Few shows have captured the heart of the world of theatre and the theatre-loving public as A CHORUS LINE.

Certainly, none ever lasted as long.

During its record 15 years and 6, 137 performances at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway, A CHORUS LINE enchanted more than 6.5 million theater-goers, won 10 Tony awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, a Cold Record Award ~-om Columbia Records, was produced in a wide variety of foreign languages in 20 other countries around the world. It also revolutionized the ways musicals could be presented, breaking out of the usual rigid storyline and weaving together the stories of its ensemble cast of"gypsy" dancers with show-stopping choreography and a musical score that ranged from saucy solos to a glittering, golden finale that brought audiences to their feet night after night in wide, cheering, ovations. Perhaps the secret of the magic of A CHORUS LINE is that it was created by the same people whose dreams and struggles are at the heart and nature of show business itself. A CHORUS LINE began in the living room of the late Michael Bennett's apartment, amoung a smalll circle of friends, mostly dancers suffering from the endless auditions and almost constant rejection that is part of success on Broadway.

These were not the stars and luminaries ofthe theatre world, but the mostly faceless youngsters who smile and strain in the chorus line. It was Bennett who directed and choreographed their stories on the stage with a power and even ferocity that engraved a new watermark on the history of theatre andega forged an indelible bond with audiences. As Donna McKechnie, the show'soriginal "Cassie" said, "It's about dreams. Everybody has dreams. We're all in the chorus." A CHORUS LINE opened May 21, 1975 at the 299 seat Newman Theater in the Public Theatre complex, under the auspices of the New York Shakespeare Festival and Producer Joseph Papp who had helped Bennett work out its unconventional format and presentation. It was a beginning that was to eventually ennch the Shakespeare Festival's coffers by an estimated $38 million, enabling it to support a variety of other production and present free Shakespeare in New York's Central Park. "Without it, we probably wouldn't be around and certainly we wouldn't have been able to expand our programs," Papp was quoted as saying. A CHORUS LINE, in the lexicon of show bit, was a "boffo" "socko" instant box office smash. On July 25, 1975, it moved to the 1,472 seat Shubert Theatre, where it remained until its closing, April 28, 1990. During those years, A CHORUS LINE celebrated a long string of triumphs and made theatrical stars out of the original 27 cast members and celebrtoes from the small army of 480 replacements who followed them.

It celebrated its record-breaking 3,389 performance September 29, 1983 with a production that featured past members of the cast joining their on-stage counterparts with a parade down the aisles in the gold-sequined costumes they all wore in the show's finale. It was the most magical evening on Broadway, and one that the audience members will never forget. A different kind of emotion filled the Shubert on the evening that marked the end of A CHORUS LINE on Broadway. Tears choked many of the cast's final performances and an even more emotional audience constantly interrupted with applause, cheers and their own expressions of sorrow.

When the show finally ended, Papp came on stage and introduced virtually by name all of the members of the final Broadway cast and then, one by one, called onstage many of the original cast members. He also included the name of the show's lyricist Edward Kleban, who died of cancer in 1987 and James Kirkwood, its co-author, who also died of cancer in 1989. When her called the name of Michael Bennett, who died of AIDS in 1987, a giant photo of the "Star-Director-Choreographer" was lowered from the flies. Finally, Papp turned and asked the cast to take their final bows.

Of course, this was not the end. This new tour will dance into the hearts of theatre-goers all over the country. As the Shubert's electric marquee spelled our on Closing Night in the best show business tradition, "Kiss Today Goodbye...and Point Me Toward Tomorrow."

The show is staged like an audition. Twenty-four dancers are trying out for openings in the chorus line of a forthcoming Broadway musical. Zach, the choreographer, reduced this group to seventeen applicants for eight jobs, or what he calls "four and four." Four boys and four girls - " need any women?" one of the girls says.

There they stand, these seventeen: One at a time they are made to step in front ofa white line - a line that becomes a veritable character in the show. Zach takes on a godlike, inquisitional role as he leaves the stage and, sitting in the dark, puts these candidates through an interrogation about their lives, hopes, fears and fantasies. And the victims of this inquisition - sometimes tenderly, sometimes fUnnily, sometimes terrifyingly - lay themselves bare, in words, song and dance. Their monologues are often interrupted, and we see them going on in pantomime, while other postulants speak, sing, or dance their thoughts on what is happening.

Why are the confessions so engaging? It is because they are spoken by characters whose ordinary lives are going to be made extraordinary by relatively short careers of faithfully executing complicated, but not very profound, chorus line routines on Broadway. Furthermore, the whole process takes on an extra dimension when we realize that the cast is made up of the very people who are seeking such careers. The most striking instance of this is in the portrayal of Cassie, a woman who had once been in love Zach and lived with him. Zach wanted her to be a star so she left him and went to Hollywood, but failed, and how she wants only to be back in the chorus line.

The show is about what goes in to the making ofa dancer. It is about rejection and aging. We get to know the dancers so well that toward the close when the losers are eliminated, we suffer with them, just as we rejoice with the winners. But all is not lost, because at the very end the entire cast comes back for a grand finale, one that both they and we have earned. ilnd it does not let us down. There is self-recognition by the audience, who can see themselves applauding in the mirror. This is a communion of people on both sides ofthe painted line that gives A CHORUS LINE its universal appeal.

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