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  • I think everybody aspiring broadway star dreams of being part of something as memorable and showstopping as this. All I can say is spectacular!!!

  • KICK ASS!!!!

  • Fantastic! I am a figure skater and my Ice Theater company is doing this exact choreography on ice in skates. It is incredibly difficult but so much fun. I am so glad I got to see this casts performance because it helps me understand our steps better for when we perform on the ice. ^_^

  • Incredible!

  • A stellar performance, better than 2007

  • Oh, LORD! Grow up, people...anyway, for the person who gave us the 1976 video, THANK-YOU!

  • This is clearly a difference in culture - clap away and drown the music but don't ever try it when I am performing as I will have devoted many hundred hours of rehearsal to the performance and I do not need the 'adrenalin' of screaming wannabes to help me on my way.Finally, to clarify, I am Scottish, not English, and I am as experienced a performer as anyone on here.

  • @metacarple Agreed. However, not to beat a dead horse, and with all due respect: Who do you perform for, yourself or the audience? I ask because you seem to have a superiority complex over the audience. No one forces you to invest the time you do, therefore, nothing is owed for it. You decide to do it, and therefore it is a gift. The audience just donates by purchasing admission.

  • @ndbone08 I regularly conduct choirs and orchestras and I also act as pianist to solo singers. I would find enthusiastic applause 5 bars into Der Erlkönig, the opening of Verdi's Requiem or the slow opening of the Carousel Waltz distracting and upsetting. I perform for all the members of the audience who have paid good money and devoted time to hearing the MUSIC which is being presented to them - not the noise the audience can make. The time for applause is at the end of the work.

  • @metacarple There are different audience responses to different types of work. You would not want an audience to applaud like crazy five bars into the Moonlight Sonata, but it is appropriate for this type of Broadway number. Also, although the audience sometimes applauds loudly, there is never a time when the audience applause drowns out the music. Therefore, it does not negatively impact the performance. I would guess that in this instance, the performers like the applause.

  • @ndbone08 When I am in the audience I applaud enthusiastically at the END and will also cheer if the performance warrants it but I do not cause disturbance during the performance as that is, i think, discourteous to the performers and to my fellow audience members. We clearly approach this from very different viewpoints and should, therefore, agree to differ. We are unlikely ever to be in the same hall at the same performance.

  • @metacarple I always thought I should keep quiet until the end, myself. That was until I started performing. When you're up on stage, nothing is better than hearing the audience's applause or laughter. This is, of course, completely different for concerts but as for musical theatre or plays, I love a good round of applause.

  • @metacarple Therefore events like these are more for them than for the performer. We should really just be grateful we still have people willing to pay to see us perform. Especially in this economy.

  • @metacarple - No one here is a "Wannabe". If you've rehearsed as much as you say - than NOTHING could throw you off. It doesn't matter what country you come from-completely irrelevant. I'm genuinely impressed that you are Scottish! Very Cool! Acting, unless you're doing it in front of a mirror by yourself, is ALL about conveying emotion so your audience understands the story you're telling. Clapping/exuberance is one of those emotions. Have you never done "interaction" with an audience?

  • The women have more meat on them than the women in the revival. Did anyone else notice that?

  • There has never been a Richie as good ever than Ron Dennis!

  • I saw this play in NY in the early 80s and just recently watched the national touring company perform in northern Ca. Both performances were perfect-a timeless masterpiece.

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  • Oh, metacarple!  Lighten up! If you're lucky Mummy might make you an exciting serving of room temperature custard!

  • It's wonderful to see this from 1976 when it was still new... a work of genius bursting upon the scene. And it is a work of genius, from the music to the lyrics to the choreography to the perfect performances! Bravo and muchas gracias to all who made this brilliant performance possible! It will be remembered always.

