A CHORUS LINE: A CD Review

To celebrate the 40^th Anniversary of A CHORUS LINE, Masterworks Broadway gives us a new remastered edition of the 1975 Original Broadway Cast recording. But the big news is it includes eight bonus tracks from the show’s 1974 workshop, sung by composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Edward Kleban. Among these tracks there are three songs that were cut from the score: “It’s All in Here”, “Joanne” and “Shoes” (the best of the three).

I’ve to confess that I never forgave this musical for wining the Tony for Best Score in the same year that the superior CHICAGO opened. Nevertheless, I always enjoyed the Marvin Hamlisch & Edward Kleban songs and one of them, “One”, is among my favorite show tunes of all time. But there are other great theatre songs here, the moving “Nothing” by Priscilla Lopez, who later will lead the company with the beautiful “What I Did for Love”, the amusing “Dance. Ten; Looks: Three” by Pamela Blair and the dramatic “At the Ballet”. There’s also the great Donna McKechnie giving her all in “The Music and the Mirror”.

A true “singular sensation”! If you still don’t have this score in your music library, now it’s the time to get it and if you already have it, I’m sure you will like to have the new bonus tracks.

Rate: 9 (from 1 to 10) / Photos by Martha Swope