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A Chorus Line (film)

1985 film by Richard Attenborough

A Chorus Line is a 1985 film about hopefuls who try out before a demanding director for a part in a new musical.

Directed by Richard Attenborough. Written by Arnold Schulman, based on the musical by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante.
One singular sensation.  (taglines)

Zach

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  • Let me explain what I'm doing. This is not gonna be like other auditions. I'm looking for a strong chorus... people who can work together as a group - but I'm going to try to shake you up, see who you really are. We've got some small but important parts to be played by people in the chorus. Since I need great dancers, I can't expect you all to be great actors. So I don't want anybody to try to act. You understand? Just to be exactly who you are, which is just as important to me as how well you dance.
  • I'm going to ask you some questions. What I want to know is details about yourself. Things you're proud of, things you're ashamed of. So if anybody can't handle it and wants to leave, right now is the time to make up your mind.
  • Dammit, now can't ANYBODY up there hear me! Just let your hair down! Can't you talk? All of you, just talk, to me, to each other!... Jeez!

Sheila

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  • Why is it only I ever get invited places?

Bobby Mills

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  • Do you want to know all the wonderful and exciting things that've happened to me? Or do you want the truth?
  • I couldn't catch a ball if it had Elmer's Glue on it. And wouldn't my father have to be this big ex-football hero. Well, he was so humiliated, he didn't know what to tell his friends, so he told them all I had Polio. On Father's Day, I used to limp for him.
  • I would always try to find ways to kill myself, but then I realized to commit suicide in Buffalo is redundant.

Paul

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  • [singing] Who am I anyway? Am I my resume? That is a picture of a person I don't know, What does he want from me? What should I try to be? So many faces all around and here we go, I need this job, Oh God, I need this show.

Val

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  • Every audition, I would dance rings around the other girls and I'd wind up in the alley with the other rejects. Until one day, after an audition, I swiped my dance card. And on a scale of 1 to 10 they gave me for dance: 10, for looks: 3. Well. [singing] Dance 10, Looks 3, And I'm still on unemployment, Dancing for my own enjoyment, That ain't it, kid, That ain't it, kid. Dance 10, Looks: 3, Is like to die. Left the theater, And called the doctor for my appointment to buy: Tits and ass, bought myself a fancy pair, Tightened up the derriere, Did the nose with it, All that goes with it, Tits and ass, Had the bingo-bongos done, Suddenly I'm getting national tours, Tits and ass, Won't get you jobs, Unless they're yours. Didn't cost a fortune, neither, Didn't hurt my sex life, either...

Dialogue

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Mike Cass: How many jobs are there?
Larry: 4 and 4.
Judy Monroe: 44?
Sheila: No, 4 and 4.
Larry: 4 boys, 4 girls.
Sheila: Need any women?
Zach: Tell me about the Bronx.
Diana: What's to tell about the Bronx? It's uptown and to the right.
Zach: What made you start dancing?
Diana: Who knows? I'm Puerto Rican. We jump around a lot.
Sheila: You were a rotten dancer.
Zach: Why do you think I became your choreographer?
Sheila: Sounds like God got out the wrong side of the bed.
Bobby: I hate these auditions. I don't mind being treated like puppets, but worms?
Sheila: Or merchandise? Personally, I wouldn't mind him being such a shit if he wasn't so goddamned talented.
Larry: Don't you know the combination, Sheila?
Sheila: I knew it when I was in front!
Zach: Is there anything you want to tell me?
Sheila: What do I want to be when I grow up?
Zach: Okay.
Sheila: Young. That light - don't you have anything softer?
Zach: Come closer.
Sheila: Can I sit on your lap?
Zach: Do you always come on like this?
Sheila: No. Sometimes I'm aggressive.
Sheila: My mother was kind of middle-aged and frumpy.
Diana: Whose isn't?
Sheila: At fourteen she was middle-aged and frumpy.
Zach: Is that the kind of woman your father liked?
Sheila: No. My father liked them very young, tall,and filled out in all the right places.
Connie: Connie Wong. Always Wong, never Wight.
[Zach looks up]
Connie: Bad joke. I was born in Chinatown, lower east side.
Zach: How old are you?
Connie: I was born December 5th, four thousand six hundred and forty two, the Year of the Chicken.
Connie: Tapping's not my strongest point!
Larry: I see that.
Zach: What made you start dancing?
Mike Cass: Because of my sister. She was a girl. So, my Mom decided she's the one to get all the dancing lessons. So, very Saturday my mother would take her. Once in a while she'd take me along.
Zach: How old were you?
Mike Cass: Four. Five. I'd sit there all eager and... [singing] I'm watchin' sis, go pitter-pat, Said, "I can do that", "I can do that"...
Sheila: I have a daughter. She's nine. She loves me a lot, hates me a lot. And, uh, God help her, she wants to be a dancer.
Diana: What's so wrong about that? How can anybody in their right mind want to be anything else? I remember I used to stand outside this stage door, and watch the girls come out, and think: "God, can anything like that ever happen to me?" But now I meet somebody, and they say: "Wow, you dance on Broadway? You got somewhere. You're something."
Greg: Finally I got a girl who was actually willing to do it. So, there I am, making out in the backseat with Sally Ketchum. A little of this, a little of that - very little of that. Well, after about an hour she said, "Don't you want to do anything else?" I suddenly thought to myself, "No, I don't."
Zach: Did this come as a big surprise to you?
Greg: I guess. Yeah. It was the moment I realized I was gay.
Zach: Do you ever think about what you're gonna do if you stop dancing?
Connie: For me?
Zach: Yeah.
Connie: Real life, I guess.
Zach: Well, what? Getting married, having babies?
Connie: Go off my diet.

Taglines

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  • One singular sensation.

Cast

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Dancers
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