The Broadway revival of “A Chorus Line” will launch its national tour with a May 6-17, 2008, run at Denver’s Buell Theatre.
The news is not as big as Disney having chosen the Mile High City to develop its Broadway-bound “The Little Mermaid” this summer, but Denver hasn’t been selected to kick off a major national tour since “The Lion King” in 2002. That run was completely sold out for 10 weeks.
“The Buell Theatre is a great house for musicals, and Denver audiences have always been very responsive and supportive of musical theater,” said producer John Breglio.
The Broadway revival of “A Chorus Line” opened Oct. 5 and was perhaps the biggest event of the last New York theater season. The musical, a character-based look at the brutal audition process, was faithful to the original that opened May 21, 1975, and ran for nearly 15 years, closing in 1990 after 6,137 performances. It won the Pulitzer Prize and nine Tony Awards, including best musical, best score and best book. .
“A Chorus Line” hasn’t visited Denver as a national tour since 1997.
“The touring productions of the original ‘A Chorus Line’ enjoyed great success during multiple engagements in Denver, and we are thrilled to return with this new production,” Breglio said.
The Broadway revival’s creative team will reprise its duties for the tour. The director is Bob Avian, who co-choreographed the original production with its director, the late Michael Bennett. For the revival, Baayork Lee re-staged Bennett’s original choreography.
Her assistant was Denver choreographer Michael Gorman, who also directed “A Chorus Line” at the Littleton Town Hall Arts Center last year. The Broadway cast features Mara Davi, 22, making her Broadway debut as Maggie. Tony and Kathi Davi raised their family in Highlands Ranch and
moved to California when Mara was 14.
The Broadway revival of “A Chorus Line” recently recouped its initial investment of $8 million 19 weeks after opening night, after 157 performances and 18 previews.
Denver’s selection continues its recent rise in national prominence. “The Little Mermaid” will be developed here and open at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on July 26 in preparation of its Broadway run to follow.
After Denver, the “A Chorus Line” tour will shift to the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles from May 21-July 6, 2008. Other cities under consideration for initial tour stops include Philadelphia; Seattle; Toronto; Washington, D.C.; and Portland, Ore.
The book was written by James Kirkwood (“Legends”) and Nicholas Dante, music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by the late Edward Kleban.
