Original subtitles

Hi. Thankyou verymuch forlistening to the commentary ofEvery Little Step.

L'm Jim Stern, one ofthe directors, along with mypartner, Adam.

This is Adam Del Deo here, one ofthe directors as well,

-and we have a big treat with us today. -With the great, great Marvin Hamlisch.

Hi, l'm Marvin Hamlisch, and l'm the composer.

This is:. As l look at New York, l'm reminded that, in 19í4,

when the show opened, it was 'í5, whateverit was,

and l was actuallyat the Final Four in Philadelphia,

at the Philadelphia Spectrum. And it was a fairlyboring game.

It was about a 30-point game, l think, that Michigan was beating Rutgers,

and l was with Doug Meyer, who was mypartnerin producing shows.

L'd done about 1Gshows.

And we decided to go and try to go to Broadway,

and we ran out ofthe Spectrum

and hopped on a train, which wasjust leaving,

and made it to Broadwayat about 8:00:. About í:55,

and ran the entire way to 45th St.,

andA Chorus Line wasjust about to start.

It was 8:03, and a couple handed me two tickets

andsaid:. We had long hair and had no moneyand no tickets,

and we walked in,

and that was the fifth performance ofA Chorus Line on Broadway,

and it changed mylife.

So here we have footage ofthe original intercut

with a bunch ofthe open callbacks.

This was an opening title sequence.

Jim and l had looked at a handful ofdifferent opening title sequences,

but we thought a great way to set up the film would be able to show, visually,

some images ofthe contemporaryaudition process.

Andsome great iconic shots ofRobert LuPone right here

as Zach, iconic shots from the originalshow.

Right, one ofthe things that's interesting is thatAdam and l made two other films,

...So Goes the Nation and The Year ofthe Yao,

and in both those cases, the films changed dramatically

from what we ended up with to what we thought we were starting with.

ButA Chorus Line, even though it took us overa year to edit,

it ended up actuallycoming back verymuch full circle

to what we thought we were going to do. And we really thought that

to start with the opening number was exactly the way we should go.

Andyet, at the end ofthe day, we had hadso many other openings in mind.

Interestinglyenough about the opening number

thatyou might find interesting is that, when we were originally writing the show,

-this was not the opening number. -Really?

Yeah, and l've always found that you don't find out what the show's about

untilyou've written the whole show, and then you go back

and change the opening number.

Our original opening number was called The Résumé,

and the onlypart ofthe original number that we kept is coming up right now,

which is to do with the eight by 10 glossies.

-Wow, how much:. -This was called Résumé.

And then, after we finished the whole show, we went back andsaid,

"You know what the show's reallyabout? 'l want thisjob."'

And we went back and wrote the whole thing over.

How much extra didyou end up writing?

Not verymuch. We were veryluckyin that respect.

We didn't write:. Maybe one or two extra songs at most.

One had to do with the Cassie song,

because Michael felt that the original one

was hard forhim to choreograph to, 'cause it was called Inside the Music.

And it didn't have mirrors, it didn't have the things that he needed,

and there was one othersong that we tried for, like, a day,

and we decided that didn't make it.

And we decided that didn't make it.

That was Megan Larche youjustsaw, who was the associate casting director,

and Megan was quite, quite charismatic, andshe's all over the movie,

and we're thrilled to have her.

In thatshotyoujustsaw from above, we actuallyhad convinced:.

There was an elevator there, a glass elevator, and we had convinced the securityguard

to let us take that elevator up to the top ofthe building andshoot that.

So, we're glad he took ourbribe.

You know, when l first got to New York, firstshow l did, l was an assistant director,

and the show was probablypaying a couple hundred dollars a week,

and l remember, l came to the auditions, and there was about í00 kids

to audition for this show forabout $200 a week,

-and this reminds me ofthat. -l think the one thing that is really true

is having now almostspent most ofmylife

going through and watching the audition process,

there doesn'tseem to be a better way, you know what l mean?

Itseems like this is always the wayit is,

which is, people come in, they want it desperately, theyneed it to live,

and when it's all over, it's all about how good are they

and ifthey're even right for the part.

It's sometimes so painful to tellsomeone who's reallygood that theyjust aren't right.

You know, it'sjust a wrong fit that day.

I was trying to tell mydaughter, who's 13 andshe'sjuststarting to audition for things,

for fun mostly, but:. That it's not always about ifshe's the best.

Itjust can be that they wantsomeone who's 2 inches shorter or 2 inches taller.

-Right, right. -This footage here was incredible to shoot.

We hadso manycameras, and at the end ofthis day,

there were so many faces that we saw, andyou knew the math,

you knew that there was only 20-plus roles available.

Andyou start crunching the numbers on 3,000, andyou think,

"God, these people, what's driving them to be here

"and be competing in such a massive sea ofotherauditionees who are so great?"

"And be competing in such a massive sea ofotherauditionees who are so great?"

So you really find out theylove what theydo.

Anotherinteresting thing about A Chorus Line that l find amazing is that

some ofthe people were so helpful,

-who told theirstories:. -Right.

Then we come to audition, and then theydidn't get the part,

which was really what they wrote.

-Right. -Theiractualstory.

We found otherpeople who told theirstories better.

Which is:. You think to yourself, "That's impossible."

Orsometimes, in the case ofDonna, she shows up in two different roles.

Right. Exactlyright.

This is important. This is Jessica Lee, who becomes this iconic figure.

There she is when she was a kid.

Actually, she was playing the role ofMike here.

So she actuallydid this show four times as a kid,

andshe's become, sort of, the iconic, almost legendarycharacter

that comes to New York out ofnowhere, and from nowhere, ends up in the show.

And that's:. We were hoping, as filmmakers, we would findsomeone like that

who could represent that idea.

Because Broadwayis, kind of, a true meritocracy.

-It's one ofthe last meritocracies around. -Right.

Want to thank hermom for that archivalpiece right there.

Thanks fordigging that out for us.

And:.

Yeah, this is Jessica coming to New York, and:.

You're gonna see herhere in one second at her:.

I love whatshe says here.

I feel like ifyou have something to fall back on, you'll fall back.

"Ifyou feel like you have something to fall back on,

-"you'll fall back." -And there's her first audition.

This is the audio tapes that was reallysomething:.

Such a special element forJim and l

that we were considering when we decided to make the movie.

John Breglio had told us that he had these tapes.

They were locked up in a safe deposit box. No one had everheard them,

and when we firstput these on and listened to them,

we werejust, you know, jaw dropped. lt was striking.

Forme, l've been a part ofBroadway forso long, this was the stuffoflegend.

I got chills when l heard it for the first time.

It's a veryspecial, unique part ofour film to have these tapes

and be able to integrate them in.

You know, when Bennettsays,

"l don't know what it'll be. l don't know where it'llstart,

"where it'll end, but ljust know it'll be calledA Chorus Line,"

l mean, that's where we reallyknew, "This is the beginning ofourshow,

-"and maybe even the bookend ofthe film." -Right, absolutely.

-Have you heard the tapes before, Marvin? -No, no, no.

-Must have brought backsome memories? -Yes, yeah.

Interestinglyenough, Ed Kleban, who did the lyrics

and who was such an integralpart oftelling the story:.

Because, ofcourse, you've got the storyin the book,

and then theyhave to continue in the lyrics. He was Mr. Research.

He was the kind ofguy that, ifit was up to him,

he'dstill be researching ifhe were alive today.

He used to take out every one ofthese people, l'm not kidding you,

and he would take them out and he wouldpay fordinner for them,

and he would talk to them and take a yellowpad with him.

And then he wouldplay the song that we wrote.

He wouldplayit, like, tryit out on people.

I wasn't like that at all. l was like, "Don't tell me too much.

-"Let the character tell me." -l'm like you.

-You know what l mean? -Less is better forme.

Yeah, less is much betterbecause l want to infuse it with my own thoughts,

and hopefully, ifl'm hitting the right things and ifthe lyricist is doing the rightjob,

we'll connect, you know?

Iproduced The Producers and Hairspray on Broadway,

And l did not even go back and re-watch either ofthose films.

-Right, right, right. -'Cause ljust wanted to be

an absolute audience member

-andpretend that l didn't know anything. -Right, right, right.

So Michael:. We're gonna find out some ofourkeycharacters

in this nextsequence coming up.

When they first met Michael Bennett, this was:. He was obviouslyextremely:.

I love when theyshow him dancing. l think that it's:.

It's extraordinary how gifted a dancerhe was.

I had no idea. Here.

This is incredible.

Just watch when he starts reallykicking it out.

Right here.

-That's some groovystuff. -That's some groovystuff.

The thing about Michael Bennett

that l think is reallyimportant to understand is one thing,

when you wonder whyhe was so good.

I mean, when you think about it, he's a choreographer, he's a director, why?

L'll tellyou what it was. lfyou had him in a room

andyou spoke to him about the project, he was okay. He was okay.

The minute you put him up on a stage, the brain started to work like a genius.

So l always knew that ifwe were gonna talk about changing:.

That's whatpeople sayabout me, too.

-Really? -No.

