Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Every Little Step

I think some people avoid reality television, not for their lack of interest, but because they know as soon as they start watching they will get roped in...and they don't want to dedicate months of Tuesdays or Thursdays to which guy is chosen for the girl, who will lose the most weight, who will win the dance-off, or whether that funny British lady with the beautiful voice will win the big prize.

So, if you are someone who likes those stories, you will love the real-life documentary Every Little Step.

Every Little Step is like one of these reality shows told in 93 minutes.

Needless to say, my wife loved it! Every Little Step tells the story of the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line. The story of singers and dancers looking for a break in New York City is an emotional tale.

The story has that reality show fun because the casting crew is interesting, intense, and in a few cases are the people who played the original part.

Where this story is different than a reality television show is that the time between casting calls is incredible. Four months! Are you serious! American Idol makes a handful of stars in 4 months, and in the real world these dancers have to wait four months between cuts to see if they make the next round.

This film is also fun because the story of A Chorus Line mirrors the story of these performers as well. There's something slightly cruel and entertaining about watching people audition for a musical singing the song "I Hope I Get It."

Finally my favorite part of this film is learning about the creative process Michael Bennett used by interviewing people about dancing, and then working with Marvin Hamlisch to write lyrics out of these stories and interviews. It's a pretty impressive and inspiring creative process.

This film is a lot of fun, and wives across America will love husbands who watch it with them. Plus it's one of the 15 films contending for an Oscar nomination for documentary this year.

2 comments:

Lorna said...

just wondering: what,s the difference between a reality show (of the kind this one was) and a documentary?

RC said...

@ Loren, you're getting philisophical on me.

I guess the answer lies in the constraints of the medium -- not to mention, there was no phone number at the bottom of screen or web address where I could vote on who would play the part of Mike or Shelia.