A Chorus Line – that’s the theatre show about being in the theatre.

For those who are in the showbiz clique, whether in Canberra or on the Great White Way in New York, it’s a kind of an “in” musical.

It’s also quintessentially a dance musical, like 42nd Street, Chicago or An American in Paris, with a storyline that sees director Zach and his assistant Larry auditioning dozens of hoofers with the purpose of getting an eight-member chorus for a new Broadway show. 

Along the way, they elicit individual stories that distinguish one dancer from another, but you have to wonder whether Zach and Larry could get away with that level of intrusiveness these days. 

It gives substance to the roles. 

Connie complains about the curse of a dancer, her height, while Sheila, Bebe, and Maggie reminisce about ballet, Bobby reveals an unhappy childhood and Cassie fights to join the chorus rather than take a solo part.

Ironically, it is the non-dancing character of director, Zach, that is the pivotal part and a plum role for “straight” actor, Michael Cooper.

He’s the one, Cooper tells me, who steers the plot through the fiction of a weird audition process.

That echoes the real-life work workshop process which was pioneered by creator Michael Bennett before the musical finally made it to Broadway in 1975, with music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and book by James Kirkwood Jr and Nicholas Dante. 

In the show itself, Zach and his assistant Larry put a huge line-up of dancers through their paces, but in real-life that part falls to well-known local choreographer Michelle Heine, who takes on the role of director, working, so Cooper tells me, through the strengths and weakness of the differently-skilled dancers, since not all of them are trained in the precision of Broadway dance.

“If tap’s not their strong suit, she shifts them around,” he says. 

Cooper’s own character, Zach, is beset with doubt since, although he’s had some Broadway experience, this is a step up to the limelight for him. 

Central to the plot is Zach’s re-ignited relationship with Cassie (Ylaria Rogers), which ended acrimoniously. 

Controversially, in one early version of the show, Cassie didn’t make it to the final eight, but there was such a public outcry that the creators gave in and that had to be changed. 

“It’s the pivotal plot relationship”, he says, “as soon as Cassie walks through the door I feel every emotion at seeing her – I’m enjoying playing that.”

Cooper, who works by day front of house at Canberra Theatre, says his background is more in farce and physical theatre than dance and his last role was the creepy guy Roland in ACT Hub’s production of Present Laughter.

“This is my first musical,” he tells me, “so I’m jumping in the deep end.” Happily, while he does have a song, he’s not at the forefront of the dancing.

In the show, he loves the way the different chorus members are individualised so that at the end they get their individual bows before the entire cast lines up in unison for the glitzy showbiz finale. 

But from his point of view, the real high point is the big blow-up between Cassie and Zach, who can’t comprehend that she doesn’t want to hit the heights as a solo performer, but is happy to assert the validity of being in the chorus and summed up in Cassie‘s number, The Music and the Mirror.

“We play this with heart and emotion,” Cooper says. 

A Chorus Line, The Q, Queanbeyan, September 20-October 19.