So therefore l knew that every time l was gonna have a meeting with him,

most ofthe time l wanted it to be in the theater.

Because, somehow or other, he could get up on thatstage and relate,

and he would come alive and his brain would come alive on the:.

Interesting. Reallya creature ofperformance.

-Exactly. -That's interesting.

Here's anotherclip his brothergave us, Frank DiFilia.

Thanks, Frank, this is an awesome:.

Tell me a little bit, Marvin, 'cause l've always been curious about this.

It feels to me like Bob Fosse is, sort of, almost this spectral figure in this show.

-Yeah. -But l almost feel like Zach is part Michael,

but he's almostpart Fosse, too.

I thinkso. l thinkyou're probablyright.

I think he's really the amalgam ofsomeone who's that talented and who is:.

I think he's really the amalgam ofsomeone who's that talented and who is:.

Who is something that we're losing now, which is the directorlchoreographer.

-Right. Verymuch. -There are not that manypeople

-who do that anymore. -No.

No, certainlynot from a creating-the-showstandpoint.

Also interestinglyabout Michael, which is interesting,

as rough as he could be:. Andyou don't reallysee that as much in the film.

I mean, he could be tyrannical at times,

-but the truth ofthe matteris:. -That's like Adam, he can be:. No, no.

His team, he held on to.

He held on to Bob Avian. He held on to Baayork Lee.

-He was very true to these people. -And they're loyal.

-So he must have inspired a lot ofloyalty. -Absolutely.

And l think he was inspired for two reasons.

Number one, l think, was because people who understand howsmart he was,

you want to be around that.

I mean, what a great thing it is to know thatyourleader,

the guy who's going to fly the plane,

the guy who's going to bring the ship into port,

knows what he's doing. That's a verygood feeling, you know.

I mean, l've worked on shows

where l have been very, verynervous about ourleader.

-Yes, absolutely. -l neverreally felt nervous about it.

I always felt like, "We're going to get there." And the nice thing about the workshop was,

there wasn't a clicking clock.

-Right. -There was no time limit here.

I mean, we werejust taking our time and getting it done.

I love to watch the comparisons ofthese dancers.

The one thing that l think that we're reallyable to capture in this:.

And again, l've been behind,

probablynot auditioned as manyshows as Marvin, but close.

You rarelysee the comparison. You don'tsee it in reality television.

You don'tsee howpeople are all mashed up against each other,

which is what we do.

So nowyou're seeing the most common answer,

that, "You're not gonna make it here." This is:.

The large majority ofourcontestants don't getpast the first round.

Yeah, that's too bad. l liked her. She was so sweet.

There's Baayork, a real:. You met hera little bit earlier,

butshe's a real force ofnature.

Just an unbelievablyenergetic, amazing, creative person,

and l'm veryhappy to have herinvolved with the movie as well.

I think that one ofthe otheraspects ofthis is,

all these people are auditioning, basically, forchorus parts.

Andyou know how many times they've probablybeen told, "No"?

-You know, l mean, it's awful. -l was saying to somebody that there was:.

You know, 3,000people audition, so 2,980 don't get in.

-And they're all auditioning the next day. -Exactly.

May I see the following people?

-You see that? -lt's a prettygoodscore, by the way.

Whatyou're hearing now, that feeling, was allput in after we had the fullscore.

Is that right?

Yeah, because that's when we realized how desperate these people are.

Sometimes youjust write an opening number

so thatyou have something. Yourcurtain opens, thisjust happens.

Butyou don't reallyput it into:. Let's say it doesn't reallygo into ink fora while,

because, as the showprogresses, you realize, slowlybutsurely,

the things that come out ofthe show that are the important things.

And I Hope I Get It became, absolutely, the most importantpart

ofwhat we needed for the opening.

To get thatsense ofurgency. "l've gotta have this. l'll kill for this."

Were you aware, when you were writing the opening number,

How revolutionaryit was to not have an opening number

in the way that:. You know, in this way? lt's verynontraditional.

Now, since Sunday in the Park with George and all these othershows,

itseems almost normal.

But at this time, it must have been revolutionary.

Well, what l was veryaware of was how much underscore

and how much, you know, recitative there was in the show.

That's what l was veryaware of. Not that anyone reallybrought that up.

Not that we were told in a review, "Yes, that's true," but there reallyis.

I mean, this show, ifyou look at it, has tons ofunderscore

and tons ofrecitative.

I love all these little moments backstage, where you capture people doing:.

So nervous.

-Speaking ofunderscore, we actually:. -He's the onlyperson, by the way,

who doesn't know how to pronounce this name in all ofNew York.

Speaking ofunderscore,

so we tried to actuallyincorporate that in our film as well, Marvin, you and l.

-You can hearjust little pieces ofmusic. -lt's wonderful.

Here's an example, right now, wejust drop it through the film and try to create some tone

and give itsome texture.

-But not too much. -And tension.

And tension, but not too much.

And here is, you know, the guts ofwhat the movie is reallyabout,

which is thatpeople auditioning for, in this case, Baayork,

who is the actual Connie, so it becomes a story within a story within a storyhere,

and Baayork has a verystrong point ofview about whatshe wants,

and thatpoint ofview gets set up against Bob, the director,

and then we cut back to Baayork telling about herlife story.

So it's all:. And that is a kind of:. You know, it's something that:.

Adam always references Fellini's 8jl2 at this point.

Yeah, we wanted to really:.

We were looking atparallels that existed between ourcharacters

and the originalshow,

and there was a lot ofmulti-layering, as Jim wasjust mentioning,

that we were able to do with Baayork's character.

And we tried tojust make this seamless as much as possible,

so the audience, hopefully, is not too conscious ofwhat's going on

in an overt type ofmanner.

Well, the thing about making a documentary like this is, exposition is everything,

but it can never feel like exposition, oryou're dead. And that's the trick ofit.

Yukajustseems like:. To my outside eye here, shejustseems so perfect,

andyet Baayork looks at heraskance

thatshe's going to essentially be playing her.

And to me, she's sort ofthe ideal.

It's always hard for the girls, 'cause I'm sitting there

and I'm demanding so much from them.

-Is she American born? -Hey, Yuka?

-Yes? -Where were you born?

-I'm from Okinawa, Japan. -How Iong have you been here?

And this was a scene we wanted the vėritė to play out.

We really wanted to milk this scene and let the audience feel the scene.

We tried actuallynot to cut as much as possible in this scene,

'cause it was such great organic verbiage here.

That's right. When making a documentary,

there are times when you want to comment on:.

As a filmmaker, comment on whatyou're watching,

andsometimes youjust want to let itplay out.

Well, you know, one ofthe questions l always get aboutA Chorus Line is,

"Did we know that it was going to be such a success?"

The answeris, "Absolutelynot," number one.

And number two, the thing that itseems to be,

And number two, the thing that itseems to be,

the reason it's so successful, and l think it holds up better today, actually,

l'll tellyou whyright away,

but it's because everybodycan relate to something in this film.

-That's right. -l mean, everything is relatable.

And l think what reallyhappened over the years that itstarted

and now coming out with this documentaryis that,

when itstarted, the whole business about homosexuality

seemed to be the scene that everyone talked about all the time, you know?

About thatparticularscene, which is, by the way,

one ofthe reasons that we didn'tsing in thatscene.

-Thatscene is left alone. -Yes.

We didn't even attempt a song. Just left it alone.

And that's because why?

Because we felt, at that time, that l didn't want to touch it in any way.

I wanted it to be as honest as possible, as the storyis. lt's a wonderfulstory.

I mean, speaking ofsomething that's incrediblyrevolutionary, also,

to have an eight ornine-minute monologue in a musical

is absolutelyastonishing, from a structuralstandpoint,

andyet it's pulled offbrilliantly.

Yeah, and then what happens is that nowadays thatscene

becomes almost the least, let's say, revolutionary, and other things,

other things thatyou didn't even think about before become more important,

which has a lot to do with what's happening in the world right now.

And the fact that we care much more seems to be about otherpeople,

and because we do care about otherpeople, that has started to come to the forefront.

And l think that's, in a way, a verygood blessing

ofA Chorus Line, now.

Speaking ofsexuality, this is a great audio tape:.

This is a wonderfulstory, yeah.

:.where Marvin, at the beginning ofthe session, he opens up,

-in a way, in a more subtle:. -Michael.

:.yeah, Michael, in a much more subtle version about his sexuality.

Verypowerfulstuffhere.

I kept feeling herboobs.

And this is funny, too, 'cause this also turns into the montage,

which is also greatstorytelling.

You know, the montage, which you'll hearin the film itself,

you talk about how that would've taken so much stage time.

-It gets allshrunken down. -Yeah, right.

It's great to see Bob then, versus Bob now. That's also funny.

Bob actually, when he saw this footage, he called us andsaid

he was in shock. He forgot he had that big ofa mustache back then.

I think what he said was he thought he looked like a terrorist.

That's what l think he said, but maybe l'm wrong.

-You're looking good, Marvin. -That's me. That's it.

-You're looking good. -And there l am, 92years old.

What are you doing there? Are youjust conducting or:.

-Yeah. -Wow.