  • @metacarple

    Darling... it is because this cast is the first and the BEST! They must have done this 1000+ times to make their choreography PERFECT. No one is ignorant in any way shape or form. They are in deep admiration in understanding the significance of this piece and the making of "ART IMITATING ART" in it's importance and beauty. The audience is just excited as anyone would be when seeing something simply historical happening before their eyes. So should you!

  • @mlstately Firstly, addressing a complete stranger as 'Darling' tells me far more about you than you will ever know about me. Secondly, clapping and cheering while a performance is going on is disrespectful to the performers - you should try playing in an orchestra or singing in a choir when you cannot hear the person next to you.

  • @metacarple As someone with quite a bit of experience performing in front of thousands of people, I can assure you that most performers feed off of the energy and when the audience participates in such a manner to show their approval and excitement, it has the power to transform a great performance into a phenomenal one. Performing in front of a static audience was my greatest fear while performing. However, when an audience claps or sings along, I knew we had their FULL and undivided attention.

  • @metacarple And I can't think of anything in this world more exciting for a performer than that.

  • @mlstately Thirdly, this dreadful American habit of clapping and cheering just because you recognise the music is, sadly, creeping into British culture where it doers not belong. The day that it happens in the first few bars of 'Das Rheingold' or any other opera, for that matter, is the day that I demand a full refund. Finally, if you like having the performance drowned by applause, that's fine, but I DO NOT have to accept it.

  • @metacarple OH my goodness - you are English! You can't know anything about anyone unless you come over & have a lovely "person-to-person" talk. I am sure you & I would get along fabulously. Come to America & I would personally invite you to tea. I am a theatre actress so therefore understand the stage beautifully. We do what we do as the song says "For Love."  So I'm sure you are as passionate as I. I wish you good luck & hope that no one EVER ruins your songs with too much applause!

  • @mlstately I know many open-minded English who aren't nearly "wound as tightly" as this one. We do have those in the States, as well. Thank you for responding w/class and superior wit. Continue approaching life with this positive attitude. Too much negativity in the world.

  • Everyone should have something in their lives which excites them to the point of uncontrolable applause; that which forces them to toss etiquette out. I've done ACL twice in Syracuse, once in Springfield, CT and once in Dallas, TX. The audience's exuberance is ALWAYS appreciated by the artists. Ain't in it for the money!

  • don't understand why, but THIS version of the song gets goose pimples (sorry for spelling, I'm Finnish) on my skin ... no matter what's the media: LP or YouTube. Thank You!

  • Look at the looks on their faces and how happy they all look! Priscilla Lopez and Roland look absolutely stunning; they make the routine look like they're at home while doing it. Flawlessness, and the epitome of what a performance should be, right here.

  • no cast will ever top cast!

  • Franly, I'm having a hard time believing that I'm seeing Kelly Bishop! All I can think of is Emily Gilmore

  • god wut it would've been to be a part of, or witness in person at the time, a show that has come to single-handedly define broadway!!!! stunning!!!!!

  • The sound is awfull!!! What a pity!

  • i've seen chorus line 10-12 times. i saw the cast in LA when it was more than half intact, but without mckechnie. each time i saw another generation of chorus line it got worse and worse. CL requires the full cast to be top notch, unlike most musicals that rely on a couple of stars.

  • I got this cast album for my 16th birthday (1976) and begged for ticked to the touring company that played Columbus,Ohio in 1978 ($7.50 for Sat Mat Orch Tiks) Best show ever! I listened to the album everyday for about 7 years! My roomate freshman year in college bought me headphones so he did not have to hear ever again!!

  • I love it! I wish I had been present back then.

  • @prisoner6ful I know whatchya mean... sigh... (:

  • I saw the show at the Shubert in 1979...was the original cast still there? It was incredible...never forget it!

  • @evret0503 The original cast of ACL was long gone by 1979. Most of them left or were in tours by 1976. I saw the original Broadway show 28 times - seeing literally everyone who had ever been in the show. The originals were not necessarily the best and there were several Cassies who were overall superior to Donna McKechnie who was certainly the best dancer but could not act.

