Review of Every Little Step (2008) by Leslie C — 15 May 2009

Every Little Step is well worth seeing.

Perhaps it does try to be too many things. Perhaps it's a bit too self-conscious. But it's touching. It's interesting. It has many laughs and, for me, many tears.

Though I thoroughly enjoyed the film for the homage to A Chorus Line, what I actually enjoyed most about it was thinking about the ways 1974 and 2006 were alike and different for the theater, for dancers, for me, for the world in general.

Mostly, it reminded me of many happy hours talking about the show with my friend James. It reminded me again how much he planned to move to New York and how much I planned to stay in rural Oklahoma. Yet here we are, these many years later, him living in rural Oklahoma and me living in New York City.

You won't learn much of anything from this documentary. But did you really think you would? It's full of life and full of joy. My tears were not about the auditions, but rather were for all the young men and women who didn't live to see the revival. And for all the wonderful shows that Michael Bennett didn't live to create.

But what a what a wonderful legacy he left to us all.

Would you believe the only production I've ever seen of A Chorus Line was a high school production in Houston? They didn't even sing "Tits and Ass" in "Dance 10; Looks 3". Instead, Val sang "This and That"!