And about four or five weeks Iater I get a phone call from this genius.

And the genius says that he wants me to come back to New York now,

'cause he has an idea for a show, and he wants me to just drop everything.

Now, you can imagine.

Where'dyou live in Los Angeles?

L'm trying to think. l think at this time, ifl'm correct:.

-That was a bold fashion choice, by the way. -Yes, yes. Thankyou.

I think, in Los Angeles, l didn't have a house oranything. ljust was renting, l think.

What didyou think when you saw įust the amount ofthese transcripts?

Well, you know, the thing was that:.

It was all done:. Well, the transcripts were unbelievable, reading them,

but when it came to writing forit,

it wasjust a question ofhaving enough room on the floor, literally, to put:.

The montage was written, so you know, literally, where l took the bestparts

ofwhat l thought were the most interesting parts, put them on the floor

and then decided to write the framework

which was Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love.

How much ofthe transcripts didyou actuallyread?

No, no, no, l read a lot ofit, but lpulled out only the stuffthat l liked.

And then we wrote Hello Twelve, because, you see, otherwise you're stuck

with having to tell everybody's story.

The show would've been 19 hours, you know what l mean?

-And real dull, you know? -Right.

But having the montage really turned the show around.

I mean, l think the two things that turned it around was that andAt the Ballet.

-I think those two were reallyimportant. -Yeah.

-Michaeljust had his hands up:. -Yeah, how big it was.

How big it was, andyou werejust doing the same thing.

That obviously was a ton ofmaterial.

Didyou have a lot ofcontact with Joe Papp?

Not that much. A little bit, but not that much. He was verynice to me.

-Yeah. -l'llsay that.

...that day as the Day ofthe Towering Inferno.

I mean, it was the most overdramatic,

-melodramatic... -Indulgent.

Must have gone on for four or five hours.

You were there for the "Day ofthe Towering lnferno"?

Yeah.

...okay, we're only on four now, and we've got how many?

During the rehearsalprocess, was Donna more part ofthe creative team

than the rest ofthe people, ornot really?

Ifshe was, it was done very quietly, because Michael didn't:.

I mean, listen, we all knew about Michael and Donna,

so that wasn't a big secret,

but he didn'tseem to try to give heranymore

-than as she was being in the cast. -Right.

It's amazing, actually, when you think about:. Except forKellyBishop,

she's really the only one who's, sort of, had a biggercareer

-out ofA Chorus Line than in A Chorus Line. -Right, right.

-Out ofA Chorus Line than in A Chorus Line. -Right, right.

...and edited it down and added a few more songs.

So now comes the second workshop:.

I have to say that when l first heardAt the Ballet,

that day when l first came to see the show, l never forgot. l was shocked.

I mean, itjust, it is:. lt's such stunning and moving storytelling.

Well, that, to me, l mean, Ed Kleban's brilliance is right there.

Because remember, most ofthose stories:. All the stories are true,

and he took those stories and made the verses.

You know, he made the verses be the story, number one.

But coming up with, "Everything is beautiful at the ballet,"

is his distillation ofwhat they've allsaid.

And that's Ed, all the way, and that was brilliant.

And how did James Kirkwood fit into this team?

-Well, he came in much later. -Yeah.

And James Kirkwood basically was brought in:. l mean, l know that:.

-I love this. This actually was Adam:. -Exactly.

Adam's idea, which was to take this

-and actuallymake that a visual for the film. -Which is wonderful, so:.

Well, l mean, James came in later and came in to help us,

-particularly with transitions. -Yes.

Because one ofthe things about the show was, "How do you get

-"from one thing to the other?" -Sure.

You know, the hardestpart ofthis whole show actually,

when all is said and done, afterall the regularstuff,

l think it was three weeks' worth oftrying to find one line

-to getyou into What I Did for Love. -Wow.

What I Did for Love became the real cause ofa lot oferuptions.

There was the gang ofpeople who didn't want it in because it was very:.

You know, it was trying to be a hitsong.

How didsomething like "l dug earrings out ofthe car,"

which is such a personalstory,

and then itshows up in this incrediblyiconic song,

how did the actor who wrote that orsaid that about her own life

feel about it being in front ofthousands and ultimatelymillions ofpeople?

I have no idea.

I onlyknow that, that was the agreement that was made before theyspoke.

I mean, there was this agreement made that everyone said, you know,

"This stuffcould conceivably get into the show."

There's Patrick, the musical director. He was such a great guy to shoot with.

What l noticed, and actually what John Breglio told me as well,

is that the audition process in the newproduction

could have neverreallyhappened without him.

Patrick really walked all ofthese auditionees vocally through the process,

a lot ofpeople that hadpractice but neededsome fine-tuning

andsome minoradjustments. Patrick, as you can see in the film,

and especiallyduring thatscene in At the Ballet,

he would give adjustments in small notes here and there that really:.

He reallycared about all these performers, and he really would do whateverhe could

to make sure that they were singing as best as possible,

and like lsaid, l can'tsee this process going as smoothlyas it did without Patrick,

and l know John Breglio and Bob Avian felt the same.

"But I've got to dance." I mean, anything to get out ofthat house.

But everything was beautiful at the ballet

l will tellyou one thing that l learned, seeing this film

and working, you know, on the original.

In the old days, people who auditioned

were eitherreallydancers who sang orreallygoodsingers who danced, right?

Nowadays, everybody's a triple threat.

Every one ofthem can dance, can sing and act,

and iftheycan't, they're not even gonna get close to the theater,

because with the wayprices are now and how things are going,

everyone has to be able to do everything. lt's amazing.

This is interesting. Let me askyou a question.

I heard Elton John on a talkshowsaying

that one ofthe reasons why music isn't as strong todayas it was

is because ofsinger-songwriters.

He said thatsometimes, in the old days,

he said there were people who werejust greatsongwriters.

-Theycouldn't reallysing. -Right.

And he said there were people who were greatsingers who weren't trying to write.

He said thatseparation actuallymade for betterchoices in the material.

Do you feel that the cast are as strong today as they were before,

when people have to do multiple tasks,

as opposed to when there was more specialization?

Well, l actually think that what's changed, in terms of:. lfyou're talking aboutsongs,

l think what's changed is notso much that the writers can't write these songs

orcannot write a song that's hummable orcannot write a song thatyou remember.

Simply what has happened is

the book has become so much more important

that now, ifyou write a song that is trying to become the hitsong, say,

itsticks out like a sore thumb, almost.

Look, Elton John, at any time he wants to, can write a number-one record.

I mean, hejust can.

Andyet, even in his shows, there hardlyare anysongs that live.

And the reason theydon't is because we've all become:.

Unfortunate choice, by the way, from Megan here, this shot.

This is what tells you thatyou should not actually trust,

you know, documentarians, so:.

L'm not telling anything she hasn'tsaid to us, by the way.

I mean, l think what's happened is that we've become so:.

Trying so hard to write to character, andso, you know:.

Rememberin the old days, the oldstory used to be,

you know, boymeets girl, boyloses girl, boygets girl.

Ijust want to saysomething before. l love this section, too.

Didyou knowyou were writing this difficult ofa note, Marvin?

-This is so hard. -Yes, l knew:. l was writing it forKay Cole.

-ForKay Cole? -Kay Cole got thejob andshe had the note.

And we needed it. We neededsomething:. l mean, l remembersaying to Michael,

"l'll trade you one Kay Cole for two dancers."

I mean, we got down to that.

But afterKay, didyou have a hard time trying to cast this, like this?

-Yes, absolutely. -Did it drive you crazy?

A little bit, yeah. Listen, the girl who came in and couldn'tsing,

we gave her the part, and l immediately wrote I Couldn't Sing.

-But, boy:. -This girl. This girl can do it.

When it works, this song, my God, l get chills every time lsee it.

Well, this girl was amazing.

When l heard her, ljust went out ofmychair.

Isaid, "Oh, my God."

-I also love the wayshe smiles. -Yes.

-Hersmile tells you so much grief. -Absolutely.

-That's the beauty ofthatsmile. -lt's a survivor's smile.

-Exactly. -Yeah, l agree.

-There it is. Look at that. -Yeah. l love that. Yeah.

Great camera work here. Perfectzoom out.

-I think Dominic shot that for us. -Yeah.

"That's where l want the score to be. l want that kind of:."

Yeah, see how we use a little incidental music there to:.

You know, as lsay, this score

was a two steps forward and one step back thing,

'cause you had to find the tone ofthis thing.

This is notyournormal opening number, pow, pow, zam, boom.

This is all finding characters andstufflike that.

And it took a while.

...steps forward and says, "Well, the day I turned..."

Didyou ever work with anotherdirector as involved in yourprocess as Michael?

No.

And l'll tellyou why, though. l think l had an absolute:.

I idolized Michael, l did,

and l think, therefore, you looked at him andyou figured to yourself,

"Well, he knows what he's doing, so let me take the direction from him 'cause:."

-'Cause you trusted him. Right. -l trusted him.

Ifyou don't trustsomeone oryou don't knowsomeone that well,

-you tend to almost trustyourselfmore. -Sure. Ofcourse.