  • The opening night of A Chorus Line was my first ever Broadway opening, July 1975, I had just graduated high school and was with my parents in NYC.

    The show was electric, I fell madly in love with Kay Cole (Maggie) and half way through the One Singular Sensation finale the crowd was on their feet cheering madly. I never wanted it to end.

  • I've seen Chorus Line presented by "Broadway touring companies" many times. I never got to see the original cast on Broadway, just videos. The live touring companies are good, but they just don't measure up to the original cast. They were magic.

  • You can FEEL the energy in the room - and the singing sounds fantastic!

  • Adknorh,

    I remember the original cast too, and totaly agree. Powerful, precise, they had an engery and passion that following cast's couldn't match.

  • I disagree. While the original cast was fantastic, the real hero was the story. I saw A Chorus Line for the first time when it was showing for its last year on Broadway (before the revival). The energy, power, and precision was with that cast as well, except they never reached notoriety because the show was spent and the current cast never had an original cast recording.

  • OMG, this dance is so much fun. I got to, out of my ENTIRE school, take this calss at our 2010 thespian conference.

  • I've got chills.

    This is so awesome.

  • everyone loves a kick-line.

  • i swear that freddy from queen last person to the right :p

  • Amazing. I remember watching the 1976 Tonys as a kid. Take a look a the 1976 vs. the revival - the 70s cast is much cleaner, and far more exciting.

  • It's the lighting. I love the 70s cast, but the technology in the 70s is so much different than today. If the lighting crew today could replicate a method to produce the same elicitation from the audience as the 70s lighting on a kick line, then it would work. What's amazing with this video is they replicated the lighting from the show. I've never seen this done elsewhere and the kick-lines never have the same impact.

  • Wonderful! Nice precision & energy!

  • crazy, crazy, crazy. this was in 1976 simply timeless. so simple

    yet so powerful!

  • so shiny...

  • Great performance and ageless talents...Donna, Tommy and Kelly were specially MAGNIFICENT and I am glad I have met ALL of them, especially Tommy before he died. Golden Era.

  • I think that Kelly Bishop is the girl seen on screen when the "and you can forget the rest" line is sung.

  • doesn't this song just make you feel good? i love it!

  • What I also love about it, it shows Kelly Bishop who later was cast as Lorelai's mom in Gilmore Girls. 1976. It's hard to believe the show's been around that long.

  • She's sensastional in Gilmore Girls. Finding out that she was in a chorus line and that she won the tony for it completely blew my mind.

  • I watch Gilmore Girls re-runs every day. Can't get enough of Lorelai and the rest of that crazy family and town. As for Kelly Bishop's character, what a broad. You gotta love her.

  • Woooohoooo!!

  • This show made me laugh and love! :)

  • that applause is CRAZY! how can you not get excited while watching this?!?!

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  • must say this:

    Idina's? No. Wicked is a good show, yes, but to compare Defying Gravity to songs like this and And I Am Telling You?

    Not very comparable.

    Songs like "The Ladies Who Lunch" or "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" will live on.

  • I would disagree. I think Defying Gravity is a great example of a defining broadway moment. I do agree, however, that perhaps we might need to wait a while to see how defining it becomes compared to something like "One" or "And I Am Telling You".

  • Classic and timeless. Who would not be a smash with such a real winner of a show? Who does not enjoy dancing?

  • I LOVE THIS man!!! This makes me shed tears A Chorus Line nothing but the original cast!! I love the 70s man!!! Dig?!

  • Love the shots of Gilmore Girls' Kelly Bishop!

  • Omg i totally wouldn't have noticed that!!!

    I had no idea!!

  • I just had the opportunity to spend some time with Donna M on a Theatre At Sea Cruise as a member of The Theatre Guild. She is fantastic and what a performer xxx from Australia

  • @chersparkle OH...I am soooo jealous!!!!!! Donna M is MAGNIFICENT! Tell me more about the cruise, please!

