Get in line for “A Chorus Line”
‘A Chorus Line,’ one of the best-known and most loved musicals of all time, opens at Melbourne’s St Kilda’s National Theatre on Saturday, September 7.
This revival is to be staged by not-for-profit musical theatre company Theatrical, and features well known songs like ‘What I did for Love’. It also features strong connections to the Melbourne Jewish community. To explore these connections and learn more about this new production, J-Wire met with producer Andrew Gyoper and cast member Manda Rozen-Flannery in Melbourne’s Ripponlea.
Andrew Gyoper
Elwood local Gyoper told J-Wire that the show will run from 7 to 22 September. Gyoper’s father and grandparents were Holocaust survivors from Hungary. His father was born in pre-war Budapest and his parents met in Hungary after the war, emigrating to Australia after the Soviet invasion of Hungary. He expressed his excitement about the revival of the popular show to J-Wire, explaining that it was about “performers performing a show about performers.”
The original production of ‘A Chorus Line’ was a major box office and critical hit in the 1970s. It opened on Broadway in 1975, winning nine Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1976. Melbourne audiences will experience the delight of ‘A Chorus Line’ when its international cast and company come together to stage this new production at the historic 783-seat National Theatre. The century-old theatre is currently undertaking a renovation of its exterior.
Gyoper said the show was universally loved, and this new production showcased young, up-and-coming talent. He said the show was a “metaphor for humanity, with people wanting to find their way in the world.” Gyoper described the show as “a show about self-discovery with awesome music.”
Rozen-Flannery plays Sheila Bryant, and works part-time in administration at the Melbourne Holocaust Centre. She told J-Wire about her passion for the work of this important Jewish community institution. Her parentage includes familial links to Lodz, pre-Israel Palestine and Lithuania, with her grandfather arriving in Australia on 20 August 1939, just before the outbreak of World War 2. Her great-grandfather was killed in the Arab uprisings of the 1930s.
Manda Rozen-Flannery
They were both very excited about this new revival, highlighting the “really tight choreography”. Rozen-Flannery expressed her appreciation for the whole cast, and both were impressed with the “great cast” and their individual performances. Theatrical’s production features performers and company members from Japan, Paris and the United States. She said the cast were all strong and there were “17 leads”. Rozen-Flannery said that the cast included a great ensemble of dancers, “dancers who can sing and act.”
One cast member, Julian Dods (La Boheme, The Magic Flute) was selected from the National Boys Choir to perform in the iconic 2009 Qantas commercial ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ and went on to perform multiple roles with Opera Australia. In ‘A Chorus Line’, Julian shows off his performance skills as Zach, the Director who puts the dancers through their gruelling audition process.
Making their Australian musical debut is American Oscar Waters IV (Cinderella, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Mamma Mia!).
Gyoper noted the importance of Jewish immigrants in the foundations of Broadway and Hollywood, and the same passion for theatre is apparent in both the producer and Rozen-Flannery.
He said, “Choreographer Louise Panagiotidis will honour the iconic choreography in this revival, while updating it for today.”
The production features the well know score by Marvin Hamlisch, and both Gyoper and Rozen-Flannery were highly complimentary of the 20 piece band which supports the show.
Tickets are available via theatrical.com.au.