Andyou almost want to wait to see how the collaboration goes, you know?

So this scene, l think, Jim, this is the firstscene

-that we cut musicallyin the edit room. -Yes, yes.

We were trying to get these songs to come to life cinematically

and be able to move through sequences, not dissimilar to whatyou were doing

-with At the Ballet. -Right. Exactly.

This is where Fernando, who is such a great, great collaborator ofAdam's and l:.

He really feels music, and he was able to reallycome in here and reallycut this,

and this is the first time:. Firstpart ofourmovie that Fernando really:.

You really feel his cutting, in terms ofmusically.

Yeah, we told him to put his foot on the pedal and let it rip,

and to getyouranecdote in here, which is unbelievable,

and also be able to watch the real-life auditions.

-All in one. -That's right. That's right.

Underscore.

It was the first time that we were handed a program.

This is an example of, you know, in film, where you can't let anything be stagnant.

Even that little tinymovement ofthe program,

everything's got to move and flow, otherwise, you don't know why,

as an audience member, you're sort of feeling distanced and removed.

You're not, sort of, on the edge ofyourseat. You're sort ofpulled back.

'Cause, you know, everything has to be fluid with camera work.

And finding thatprogram wasn't easy.

Kathryn West, ourassistant editor, had to track that.

There wasn't a lot ofthose Tits and Ass programs out there.

L'll bet.

They came to the Iyric, "tits and ass," it got a Iaugh.

Tits and ass Yes, tits:.

I used to go a lot oftimes to the matinee,

and l knew when Tits and Ass was going to be on.

And the reason l loved watching it in the matinee was,

there would always be one woman who would leave.

There would always be one lady thatjust would leave.

L'd go, "Oh, my God, she's gonna miss the show," you know?

When l did The Producers, we always had walkouts during Springtime for Hitler.

And l think, "You must know what it's about at this point."

This girl's got it.

I actuallysaw Mel Brooks chase down somebody,

in Chicago, at one ofthe previews, chase them down

andstartscreaming at the guyin the lobby. lt was a great moment.

So, we're winnowing through the process here,

getting people to the final callbacks.

That was Meredith Patterson.

-For cover for... -For cover, right now, for Val...

This is a wonderful girl, by the way, because l got to work with hera bit.

When the show was in San Francisco, l came out there

andstarted working with a couple ofpeople who l thought neededsome work on.

Andyou know, you have to be verycareful when you work with people,

because you want them to find it their way. You don't want to do

an homage to somebodyelse. You want everybody to do it their way.

I love when she hits this thing.

That's Chryssie Whitehead. Shejuststeps out.

There she is. The character ofKristine.

No, she is. And the thing is that certain peoplejust didn't have the certain:.

Because theydidn't come from New York or theydidn't come from Puerto Rico,

theysometimes didn't have the edge thatyou wanted,

andyou couldjust explain it to them, and because they're smart kids,

they wouldstart to slowlybutsurely realize what they would have to do to it.

I love this girl, by the way. l think this girl is Mary TylerMoore, as faras l'm concerned.

-I agree. -And l'mjust waiting to have her

discovered in Hollywood. lt's what l'm hoping.

I agree also, because whatshe has is she's so likeable.

I mean, which is what Bob's saying here.

And thatsong shejustsang was the only non-A Chorus Line song, by the way,

-in ourmovie. -Right. That's right.

L'm a slave:.

I won'tsing it, 'cause l've been torturing Jim with this foryears.

-Foryears. l want to blow mybrains out. -Mysinging.

Adam doing Rodgers & Hammerstein is notpretty.

"L'm auditioning right now. lt's happening right now. l'm thinking about mycat."

Andyou look at herandshe's great, Jen here,

andyou can see whyshe was:. She got castso quicklyin Spamalot,

you know, 'cause each show has different needs.

-That's right. -She looks like a perfect Spamalot actor.

Interesting take, Jennifer. It's wonderful.

Mysister would go home andshe wouldpractice herroutines

downstairs in the basement, and l would go down:.

It's interesting. Coming up here, I Can Do That.

Originally, we had it cut between two ofourdancers, singer-dancers,

and then we added a third, which was even more difficult

-forFernando to cut into, yeah. -Right.

"...and it's not going to be a threatening experience."

I can do that

l can do that

Knew everystep Right offthe bat

l love what Tyce says when he comes out, and we'll talk about that in a minute.

Because, while it's funny, it's also:. lt's a realsurvival mechanism

ofa young auditioner.

I grabbed hershoes and tights and all

The physical dancing abilities, just:.

-These guys really:. -Extraordinary.

The strength, the speed, the technique. These guys are on top oftheirgame.

-It's sort oflike you, right? -lt's the antithesis ofme, actually.

For the album, we actually overdubbed the taps.

Right, sure. Sure.

I got to class:.

And this is:.

When we were shooting this, we also talked a lot about ourcamera work.

We have cameras all over the room right here.

And what's interesting is, when you cut away,

which is something thatAdam was veryinsistent on,

which was absolutelyright,

you cut away to Baayorksmiling or to Bob smiling,

l mean, you have to also tell the audience,

when you're doing a film like this, whatyou will:. Here.

You know, whatyou want them to think.

So you can'tsimplyleave it to the auditioners. And here comes Tyce out.

I did what I wanted to do, and that's all that matters.

Sometimes nerves take over, and you don't show them who you are.

But that's not what's going on. That's my party in there, not theirs.

They're invited to my party. For me, it's just, I'm not desperate.

My Iife goes on with or without it.

We've had a lot ofscreenings ofthe film so farand this:.

This always gets a roarright here.

-Hey, Tyce? -Yes?

Right, see there, now, it's very funny, but at the same time it's very funny,

but the fact that he absolutelybelieves that it's his partyin there

and that he's not desperate and he doesn't need the role

is whyhe is such a good auditioner.

Either that orhe'sjust telling you that because there's a camera there

and he wants to look as ifhe's above it all.

And inside, the truth is that he's as desperate as we all are.

-I guess that's right. -lt's verypossible.

So we had that lastscene, a very fun scene:.

-Right. Sure. -We wanted tojuxtapose it

up against this scene and have a complete emotionalshift.

-Right. -Right, and this is the first time

where we reallybring back the original.

:.and l used to wish l was a girl.

This is whyyou'llsee that we did not even try to write a song here.

-Right. -Because l:.

Well, the underscore also is so beautiful.

But l knew that anything that l would write, anything, it didn't matter what l would write.

There are songs to be written there.

I always say, "You could write a song about anything."

But the truth is, l wanted the human voice and the human experience,

and l wanted not to dilute it with singing.

I didn't want it to be, in any way, less than what it is,

which is a person who really is trying to figure out who he is

and what's happening, and l love when he says,

"Take care ofmyson."

-I mean, my God, you can't:. -lt's so beautiful.

Michael Bennett used to sayall the time while we were writing this show,

and it's reallyinteresting, he used to say, "Whyare we singing?

"Just answer the question, whyare we singing?

"And ifyou can answer that question, then the song makes sense."

Look at Bennett. He has tears in his eyes right here.

And l went down to audition. And theysaid:.

There's a reason the show won the PulitzerPrize.

-This is, l think, a big part ofit. -Yeah.

Now we show Sammy.

We wanted also tojuxtapose

how, sort of, pulled back Sammyis as a performer:.

Sammy was wonderful.

:.to how it's played byJason today. So, this is the start ofthat.

We wanted tojust not onlycompare the actors who are auditioning,

but also, in some instances, the people who were the originals.

'Cause a lot oftimes people thinksomeone isn't as good then as theyare now,

and things like that, andso we really wanted to show Sammyand also Donna.

That's a greatpoint.

And that footage, by the way, that's the onlyknown video

-ofthe originalshow. -Really?

Patrick Hoffman at the public library, at the Lincoln Center,

him and his team we worked veryclosely with

overa long period oftime to get that cleared.

And then, in Adam's words, "We are able to hit documentarygold here."

Whydon'tyou talk a little about being in the room?

Yeah.

Well, l'lljustset this up. So right now they're struggling, the crew,

Bob and John, trying to find the right Paul.

You know, as theysaid, next to Cassie, it's the most difficult role.

You can't misstep casting this character.

Ifyou do, you're reallygoing to be digging yourselfout ofa big hole,

so they were struggling overmanymonths, trying to find:.

How manycameras did we have in the room at this point?

-I think:. -During the Paul auditions?

I believe, during the Paul, there was two cameras.

-And here it is. -Yeah.

So the way we shoot this, you'llsee, we have a camera obviouslyshooting Jason

and then we have one at the back left-hand corner ofthis frame,

which you can'tsee shooting, back right there. That's the second camera.

So we always have two cameras going. As Jim was saying, you know,

it's the only way to let the audience know what the creative team is thinking.

Even with a short glance, whetherit's happy, enthusiasm,

not working, you know, we wanted

not only to have cameras following all the auditionees,

but also, we were on the otherside of the fence shooting Bob and Jim right here.

Right, and in narrative, yourscript tells people what to think,

but in documentaries, it's coverage.