  • Can you imagine what it must be like to dance on a Broadway stage to applause like that???!!!! WOW!

  • Yeah there was so much energy, joy, appreciation and fun in that huge ongoing applause...... It seems like that audiences dont sound like that at todays award shows.. Is this true? I dont have a tv

  • Donna McKechnie in the original show of The Chorus Line, 1976

    Incredibly grainy, but you can still pick out McKechnie's jazzy moves and oh-so-high-kicks (a colour version of the same number from 1988 is also on YouTube). As the original Cassie, the star on the slide who's desperate to get into the chorus (a role based largely on herself), McKechnie won a Tony. One helluva singular sensation...

    FROM the UK newspaper Observer's Top 50 arts YouTube postings

  • im sorry over this freddy thing but even his ass looks like freddy...ugh i wanna know who that is? its a clone

  • o please baby, there were so many gay guys who looked like freddy mercury in the 70s you can't count 'em

  • That was Sammy Williams, who played Paul San Marco not Freddy Mercury. I was 'Richie' in the original show and only black guy on the line and the one singing 'Gimme The Ball' at the end of the 'Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen' section of that vid clip. Hope this helps? Ronald Dennis

  • does any one have a playbill? to see if that was freddy?

  • that guy looked like freddy mercury!!1

  • He totally did!

  • thnx you know were im looking? at the right of the screen last guy! i thought someone would be like im crazy...but i wonder?

  • i was a year old, barely

  • Same here! I wasn't alive for another five years, lol. This song and dance is what Broadway and Musical Theatre are all about!!!

  • I love how crazy the audience went when they started. Fantastic, I wish I had been alive then. lol.

  • oh my god...that choreagraphy is SO hard..try doing it every single tuesday and thursday..*shudders* BUT I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!

  • The absolute BEST cast of this production!!

  • Best show ever. I lived in Manhattan then and saw A Chorus Line in 1976,1977, 1979. My hubby and I took my sis, his brother, and we went twice. If I recall tickets were $25/$30.

    What made Chorus Line unique was it the way it captured the real personalities of the actors. It never seemed they were acting a part. I've seen two productions since. But neither had the electric energy of the original.

  • I saw this at Broadway's Schubert Theatre in 1979... my first visit to New York and I had a $10 standing room ticket... and 29 years later I am still saying the finale was the most spectacular thing I ever saw.

  • When you walk into the Schubert...it is like walking into Notra Dame...you think about what has been on that stage...OMG. And whilst there are so many powerful shows...if you saw Victoria Clarke who is amazing in Light in the Piazza or Raul Esparaza in Company and his "bring down the house" performance of Being Alive...there is still nothing more magical than The Chorus Line strutting their stuff...saw it in 1979 at Butler University's Clowes Hall and I enrolled the next day. Just breathtaking.

  • Dear Chevychase- do you still have your 1979 Playbill? I was doing Cassie then from Dec. 1978 through Oct. 1980- when I headed out for Michael Bennett to do Cassie at the Desert Inn. Love and so glad you loved the show. Cheryl Clark

  • I love the Show !!! Are you also in the original Chicago?

  • holy crap! I was pretty moved by the 2007 Tony performance, thinking, "ok, maybe there was a reason for a revival," but that doesn't hold a candle to the energy of this!

  • This also seems to have so much more precision than the revival. The dance may not be uber hard but the challenge is in making sure every move is exactly identical, and this lot masters it, snaps for the OBC!

  • yep. the original was ABOUT them

  • Yeah, I don't know why the 2007 performance at the Tonys was so much less spirited than this one. I've seen the finale in the show on Broadway (just a few months ago) and it's much more powerful than they did it at the Tonys last year. It was more like the one in this video. Very strange.

  • agreed times 4000. this kicked the 2007 cast's butt.

