Every Little Step

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Originally opening in 1975 and running through 1990, A Chorus Line was one of Broadway’s longest-running musicals. It also remains one of its most beloved, especially by hardcore theatre types. Following the story of 17 dancers auditioning for a spot in the chorus in a Broadway show, the play A Chorus Line found a loyal audience among ambitious dancers. When producers revived the show in 2006, every Broadway-calibre dancer in the country wanted the chance to play Cassie, Val or Connie. Every Little Step documents that audition process while revisiting the creation of the original show.

The segments dealing with the 2006 show are pretty standard documentary fare: directors James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo focus on a few key dancers, some of whom go the distance while others walk away with broken hearts. It’s a somewhat clichéd approach, but like blockbuster documentaries such as Spellbound and Mad Hot Ballroom, it works. More interesting, however, are the flashbacks to the conception of the original show. Creator Michael Bennett assembled several seasoned Broadway dancers and essentially interviewed them for 12 hours, collecting what would become the meat of A Chorus Line’s plot. Bennett himself passed away in the late ’80s, but several of his collaborators appear in the film and share their thoughts on the original production.

Musical theatre and dancing are clearly near and dear to Every Little Step’s directors and it’s no coincidence that the audition process of the revival mirrors the concept of the show itself (mind you, none of the hopefuls bare their souls in the same way that the play’s most memorable characters do). Still, one doesn’t need to have seen A Chorus Line to be drawn in to Every Little Step. In fact, one doesn’t need to have seen any Broadway-style musicals at all.

The world of dancing and big-time showmanship may be alien to most of us, but Stern and Del Deo manage to invite viewers in without being either too rudimentary or overly exclusionary. Like A Chorus Line, Every Little Step isn’t just a film about singing, dancing and the insular world of Broadway. It’s about dreaming, being yourself, working hard and fighting to get a job, whatever that job may be.