...I thought to myself,

"I know. I'II just..."

We knew this was special at this point. We're pushing in the camera.

Right nowyou can see we're starting to zoom in:.

Andpush-in on the otherside as well, with Bob.

:.and getting more intimate with ourcamera work.

...and just as I pass my mother, I hear her say,

"Oh, my God.

"Paul."

So, at this point, it's starting to take shape. We know it's a very unique audition and:.

You can feel the energy. The energy, itjust was pulling you in here.

Anyone that was in that room was absolutelymesmerized at this point.

And we still haven't gotten to the finale.

And there they were, standing in the middle of all ofthese...

AII they said to me was,

"PIease write."

We'rejustplaying this vėritė. We didn't touch anything.

Well, that's exactly why l didn't touch anything, either.

-That's right. That's exactlyright. -Really. lt's the same reason.

-Exactlyright. -lt'sjustso beautiful left alone.

...turned to the producer and he said,

"Take care of my son."

And then as editors, we didsomething controversial

in a second, which l'll talk about.

So that was... That was it.

Praying ourcameras were both running.

-A batterydidn't go outyet. -Right. Exactly.

And here's the controversy, is we cut back to Sammyhere,

and the reason why we did was because we felt that the memory:.

That this was, sort of, what's going through

the creative staff's mind right now, is the memory

-ofhis TonyAward-winning performance. -Right.

As opposed to simplyleaving it to Jason to walk out ofthe room,

we wanted tojust cut back fora second.

And also you see how Sammyplays it versus how Jason plays it, andyou also see

how affected theyare that they finally:. 'Cause what does Bob say?

For the first time in 30years:. "l haven't cried in 30years."

-Well, this is where he cried 30years ago. -He'llsay that right here, yeah, coming up.

Interestinglyenough, the piece ofunderscore that l'm using,

the lyric is, "Who am l, anyway?"

Marvin, you nailed this whole score, but this is so beautiful.

I mayhave nailed the score, but it took them, the world, a while to figure that out.

This music, l get choked up.

-L'm choked up watching it again right now. -Yeah, it's fantastic.

And then Jason is back to real life here real quick.

He's out ofthe audition. He'sjust a normal kid. They're in there crying:.

-And that's the beauty oftheater. -:.and he snapped out ofhis performance.

Isn't that beautiful?

-Yeah, it's gorgeous. -And beautiful.

-"Sign him up." -"Sign him up."

-"Sign him up." -"Sign him up."

Do you think it did take people time to recognize how great the score is?

I mean, l hate to sayit,

but the truth ofthe matter was that when the show opened originally:.

-The show opened off-Broadway, right? -Yep.

The part that talked about the music, which is about the sixth paragraph

in The New York Times,

andsomewhere in the Doug Wright review in The New York News,

was neverread to all ofus at the opening nightparty,

-because it was rough on the music. -Really?

-Veryrough on the music. -Oh, my God, that's incredible.

-No, no, it's true. -That's crazy.

-That's insane. -lt's true.

And it took a real toll on me. Remember, this is my firstshow.

-Sure. -l mean, Michael was the:.

He's been there before, and Ed fared very well

in the reviews, Ed Kleban, and mine was:.

And l kept thinking to myselfthat everyday that l would take a cab orsomething

orl'd walk into a store, l'dsay, "Theyall know.

"Theyall read thatparagraph," you know.

"Will theyeven let me sit down and have lunch?"

-Yeah, l know, it's hard. We've all been there. -lt is, it is hard.

Andyou know, people say, "Well, l don't read reviews."

L'm thrilled for them.

L'm yet to find thatperson who reallydidn't read the review.

I can tellyou, l can get 30 reviews and 28 can be good and l'll talk about:.

-You'll onlyremember:. Always. -The two bad ones. Absolutely.

One ofthe things that's reallya thrill forme

is to be able to watch Donna. l mean, you know, when l:.

Foryears l'd talk about what an unbelievable dancershe was

and how watching her, l mean, myjaw was agape

that first time lsawA Chorus Line. And oftentimes, when you go back,

you think, "Well, you know what, the guy wasn't that great a player,

"she wasn't that great a dancer, he wasn't that great a singer."

And then when l went back and was able to find this footage andsee it,

l thought, "No, l was right." Look at how fluidshe is.

I willsay one thing about this though, actually.

This would be the question that l would have.

-IfMichael were alive, right? -Yeah.

I have a feeling he probably would have re-choreographed it:.

Because he choreographed it so specifically forher, right?

Forher, and then he probably would have done the same

-here again, you know? -Right, right.

-Because:. -Was there any thought

-that maybe Bob should do that? -l don't know. l don't know.

Because, you know, it's almost like a couture dress.

You're making it right for thatperson, you know.

It's being brought in from Paris, and here we go.

I know that when l wearcouture dresses, that's what it is.

And l think that there mayhave been:.

Because you're asking a person to take on the style ofa dancer

-whose style is so:. What do you call:. -Specific.

-Specific to her. -Yeah. Yeah.

That's almost like saying to me,

"All right, Marvin, l wantyou to sit down andplaylike Fats Waller."

-Well, that's not going to happen. -lnteresting.

So, that would be my only question.

I mean, as it is, l thinkshe did a greatjob in it. She reallydid.

You know, given the fact that it wasn't:.

Did Michael make adjustments forpeople who came and followed Donna?

Yeah, in fact, there was an adjustment made here, too, also,

because we took out a couple ofbars, so it was a little bitshorter.

Right.

The stamina ofit is what kills you toward the end,

that a person could actuallykeep doing that, you know?

Yeah, l know, it's a long dance.

So that voiceover, it'sjust:. Those lines are so great.

I love this, too, when you see:. What happened to her, going to California,

we found this ridiculous Dannon yogurt ad. The greatest dancer on Broadway,

and there she is doing a Dannon yogurt ad in California,

and it's exactly what they're talking about.

And whatshe's saying, you feel like they're actually

-talking about theirreal lives in this moment. -No question.

That layer ofart in life is overlapping itselfright here.

-It's almost blending. -lt'sjust blending.

-Yeah, right. -That's right.

I just can't see you dancing in the chorus, Cassie.

-Why not? -Listen, ifyou need some money,

-call my business manager. -Sure, I need money, who doesn't?

But I don't need a handout.

I had a lot offun, by the way, as the showstarted to come together,

more in the last workshop, lstarted writing this:.

What do you call it, the underscore.

And l loved it because l had now gotten my feet wet in movies.

So l kind ofknew, you know, whatyou could do within the script.

Do you think it gave you a special advantage?

Yeah, l do. l reallydo.

I mean, l'djust come out ofThe Sting and The Way We Were. l was like:.

And l was veryproud ofit because, to be honest with you,

sometimes ifyou are talking in the theater, orifyou're doing a verse,

sometimes you get a lot ofcoughs,

and one ofthe great things about underscores, it's telling the audience,

"We're about to get to a song," theydon't cough.

-Right. That's so funny. -lt'sjust how it works.

So, it kind oftook care oftwo things.

It took care ofraising the emotional level and getting it to a point,

and then making sure that everyone stayed cool.

That's so funny. That's reallyinteresting. Makes perfectsense.

I don't know how we would have everdone this movie without Donna's participation.

-Sure. -She's so great.

-What a wonderful, wonderfulperson. -Jim, you did an amazing interview here.

Youjust can't:. You feel like Donna's sitting next to you on a couch,

oryou're on an airplane. lt'sjustso:. You forget the camera's even there.

Veryseamless. And Baayork, she's:.

Well, Baayork is the unbelievable caretaker ofthis show.

Because Baayork, l'm gonna tellyou something,

-boy, she is tough in hersweetness. -Absolutely.

This is a bitterpill with a lot of:.

Rememberyourmother used to give you the pill, and ifyou couldn'tswallow it,

-she'dput it in the apple sauce, right? -Right, right.

Well, this is the apple sauce pill.

-Theysay, "The iron fist in the velvet glove." -There you go.

There she is. Again, look how fluid she is with yourmusic.

Ifshe doesn'tsee herself, she feels invisible.

Well, you can see why this is the hardest role to cast for.

-Yeah. Definitely. -l mean, the dancing, the acting,

all ofit is so:. This is:.

Michael, as lsaid, could not do the firstsong we wrote,

even though l liked the firstsong inside the music,

but once we had mirrors:.

So, we do thisjust to make sure thatpeople realize how hard it is, yeah.

But once we added mirrors, everything came to life.

And these are the best dancers in New York you're looking at.

I mean, this is the crëme de Ia crëme, and it's:.

Just to even pull this move off is verydifficult.

And obviously Charlotte can do it.

Do me a favor, when you're down there, can you switch it to that side?

These guys were having a lot offun with some ofthese scenes.

Some ofthese auditions, theyhad a good time.

I think:. l have to be honest with you. Sometimes in an audition,

you need to crack ajoke orsomething like that,

'cause, you know, whatyou don'tsee in this documentary,

and whatpeople don't realize, this could be the ninth hour ofthe day.

-Absolutely. -This could alreadybe í:30 at night.