  • Ok call me a broadway geek, whatever. This 1976 Tony Opening BLOWS the 2007 Tony opening all to hell. I don't know maybe it's the audience from 07 or the dancers. All I know is that in 1976 there was no way in hell you could sit still in your seat after the first few bars of this song being played. I have loved A Chorus since I first saw it many moons ago.

  • Chorus Line (especially the original) is utterly amazing! I'm so glad you got this up here, it's so great to see! Nothing could possibly top this show. It's not just a musical. In essence, it is Broadway. And that's just terrific.

  • If you look real close you can see Kelly Bishop (Emily Gilmore on the Gilmore Girls) man, she has hardly aged a bit!

  • Now THIS is where it's at!

  • nooo... i know they did both at the 2007 tonys, but they did the opening at the 1976 tonys also, its on here, or it was, it may have been deleted... but i saw it, cuz it said "the 1976 tony awards presents the cast of a chorus line..." then they went into i hope i get it...

  • they did 2 performances at the tonys? was that a special one time only thing? cuz they also opened the tonys with i hope i get it. was i hope i get it just as an opener and that was what they really considered the "performance"?

  • I think you're thinking of the 2007 Tony Awards. This is from the original cast at the Tony Awards in 1976. :)

  • We did the opening number and the finale on the Tony Awards show in 1976. I was 'Richie' the 'Gimme The Ball' guy and only black person in the show. 6 of us originals are living in Los Angeles and few in New York and some scattered around the country and we are all in touch in one or another a few times a year. 4 of our original men have passed on but all of our fine women are just great and living well as am I. Hope this answers your question.

    Light & Dance,

    Ronald Dennis

  • I was a mere child of 24 when "A Chorus Line" premiered. Your "gimmetheball" bit was the best part of the Montage. And (if I'm not mistaken) you're probably the first person to say "sh*t" on an original Broadway cast recording..... LOL

  • My wonderful (and gay) brother introduced my sister and I to A Chorus Line. We listened and sang until we knew every song. We became addicted and were despondent that we couldn’t afford to fly to New York to see the show. I can’t remember how many albums we bought between ourselves that were eventually “borrowed” and never returned. You captured a time and an essence in midflight which will never be replicated. Thank you for such fabulous memories and hope! With love and kindness

  • @poltallach

    Your very kind words and memories mean very much to me. AIDS took a huge swath through the male members of ACL in those days before the HIV meds became life savers. Michael Bennet and Nicholas Dante who brought the story idea to M.B., both died from AIDS. Many men in other companies also were AIDS casualties.

    What those men would now performing if alive! >SIGH< R.D.

  • @ronalddenniswatson

    Oh the thoughts of what those men were capable of!

    AIDS was (we hope former) a horrible disease and we lost so many wonderful people, particulary men in the early days, due to the stupidity of callous and homophobic organizations. Government perhaps?

  • @ronalddenniswatson My mother took me to see this when I graduated HS in 1976!  I am from a family of actors and was a dancer and gymnast so I appreciated the skills and athleticism. Bravo!! So, now I am taking my HS grad to A Chorus Line in January 2011 in Palm Desert. I wish I could go back in time so she could have seen you and the others in the original. I was so lucky to have seen it. And now I can't wait to see again with my daughter too!! Blessings to you.

  • @ronalddenniswatson Best Musical of all time!! Glad you are well!

  • @ronalddenniswatson Sir--You were wonderful on the original cast album. I was wondering if you and the other cast members who provided the "raw material" for the book and characters of the musical have finally resolved the thorny issue of royalties for the show, which I understand is still a sore spot with some of you.

  • @ronalddenniswatson

    what did you think of the revival cast?

  • @ronalddenniswatson Dear Ron ~ I saw the next to final-before-the-Tonys performance of A Chorus Line and remember watching this clip live the next night! Can you believe it took me 28 years to track down Donna M to sign my programs? And she did! A true shining moment in theatre history. You were all so wonderful!

  • @ronalddenniswatson You are AMAZING. Thank you for sharing your talent!

