Critical and Popular Reception
When A Chorus Line premiered, it was a smash hit with both audiences and critics. People were rushing to get to Newman Theater, the 299-seat theater where it was playing. Performances were sold out every night, and many people, including celebrities, broke the fire codes to sit on the steps of the theater when they could not be given seats. The show opened at the New York Shakespeare Festival on May 21, 1975 and began previews on Broadway on July 25, 1975, just two weeks after their final off-Broadway performance.
Off-Broadway
The show was reviewed by Clive Barnes of The New York Times in an article headlined "A Tremendous 'Chorus Line' Arrives," and he said that "Music and the Mirror" and "Finale" should become musical theater classics. Though he had this to say about the songs, he also said that the score by Marvin Hamlisch was not his best work. He went on to rave about the performances given by the cast, singling out Donna McKechnie (Cassie), Clive Clerk (Paul), Priscilla Lopez (Diana), Kelly (then Carole) Bishop, and Robert Lupone (Zach). Barnes writes, "Oklahoma! it isn't, but no one with strength to get to the box office should willingly miss it."
Barnes, Clive. "A Tremendous 'Chorus
Line' Arrives." The New York
Times, May 22, 1975, pp. 32.
Broadway
Critical Reception
After moving to Broadway, A Chorus Line was again reviewed by Clive Barnes. This time, his review was called "'A Chorus Line,' a Musical to Sing About for Years." The opening night of the show was delayed from September 28, 1975, to under a month later on October 19 because of a Broadway-wide musicians' strike, but Barnes's excitement had not be dampened by the delay. He again raved about the show, this time singling out McKechnie, Bishop, and Lopez again and adding Pamela Blair (Val) and Sammy Williams, who had taken over the role of Paul. This time, he says that Hamlisch's music could "easily become a classic Broadway score." Barnes said the production continued to be what it was off-Broadway, "one of the greatest musicals to ever hit Broadway."
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Barnes was not the only critic to love the musical. T. E. Kalem of Time magazine raved about the choreography and direction that Michael Bennett brought to the show and the way he was able to portray the ensemble. In Newsweek, Jack Kroll talked about the way that the show is almost too sentimental but ultimately concluded that the sincerity of the performers, mixed with the "tremendous" musical staging and "marvelous" lighting, makes it work.
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Awards
A Chorus Line had an incredible awards season. Five of the actors (Kelly Bishop, Priscilla Lopez, Donna McKechnie, Rubert Lupone, and Sammy Williams) were nominated for Tony Awards, all of them in their respective featured category except for McKechnie who was nominated for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. The Tonys were held at the Shubert Theater, the theater that housed ACL. The musical was nominated for twelve Tony Awards and won nine of the ten it could have possibly won (Bishop beat Lopez for Best Featured Actress and Williams beat Lupone for Best Featured Actor while Theoni V. Aldredge's costume design lost). Besides the acting awards, the show won Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Score of a Musical, Best Lighting Design, Best Choreography, and Best Direction.
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The show won other awards as well, with McKechnie and Bishop tying for Best Actress at the Drama Desk Awards, and the entire cast and creative team being given a special Theater World Award.
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In April 1976, A Chorus Line because the fifth-ever musical to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Popular Reception
The critics were not the only ones to love A Chorus Line; the musical was also immensely popular with the public. In a New York Times article called "A Hit That Was Made by the Public," Walter Kerr talks about how it was the audiences that first made the musical a success. People lined up down the block to get tickets to preview performances off-Broadway, before any reviews had been written. Much of the early popularity of the show was due to word-of-mouth, people who saw the show spreading the word about it. The show made the cover of Newsweek in December 1975, just five months after it transferred to Broadway.