-Sure. That's right. -So, you might have alreadyseen í0people,

andyou're at the point where it's like, "Give me a break."

One ofthe reasons that l hardlygo to auditions until almost the veryend,

l'm not kidding you, lstart getting headaches afterabout three hours.

-You're in a closedspace. -Airless rooms.

-Ijust go, "l can't take this." -lt makes you crazy!

L'm the same way. lstayawayas long as l can until there's:.

You know, until the finals are really going on. Absolutely. lt's so taxing.

Anybody who says, "I have a right to Iive..."

Well, Bob kept it reallylight.

-He was a great leader, and:. -No, he's wonderful.

And l will tellyou something else, a little bit thatyou should know.

Bob was a veryhelpfulperson in

the making ofthe originalshow.

We'll get back to that. Tell us about this. This is reallyimportant.

I love this story.

The end ofthe show.

...but it wasn't that thing where you went, "Wow!"

But one day, Marsha Mason came to the show.

She said to Michael that:.

Were you there?

-I was told about it. -Okay.

Marsha Mason said,

"The audience goes againstyou, Michael, because the girl has done everything right.

"She's given up everything for thisjob, andshe maybe overqualified,

"butshe needs thejob.

"You're alienating the audience because you're getting rid of her

"only because you have got a problem with her."

So Michael, that night, changed the ending and Iet Cassie get the job.

Standing ovation...

l love thatstorybecause, in today's world,

particularly with thatsort ofSundance Film Festival auteur sensibility,

people come in and theyhave,

they're absolutely:. They're not gonna change anything.

It's their vision. lt's their way or the highway.

And then something doesn't work and theydon't understand why.

And here's Michael Bennett, at the top ofhis game:.

-Right, right. Yeah. -:.and he is open enough

to know that, well, maybe ifhe switches it or whatever,

Sheila doesn't get thejob, andso Sheila's basically the yin to Cassie's yang.

Sheila doesn't get thejob, andso Sheila's basically the yin to Cassie's yang.

I also love this, when he says

-he'd like to not care but:. -Sure.

Like to not care ifit's a success, but he can't do that.

Just talking back about Bob Avian fora second,

there were times when Michael would use his brilliance

and he would almost become a dictator when he wanted to.

When all ofa sudden, when he wantedsomething

and he didn't get the vote, it didn't matter. He became, "That's it,"

and occasionally that would get in the way.

And that's where Bob Avian reallycame in handy,

because you could be thrown out ofthe rehearsal.

You know, "Marvin, get out ofhere," and then whatyou do is,

you slowlybutsurely talk to Bobby

and find out when is the best time to come back. When should:.

Bobby was a great UN ambassador for this thing

to keep everybodycool, you know?

Let me tellyou something, there were times when this thing got out ofhand a little bit,

-'cause there was a lot going on this thing. -Well, it's so personal.

-There had to be so much emotion. -Exactly.

I mean, mybiggest argument with Michael on the show

had to do with a scene when they were learning the song One,

and l always noticed that the conversation

between him and Donna McKechnie, you know, Cassie,

that conversation, in mymind, till today, still is too long.

And lsaid to him, "Michael, you're doing this

"because you're trying to do this foryourself.

"You're having your own cathartic moment here."

It was obviously too close to the skin.

-You know what l mean? -Right.

And that's why, ifyou noticed, even thatscene,

-lput a lot ofunderscore underneath it. -Right.

Just because ljust had to try to make it go

-as quicklyas possible. -lt's great.

-Jessica, a couple ofdays before:. -She's wonderful.

:.she'dsaved up all hermoney, andshe was gonna make sure

she had the right gear for the final callback.

This girl has a lust oflife that's wonderful. This is:.

You know, what's interesting about her,

when she originallydid the number in California, it wasn't landing as well.

One ofthe reasons is thatshe's a veryyoung girl,

andshe doesn't have that hardness and toughness

ofa real New York babe, you know what l mean?

Butshe learned how to get it going, andshe was:.

I love when there's:. We were able to find a picture ofDonna,

then you find out thatshe sent Donna a tape ofherdancing,

-and it again becomes a story within a story. -Yeah, right. lt's wonderful.

This was a happyaccident. We had no idea. Wejust looked up and this happened,

and that's another one of, next to Jason, ourhigh-five moments.

Yeah, right. One ofthose documentarymoments, yeah.

Sort oflive for those unexpected ones.

-Yeah. Lightning in a bottle. -Right.

What do l do to prepare fora final callback?

You do wonderin these situations, when she's doing all this here, Natascia,

how:. l mean, it feels so:.

It feels like theydon't know that we're there, and ofcourse she does.

Theyall know that we're there, andyet, you know, they:.

I think theyare so used to performing, at least.

I think two ofmy favorite parts ofthis film are coming up.

-One is Jacques d'Amboise. -Yes. Oh, my God.

-Anotherdocumentarymoment. -That'sjust a wonderful, incredible moment.

And then l'llshowyou the other one that amazes me, and l'm always amazed

at howyou had a camera at the rightplace at the right time.

That's one ofthe beauties ofthis film.

-We had eight cameras:. -We shot about 450 hours.

-Wow! -That's how we were always there.

But we had eight camera crews, 'cause we were coming up to the final auditions

and we knew the characters that had a shot, that we thought were gonna get there,

so we had cameras running all overManhattan,

subways to different audition rooms, to people's houses, apartments.

It was a prettycomprehensive and kinetic process for us.

This is an amazing girl, this Deidre. She's a wonderful girl.

She takes direction very well, andshe was having a little trouble

-singing the verse thatshe had. -Yeah.

But again, l was able to work with her and l reallyenjoyed it,

and we were able to, here and there, make a little change.

See, l am verymuch always feeling

that ifl can make a note orsome little change, l'll make it,

because l want the character to fitperfectly.

We're right in the middle of Times Square right here,

by the way. You can see the ticket booth. Thatjust was anotherhappyaccident,

-thatshe was giving such meaningful:. -l know. Right. lt's perfectly framed.

-I love:. -Well, l love her. She'sjust amazing.

She's so natural.

But do you realize thatshe took a song that, at best, got okayapplause

-and made it a showstopper? -Right.

I mean, Ed Kleban and l didn't even write this as a showstopper.

Do you know thatpiano player, Marvin? Who's that guy?

-I don't know that l know him. -l don't know ifhe's as excited as we are.

I think it's yourdad, Adam, isn't it? No?

I don't know if:.

Chryssie's moving in the way she's moving us right now.

I hate that, that I'm doing that on the camera right now.

-There's Jacques. -So, there's Jacques d'Amboise.

-Look at that guy's body. That's crazy! -Yeah. Kind ofbuff.

Ipromise you, l've neverlooked like that and never will look like that.

No, no, no, no. That was mypicture. l guess you won't buy that, either.

-That guy's ripped. -This guy's not too ripped!

-But he's a wonderful man. -Yes, he is. Yes, he is.

It was great to have him in the film. lt was an honorhe was there that day

when we shot. We had called up Charlotte and asked ifhe wanted to be in the film,

and he did, so we're honored to have him.

You know, a guy who is such an importantpart ofdance in America,

a guy that has trained at the American School ofBallet

and he danced three decades with the New York CityBallet,

and also a guy who founded the National Dance lnstitute.

Just to have him in our film was a great, great honor.

We reallyappreciate him turning out that day to be there for us.

..."You're not gonna dance again."

That was hard, because you begin to form who you are.

"I am a dancer. I am a dancer." "Now you can't dance."

It's an amazing story.

But then l got a phone call from:.

We lookedso hard fora shot ofhim and Balanchine and we got it.

That was great research.

Yeah, we had a great research team on this to pull these pictures together.

Martha Swope gave us a lot ofthe pictures you're seeing.

Martha, we went up to herapartment, andshe had a great archive offootage,

stills, that we use in the film.

-Andyourbeautifulsong. -What a greatsong. Oh, my God.

I cannot believe you did not get a rave on yourscore. That is amazing!

It reminds me of, you know, when West Side Story opened,

-it did not get great reviews. -Really?

Yeah, because everyone said it was too violent.

You know, it only won two TonyAwards, West Side Story.

-No. Really? Well:. -lt won Choreographyandsomething else.

-Not Score? -No.

Wow!

-Can you tell me whatshow did? -No.

-195í, The Music Man. -There you are. Okay. Well:.

I mean, it's a prettygoodshow, Music Man, but it's notWest Side Story.

So we're at the Broadhurst Theater. All the hard work has paid off.

These guys got a shot.

Now, we reallydoubled-up on the cameras. You're gonna see throughout this footage.

We had cameras on the side ofthe theater, up in that balconyyoujustsaw,

-we had cameras floating. -l'm gonna say:.

Iput ajoke here, in the cut, no one's everlaughed at it. Not once.

-I love this. There. -That gets a chuckle.

Never! lt's nevergotten a chuckle. l think it's really funny. She's the last one in.

I thinkyou'rejust being kind. l've neverheard a laugh.

I insisted on that cut. Never once.

I think it was at the Middle East Film Festival in Abu Dhabi.

-Exactly. Yeah, that's because:. -Now, you see, this is:.

