Every Little Step

In 1974, choreographer Michael Bennett gathered 22 Broadway dancers late one night, set a tape recorder running, and asked them to talk about their lives. They did, telling moving tales of their career struggles, troubled childhoods and sexual awakenings. Those stories, shaped by Bennett and his collaborators, became A Chorus Line, which opened at the Public Theater the next year, transferred to Broadway and ran there for 15 years. James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo’s documentary Every Little Step juxtaposes the casting process for the 2006 revival with the affecting story of A Chorus Line‘s creation. It follows several performers as they audition for the revival, but we never learn enough about the individual subjects to care about their stories. For Chorus Line fans, though, the documentary is a singular sensation, filled with behind-the-scenes backstory and archival clips of Bennett himself dancing, gorgeously. Then there are those original interview tapes, kept under lock and key for 35 years, with the dancers speaking the words that, up until now, you’ve only known as lyrics.