  • @ronalddenniswatson

    Had the honor to perform this wonderful piece of theatre. I know that during the original production, there were some "issues" within the cast, but nevertheless I bet it's wonderful to be part of Broadway theatre history! I hope Ms. Baayork Lee & co. plans to do another more "faithful" film version (on the big screen or TV) to honor the memory of Mr. Bennett and the original cast than to live forever with that crappy Attenborough 1986 movie misfire. The movie sucked.

  • @ronalddenniswatson Thank you so much for sharing. One of the greatest musicals ever made

  • @ShortySOM If there was ever a story of my life, this musical would be part of it. It really made me fall in love with performing on stage (not as a dancer, though, as a singer). I swear if it wasn't for A Chorus Line, I wouldn't have ended up performing in the West End as I have and intend to do again. See the film 'Every Little Step' about the 2006 revival, for how 'real' auditions are done, never mind XFactor rubbish. It really persuaded me to relaunch myself. Wish me luck!

  • The choreography isn't even that difficult; it's just cool! And the visceral thrill of the wave-like upstage retreat going into the last chorus is galvanizing. The level of energy that buoys this is precisely what's missing from the slavishly faithful (but timid) recreation on Broadway now.

  • Wow! I wish I'd seen the original in 76 but I was too young. I saw it last year on Broadway and it was magnificent, but this performance seems better to me.

  • Gosh I would kill to see this! I love the soundtracks to both the original cast and the new cast recording!

  • Yankeeangel is right, the applause from the audience is just unbelieveable. I don't think any Broadway production will ever match the combination of the 1st rate cast with a landmark musical of this magnitude. Arguably the greatest moment in Tony broadcast history.

  • Love the mustaches. I don't know when they'll come back, could be a hundred years or more, but they'll come back.

  • I just saw this on Broadway-it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!

  • anyone know or heard of my uncle Franklin Keysar? he was stage manager for this show i think late 70s early 80s as well as phantom of the opera, driving miss daisy, etc he worked in NYC a i miss him, he died of liver cancer...i have never seen chorus line. maybe some day.he sent my gram the record when it came out and my cousins and i would dance to it!!! im so proud of him when i watch these clips.he was such a cool guy. thanks for posting

  • Was at these Tony's to see my good friends Ronnie Dennis & Sammy Williams! The most electrifying evening ever! The audience just couldn't get enough of this cast! Sammy took the Tony for best performance!

  • I watch the Tonys pretty much every year, and I don't think I've heard applause like this at any of the performances. Truly amazing.

  • i always love a good kickline haha

  • Who doesn't?

  • Absolutely love this - classic broadway at its best. Seems like these dancers are alot older than the ones they get now - or is it just me? Loved seeing the original cast like this. Too bad we are so obsessed with youth and super skinnyness now a days. I like maturity.  Anyway thanks for sharing the video!

  • It does seem like that but I think the styles of the 70s aged people more than they do today.

  • that's what it was like in the theater (the Shubert, if I remember) - every night for 15 years - the applause ran solid through the whole last verse of the song, you could hardly hear them sing. It was something. I saw it twice, in 1975 and 1977

  • I saw it in Atlanta at the Fox where it broke national records on its three week run in 1979. The audience was on their feet cheering and applauding through the entire song.

  • Wow the crowd was Roaring like crazy never seen at the tony's a crowd like that! But it's an honor just to see the tony's from then and the original cast of a Chorus line!

  • the first cast and the essence of michael bennetts choreography... still brilliant after all these years

  • Wow...only if the revival was this good.

  • absolutely phenomenal. even with the flagging video and audio quality the power and energy of this unforgettable number come though.

  • weeeeeehaaaaaa "one"...the best

  • yeah it's a little off... they kick on the cymbal crashes, here they're not kicking on the cymbal crashes

  • the video's off just a little bit...

  • beautiful!

  • I love this song!! Its one of my favorites!

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