This shows you Bobby. This is really veryhumane forBobby to do,

and this is the kind ofguyhe reallyis, l mean, he's not doing this foreffect.

-He's a good guy. -Right.

He doesn't want anyone not to win. You know what l mean?

But he's being verysweet, verygentlemanly, veryright. You know?

-Lot offamiliar faces in thatshot. -Yeah.

Marand Charlotte. Notice, they wear the same clothes in theiraudition

that they're wearing at the final callback,

andyou find out that they want to be identified.

They want to create a consistency in the way theylook,

so you'll always see them in the same outfits throughout.

Right, right.

Ijust love this, the little natural vėritė moments,

because they've all done shows together.

Baayork firing them up once again.

Where does she get it, is what l want to know. Whatpill is she on?

So, this sequence, we wanted to:. Jim and l looked at a lot ofdance films,

you know, from Chicago to Saturday Night Fever, you name it.

We wanted to see how dance was portrayed,

so the way we placed these cameras, we had done a lot ofstudying

to make sure that this felt kinetic and energetic

and that we could move the audience through this in an exciting way.

And that's reallyjust camera work.

-It's a lot ofdifferentshots from all over. -Right, right.

That's absolutelyright. You can't cut dance in anykinetic way

unless you have the shots. l love that. Tyce.

So that's fourdifferent cameras right there, back to back.

Dominic Orlando, he was on the A-camera and his team. Great guys.

Dominic Orlando, he was on the A-camera and his team. Great guys.

That's JayBinder. Doesn't get more pointed than this.

...you are giving an opening night, finished performance.

I was up against myclosest friend, Elaine.

I was happy that she was there, but at the same time, it was...

-They were best friends:. -Yeah.

:.in real life. Wejust had the premiere in New York,

which you weren't at, Marvin.

-We missedyou that night. -Sorry.

But they were hanging out, and afterwards we all went to dinner

and they were sitting there next to each other.

Theyare very, verydear friends.

4'10". 4'10". That is the story of my Iife.

I remember when everyone was...

That's Baayork's line from the tape session.

...everyone started moving up.

4'10". 4'10". That's the story of my Iife.

I remember when everybody was my size. Boy, was that...

That's Patrick.

-Yeah. -He's the music director.

I love that Yuka has a kind ofyearning in herdeliverysometimes.

-Ofcourse Baayork's having none ofit. -How closely wouldyou work with Patrick?

Well, he did a wonderfuljob.

I mean, l was at all the rehearsals for the orchestra,

and he did a wonderfuljob.

-I love this. -This is backstage.

-But I'II be happy either way. Yeah. -Yeah, either way.

-Yeah, "Either way." -"Either way, as long as l get the role."

-And ifyou believe that, folks:. -Exactly.

I think it feels more Iike, okay, down to the wire kind ofthing.

Watch this!

Tyce can reallydance. Theyall can, all these guys. Just amazing.

There's John Breglio. Not too happy with thatperformance.

...but very talented.

I got to class and had it made

Andso lstayed:.

And here's Jeffrey, who's not necessarily a betterdancer than the other two,

but there's something so charismatic about him:.

-Yes, that's what it is. -:.which is what leads him to get the role,

which is why there's so much more that goes into it thanjust any one thing.

-That's absolutelyright. -lfthis part called forsomeone

a bit more serious, then he wouldn't have gotten the role

and the otherguy would have.

That l can do

-Heck ofa move! -Yeah.

But he's:. You know:.

You're right. There's a whole other factor that gets involved.

Right.

Now this girl, as lsaid, makes this a showstopper.

And l love this split-screen we do here, 'cause it reallyshows,

you know, how, you know, it's notjust about the person,

it's about the options. And here we reallyshow the audience,

you know, howyou look at it when you're behind the audition table.

So we'll move into a split-screen here in a minute.

Lessons.

And he was a terrific salesman.

-She'sjust adorable. -She's adorable.

-Touched it to the back of my...and said -Head...

-"This Iittle girl could be a star." -"This Iittle girl could be a star."

Now this is a greatstory, because this is so much:.

You know, Rachelle, who was so right for the role

in the original audition,

nowshe comes into the audition andshe goes upstairs

andshe's been in this otherroom,

andshe's having these memories flooding back to her,

andshe gets in the wrong kind ofmindset to audition for this part.

And afterall these months and all this preparation thatshe's done,

she's ruined it all bysimplybeing in the wrong headset.

And that's so much a part ofthe audition, is understanding whatyou're auditioning for

and whatyou have to be thinking about going into it.

And the thing about theateris, you're doing eightperformances a week.

There's no cameras, there's no cutting away, there's no editing when you're onstage.

You have to be able to repeatperformance eight times a week, and what theysee is

that while she was great before, not great now.

Willshe be able to repeatperformance eight times a week the way theyneed to?

The wayyou'd need to.

I would give her an adjustment and see what she does.

Okay.

-I want you to try it again. -Okay.

Thankyou, Bob, forletting us put a wire on you

-to be able to get this intimate moment. -Yes, veryintimate. Amazing moment.

-I mean, youjust:. -Without a two-shot like this,

l mean, this is what makes the movie. And again, it's verycovered.

Look at this, we have different camera angles.

Itseems easy, but most documentaries don't have that luxury.

And l don't know what l did lastsummer.

Look at her face. lt's like she's there butshe's not. l mean, it's:.

Well, she doesn't know:. She's trying to think, like,

"What the heck is he saying? What was l doing?"

Andshe compounds the mistake bynot thinking again about the role

but whatshe was doing lastsummer, which she can't remember.

And especially under that kind ofpressure.

And then here, as Deidre comes in, whojust crushes it.

She's amazing.

Can I sit in your Iap?

And this is interesting, too, 'cause clearly this role

is written, almost, fora girl from Kansas

who's been in ballet class, and it's not,

you know, what Deidre would normallyrepresent.

So, this was going, really, verymuch against type, and it was great:.

-She did a wonderfuljob. -She did a fabulousjob,

andshe steals the show when it opened, and it was great thatshe got cast.

But everything was beautiful at the ballet

Graceful men lift lovelygirls in white

Yes, everything was beautiful:.

-Jaybeing a little bit moved there. -Yeah.

:.l was happyat the ballet

-Good, Deidre. -Bravo.

-Thank you. -You did really good.

-Thanks so much, you guys. -AII right. Take care.

Bye.

Your mind can be really mean to you about things Iike this.

Your mind can be really mean to you about things Iike this.

Like maybe you're going to be too this or too that or whatever.

So it's just a matter oftrying to zone out about today.

Let's get one thing straight. I never heard about The Red Shoes.

I never saw The Red Shoes. I didn't give a...

Now, that drives me crazy. That is the MPAA

saying thatyou can'tsay "fuck" during a film.

You can sayit twice, but not five orsix times orseven times.

Mydaughter, who's 13, said to me, "Well, Dad, ifl hearit twice,

"l'm not gonna learn more ifl hearit four or five times."

-Anyway, we had to make that change. -You can onlyhear two ofthe F-bombs.

-That's it. -Yeah, well, l'm sorry. That'sjust crazy.

I feel like l'm back in the '30s orsomething.

-When Nikkisaw this:. -Ofcourse, you don't have that onstage.

Onstage you can say these things as much as you want.

You have five-year-olds and no one thinks twice about it.

When Nikkisaw that, she goes, "Oh, my God, l'm so skinny!"

She's put on a lot ofweight since she saw us.

No, she hasn'tput on a lot ofweight. She's put on:. Yeah, no.

Compared to that, she's put on a lot ofweight.

-L'm trying to help you out here. -Nowshe's normal.

She was skinny, but:.

-A lot ofguys:. -She did Legally BIonde for us after this,

which lproduced,

andshe has a wholejump-ropes number andshe was:.

I mean, she's amazing.

-She's a fit girl. -She's cut. She's cut, my friend.

You know what's funny, is when we were dancing that day:.

You can see in the back, see everyone watching?

-You see that in the background? -Yeah, yeah.

They're allso interested in each other's roles,

all the different roles, they're really:.

We're coming to, maybe, my favorite shot in the movie.

Yeah, l'll tellyou which it is forme. l'll tellyou the one that kills me.

-Forme, it's when Nikki's:. Yeah. -Coming up.

Butyou see, look at that face right offthe bat.

You're alreadyahead ofthe game įust with that face.

Right. That's right.

Yeah, Iet's get one thing straight. See, I never heard about The Red Shoes.

-This stuffis amazing right here. -Me, too.

-That's my favorite shot in the movie. -That's unbelievable.

-Right, coming up:. -To have that is amazing.

You gotta shoot a lot offilm to have it.

Life turned into an endless medley Of "Gee, it had to be you"

Why? Tits and ass

Where the cupboard once was bare Nowyou look andsomeone's there

See, what's wonderful about herreading ofthis:.

-That's:. -This is the shot.

'Cause you can see all the longing and the yearning:.

-Andshe knows she doesn't have it. -And resignation. You see the resignation.

One ofthe reasons this girl is so good in the wayshe sings this song is,

-look howproudshe is. -Yes.

