adds a step by documenting the real-life dancers as they go through the audition process.
None of this will matter to anyone who isn’t already familiar with the show “A Chorus Line”. It comes off more like an enhanced “Making-Of” bonus feature on a DVD.
But if you are a fan of the original show, there is much to learn from this documentary. For one, there’s Marvin Hamlisch offering a jaw-droppingly obvious explanation for why the “tits and ass” song is titled “Dance: 10; Looks: 3” and not “Tits And Ass”, which was always a mystery to me until now. There’s also an interesting bit of information on how Marsha Mason saved “A Chorus Line” from certain death.
Mostly, this film is documenting the casting of Broadway’s 2006 revival, but there is also a lot of excellent material on Michael Bennett and how he came to create “A Chorus Line” which is all fascinating, again, only for those who already love the show.
For the unitiated, there’s almost no way to see the show as originally performed. Absent from this documentary is any mention of the embarrassing 1985 movie version which was directed by Richard Attenborough (the director of “Gandhi”) and stars Michael Douglas[!]. Who thought that was a good idea?
The movie version eliminates two key songs from the show, “Sing” and “The Music And The Mirror”, to make room for two awful newly written songs, while treating the showstopping ballad “What I Did For Love” as a throwaway. Perhaps this documentary will make people eager to see a remake of the film version done the right way. In a post-“Chicago” world where movie musicals are no longer considered box office poison, one can only hope.
DVD Watch: In addition to writing the music for all the songs in “A Chorus Line”, Marvin Hamlisch won the Best New Artist Grammy Award in 1974 for his piano playing in “The Sting”. He composed the scores for dozens of great movies including “Same Time, Next Year”, “Ice Castles” and “Sophie’s Choice”. Celebrate the genius of Marvin Hamlisch by watching any of these great films.
Michael The Moviegoer
