A Chorus Line At Birmingham Hippodrome Review

DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW

Reviewed by Julie Hayward

Well, this is a full on all singing, all dancing Musical. A Chorus Line tells the story of ambitious young performers who all have their hearts set on joining the cast for the latest Broadway Musical Extravaganza. Set in the mid 70’s in New York we follow the dreams of 17 hopefuls, but the gruelling final audition will eliminate over half of them, all hoping to get this ‘job’.

We learn of their individual journeys. All are very talented, I expected the dancing to be good, but the acting and singing are equally phenomenal, and none are just part of the ensemble, all have a significant role to play. Of course, in any production there will be the lead roles, those who let the audience in and we in turn are rooting for them, I particularly enjoyed Chloe Saunders performance of, ‘Dance: Ten; Looks: Three’, as Val.

Adam Cooper and Carly Mercedes Dyer, who play Zac and Cassie, have their own relationship running alongside the main story, which adds to their characters, Carly as Cassie performs ‘The Music and the Mirror’ beautifully.

Ellen Kane’s choreography is outstanding in both the big showy numbers and some of the more intimate performances, they are truly wonderful to watch.

The stage layout is a simple audition room, the use of the dance studio mirrors, and the ‘line’ play a significant role, as does the space in between, indicating how well the audition is going, whether they are up or down stage.

The use of a camera, projects close-up images of the performers in real-time, directly to the audience, which I thought was a great way to engage with the individual performers, in such a large line-up, otherwise they could have easily been lost as part of the chorus line.

I think I would have liked the characters to have been a little more competitive and their back-stories to have been a little more powerful, but it did give a flavour of how much dedication and motivation it takes to make it and get that break into show business.

The shows running time is around 1 hour and 50 minutes, and is played out without an interval, which was just long enough to keep the momentum going.

Finally, we get to the opening night and see the polished, well-rehearsed, show stopping number ‘One’, which does not disappoint, it is rightly full of the razzmatazz we had come here for. The entire theatre erupts with applause and a standing ovation.

When I go on to watch future musical performances, I will now always bear in mind how each performer, who is confident enough to step out onto a stage, has earnt the right to be there, and I feel extremely lucky that I as part of the audience I get to be entertained by such talented people.

Rating: 4/5

Tickets cost from £24

A Chorus Line is at Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre from Tues 10th to Sat 14th September 2024

For more information and to book tickets call 0844 448 5000 or visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com

Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Birmingham, B5 4T