Every Little Step

The directors of Every Little Step achieve their intended goal: getting the viewer's tear ducts to well up at least a couple of times, as we observe the travail of Broadway aspirants and young veterans vying for the coveted roles in a revival of A Chorus Line. But as a film and especially as a non-fiction (documentary) film, it is a complete failure. Instead of learning something, we are treated to at best misinformation and at worst a calculated distortion of history.

First of all, a documentary about the genesis of A Chorus Line in the mid-1970s and its impact makes sense -certainly it is a pillar in Broadway history and deserves that sort of attention. Its 2006 revival made a lot of money and entertained a lot of people, but is hardly a footnote in theater history, and does not merit this attention. So the subject of this documentary takes on a more universal theme, drawn from the play of course: "I Need a Job", and how difficult it is to compete with about 3,000 other people at auditions to get one. Sounds like "American Idol" and its many early weed-out episodes each year, and that is about the level of achievement here.

The distortions are crucial errors, either of omission or just plain intentional. The writers of the play, James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, are hardly mentioned at all, and this film leads the viewer to automatically infer that Michael Bennett created A Chorus Line on the basis of his marathon audio taping session of dancers, from which the play's characters and content were derived. The dancers Tony Stevens and Michon Peacock, who concocted these tapings in the first place, also get short shrift. Of course Bennett receives and deserves the lion's share of the credit and goes into the history books as Mr. Chorus Line, but to leave out his collaborators, especially as important as Kirkwood, is ludicrous. It took Pauline Kael to point out (quite forcefully) that Citizen Kane = Orson Welles was an exaggeration, bringing screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz back into the equation. The parallel in blowing up the director's contribution here is obvious.

Similarly, there are entertaining interview segments here with composer Marvin Hamlisch, who delightfully credits Marsha Mason with making a key suggestion to Bennett re: the fate of the character Cassie -that is one of the film's most informative moments. However, the film ultimately gives Mason, just a fan in the audience basically, more time and credit for A Chorus Line than Edward Kleban, who is never mentioned at all, yet wrote the lyrics for all the songs! Pretty damning omission -reminds me of the latter-day cult of Burt Bacharach -hardly ever mentioned in tributes to BB is Hal David, who wrote all those classic lyrics to Walk On By, Look of Love, Close to You, What the World Needs Now Is Love, Do You Know the Way to San Jose and so on.

I can see the cop out already: "we weren't making a film about A Chorus Line but just about the revival". But Bennett and especially the audio tapes leading to the original are central subjects in this film, so there is no excuse for distorting the record.

I grant that there are memorable moments in Every Little Step -such as the soon-to-be-legendary footage of an audition for the role of Paul by Jason Tam. But this is just footage culled from hundreds of hours of pseudo-vérité documenting of the 2006 auditions and rehearsals. The principals, especially director Bob Avian and his casting director, are on their best behavior because the cameras are running -the supposed "truth" of what we see strikes me as about as authentic as the whole corpus of Reality TV (I'm exaggerating, but the fallacy of cinéma vérité needs to be emphasized over & over again). What we have is more of a promotional video for the revival (who needs it?) than a documentary film, with about as much value (apart from preserving Tam's highlight for future excerpting) as the thousands of Making-Of promotions created for nearly every crappy movie coming out of Hollywood.

I think some of the reviewers have mistaken Every Little Step for a documentary on the creation of A Chorus Line. It was a documentary on casting the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line with some archival information. The archival information did focus on Michael Bennett and Marvin Hamlisch was interviewed extensively, but to say that it excluded others is, I think, way off base. This was not a documentary on the creation of A Chorus Line. The contributors were all listed at the end of Every Little Step.

Having said that I thought the archival information was very interesting. Some of the original recordings were played and they appeared to be included in the play almost verbatim, not to diminish the fine work of Kirkwood and Kleban. They showed the various singer/dancers competing side by side, or singing a song line by line with one doing the 1st line, another doing the next and so one. You did hear some songs multiple times but certainly not to the point where it became annoying or anything.

Very interesting and entertaining to see how the cast was put together, who they chose and who they didn't. I HIGHLY recommend this film.

When I go to the movies, usually I watch the action-adventure, thrills and chills-type films, but i decided to take a break from them and focus on something like documentaries. Because sometimes the mind desires peaceful things. I need to balance my Yin and Yang.

Usually documentary movies are focused on big issues, like AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE and FAHRENHEIT 9/11. But as of recently, I ran into documentaries based on thing no one has ever seen or heard of. Like THE KING OF KONG: A FIST FULL OF QUARTERS about two video game champions and EVERY LITTLE STEP.

Now about that film, I found it interesting to watch and I learned about not only the story of the revival, but the story of how the show itself got started back in the 70's. And I found out how tough it is to be in showbiz ("Eat nails!"). The surprising fact is the the people in charge of the 2006 revival of A CHORUS LINE were actually veterans of the 1975 production and it was based on the lives on some of the stars. Surprising eh?

I can't wait to watch the DVD of this film, I can't wait to see what the film-maker was thinking.

All in all, I highly recommend it.

A Chorus Line and I came of age right around the same time, so it has not only an aesthetic appeal for me but a nostalgic one as well. I've seen several live versions and of course the movie, which could never measure up to any live performance just because of the nature of the subject, but made the show accessible to those who couldn't see it live. I did not know what to expect upon viewing Every Little Step, but how could I be disappointed given the subject matter and its irresistible music?

Reviewers here have criticized a variety of omissions in the film, charging that it is inaccurate and/or incomplete. However, I see Every Little Step as more of a multi-media magazine piece than a documentary. How amazing to listen to the interviews with the dancers back in 1974 which provided the inspiration for the musical! I thoroughly enjoyed the blending of footage of original auditions and performances in the 70s with the current audition process for the 2006 revival. Though I was disappointed not to see auditions for Morales and wondered why some of the stories were not completed, I did learn some things in retrospect that I had never known back then (eg, the Kelly Bishop I always enjoyed in Dirty Dancing is the Sheila I have been listening to all these years on the Broadway cast album). The film successfully engaged me emotionally and made me realize that it is A Chorus Line which inspired my interest in American Idol throughout these years and why that show continues to be a separate entity from these other wannabe reality shows. ELS also sent me right to the internet to dig up more Chorus Line history and cast info and You Tube performances to keep me involved and singing all afternoon, even after finishing the extra features on the DVD (there are plenty). What a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

I didn't set out to be a critical viewer of this film, only to find out more about this timeless piece, and I enjoyed every little step of it.

I saw "A Chorus Line" on Broadway in the early 80's and didn't like the play. The movie, with Michael Douglas, is terrible. However, being a Cinophile, I was interested in seeing a film about the trials and tribulations of performers auditioning for a part.

The film had a good balance of the history of the play, the past performers and performances, and the new hopefuls. It was interesting to see that the audition process, with callbacks, went on for months. From the start, you can see the long odds against a performer being chosen. Three thousand people competing for thirty opportunities.

I laughed, cried, cheered, and felt the heartache of those who pursued their dreams. Happily, I would see the film again.