It's not about, "l had it done:."

No. "l did it, l loved it, l'm proud." The end.

-That's it. -Even on the tape the actress says

-it's the best thing she'd everdone. -Right. Wonderful.

She'sjust:. She's a lovelygirl. Yes, that's one

-ofmy favorite shots ofthe film. -Yeah, me too.

To have that, someone who knows they're not gonna get it,

-and it's pathetic:. And theyknow. -And they've workedso hard.

So I'm a Iittle freaked out 'cause I got called back onstage to do the scene again.

Yeah, Bob, they weren't quite sure. They wanted to make sure

they were making the right decision here,

which was odd. Theydidn'tpull verymany otherperformers

back in fora second audition,

-but theybrought herback a second time. -But what he does do is,

he also feels, like in the case ofRachelle,

thatshe has not given quite as good a performance as she could,

-andshe did. -That's right. That was the otherexample.

I never saw The Red Shoes. I didn't give a...

":.fuck about The Red Shoes." l'm sorry.

-I can do that 'cause it's the DVD:. -Butyou see,

there's a real toughness about her.

-You know? -Yes, absolutely.

-Yeah, is that more what you're going for? -Yeah.

-Okay. -It's more honest, you know. It's...

I was a Iittle schmaltzy and nervesy this morning, huh?

It's a little angrier than Jessica's audition.

Not angrybutjust:. Yeah, tough.

I love when she says she understands what to do 'cause she's from St. Louis.

I love when she says she understands what to do 'cause she's from St. Louis.

It always reminds me ofDiane Keaton in Manhattan

saying, "l'm from Philadelphia."

This is one ofmy favorite shots right here. Just a slowpan up ofthe body.

-Just the imagery of:. -Yeah.

I mean, that's kind ofthe gypsydancer.

-The modern-dayDonna McKechnie. -Right, right, right, right, right.

She's probablybeen dancing fora long time on Broadway.

But she wanted to be a dancer. And she had all these scholarships and all that.

And when she got married, my father made her give it up.

Isn't this exciting?

Ifyou start to doubt or question, you know, you're done.

That's a great, great line.

"Ifyou start doubting, you're done." That's true.

And here, look at how hardshe pushes this.

...I was only six, and I said, "But I've got to dance."

See, that's pushed.

And that's not nearlyas good as what she did in the audition rooms earlier.

That's like Sheila, when she says, "Did l get it?"

Then she actually:. She is Sheila when she stops trying to perform.

...to have ideas,

and for whatever reason...

Jayis such a compassionate guy. What he's talking about here really felt:.

This connection he had with all the performers and dancers,

he's such a warm-hearted:.

He really wants to see everyone do theirbest.

And l think the movie is verymuch aboutjuxtapositions,

'cause we're gonna see how we go right from Rachelle, which is the agony,

right to Deidre, which is the victory, and it's actually:.

Part ofwhat l reallylove about this movie is

this movie is really verymuch all aboutjuxtapositions.

So theyhad this, "l've gotta tell her, andshe's gonna put an ax in myhead,

"andshe's upset," and then you go right to Rachelle.

-I mean, right to Deidre. -This is very funny.

He's going to come back with an ax in his head.

It's not you. It's just...

A lot ofpeople missed the second line,

when he says, "Not gonna come back alive." ln the screenings, everyone laughs.

Theymiss the ax in the head, 'cause they're laughing over that line.

And then you go underscore, and then right to Deidre.

:.and opened hermouth and there it was.

I got it.

It's such a beautifulsmile. l love this.

That was one ofthe greatest joys that we had.

Actually, sometimes in the screenings, you hearpeople clapping.

I should do my Iaundry. I should do my Iaundry,

but I don't want to do my Iaundry. I'd rather have a cocktail.

And again, youjust got to be shooting a lot offilm to get thatsort ofthing.

Absolutely.

I feel really good. I woke up feeling good today.

Twenty-three is a good number for me...

And again, the trickiest roll for them to cast, we're at the:.

-Yeah. -:.climax ofthe final callbacks here,

and theygotta get the right Cassie.

Wheneveryou audition foranyshow, it's nevereasy.

Maybe... You know what it is?

This is backstage. See the guyin the green?

Ifyou took a right, right there, andyou walked out, you're on the stage.

Right, right, right.

-Just to give you a little geography of:. -Right where we were.

:.the Broadhurst.

So back there, even though I see you, Michael.

-Okay. I... I'm fine. -Do you want me to move?

No, no. The Iights are in my face. It's fine.

On the rightside ofit, that would've been that hallway

to where the guyin the greenjust was.

...really interesting, isn't it?

Yeah.

-That was the eventual Zach, actually. -Yes. He was alreadycast at this point.

That's whyhe's doing this. That's whyhe's feeding lines.

-Michael Berresse. -Yes.

Zach, I'd Iove a part, of course.

Look, Zach, I'd Iove a part...

l love Meredith, too. l think she's a verygood, verystrong actress.

-You're too good for the chorus, Cassie. -Too good?

I did a couple of dance parts. So what?

You were featured.

Andsome ofthese people, like Meredith, ended up in the show doing cover, right,

for Cassie and maybe for, also, Val.

Michael's actuallyin the crowd reading with them.

-At thatpoint, he's sitting below the table. -Yes.

And that's who they're reading against, the Zach ofthe show.

...but I'm not. I'm a dancer.

Well, it would be nice to be a star, but I'm not.

I'm a dancer.

The next section.

I know this choreography. I've done it, you know? So I know it.

It's a question ofjust Ietting yourself fly.

This was part ofthe triple threat. We saw them acting,

-andyou were talking about that earlier. -Exactly.

So, nowyou're getting into the dancing part ofthis character,

and then you'll hearsome ofthe singing, so all three ofthose skills

reallyneeded to be fine-tuned to have the goods to play this role.

You reallysee Fernando's cutting here,

'cause he's so good with cutting dance and movement.

And withoutsomeone who could really cut this, we wouldn't have had a film.

-Yeah, the editing isjust:. -lt's great.

Reallygreat.

Yeah, Fernando is reallya star.

And Kathryn helping out in that edit room, Kathryn West.

-Absolutely. -She was with us the whole step ofthe way.

Ifyou'll give me ajob Then the rest ofthe crap will getsolved

Put me to work

You would think that bynow l'm allowed

l'll do you proud

-She has a tough time with that note. -Yeah, andshe knows it. Boy, she knows it.

L'll do you proud

Playme the music

Give me the chance to come through

All l everneeded

All l everneeded was music

And the mirror And a chance

To dance

So, finishing up here.

I love when Charlotte does herlittle cartwheel out.

-There she goes. -That always gets a big laugh.

Natascia, you did really well today, darling. Thanks so much.

It's so hard.

Again, it's not whatsomeone does. lt's not like sports, like, you know,

ifyou hitsixjump shots in a row, you beat the guy who's hit five in a row.

It's not like that.

Yeah. Good Iuck, Natascia. I'II speak to you soon.

Do you want to tell her? You want to go back and tell her?

-AII right. You're okay? -Go back.

Take care.

It's cold. lt's a Januaryday.

We have a little bit ofour underscore here, Marvin. So this is the only:.

-There's a little bit of:. -Perfectly fine.

We were following yourlead on that. Just being subtle.

-Jane Cornish has done a fewscores for us. -Yes.

I remembercalling her when lsaw this and congratulating her.

That's verynice. Wonderful.

She actually won the BAFTA fora film that we did a while ago, severalyears ago,

-called Five Children and It... -Called what?

Five Children and It. She won the BAFTA forbestscore.

-Wejust went with that music, just to:. -Sure.

-:.make it real ethereal and:. -Sure, sure.

And here we are, you know, we're in Charlotte's house.

I mean, she gets the call, and it's, again, 400, 500 hours.

Yes.

-Justsubtle with the music. -Yeah.

-I love that reaction. -Thumbs up says it all.

This is beautiful with Yuka, too.

-Yuka's getting the offer for Connie. -Shut up!

So we have Megan, she's calling all the agents.

We were filming her on the phone:.

-This is beautiful. -:.rolling calls,

delivering the news to everyone.

You know, wejuxtapose what the actor's expectations are

with hersaying, "He didn't get it."

His dancing yesterday was really wild. His ego, it was:.

See how out ofsync he is, andyet he's sort ofalmostpreening there.

I want to do so many things.

I see myselfwalking up some stairs receiving an award somewhere.

I try to just imagine all these great things, you know?

Everyone's doing it. Everyone's doing it.

So many people are in show business.

Happens to be a show ofmine back there. The Producers.

-Yes. -Give myselfa little plug.

I love this. This is beautiful.

So, theyjust took me, Iike out, out. You know, outside, after, you know,

to tell me something.

And I got the job!

-See, she'sjust as pure as it gets. -Yeah, that's right.

-And that's what makes you cry. -Yep. That's absolutelyright.

I think a lot ofpeople cry at the end ofthis movie.

I think this is one ofthe first reasons you do.

She lets you know it's okay to cry.

-That's right. -She says, "Okay."

And then, ofcourse, with What I Did for Love, you know:.

I love the mother's reaction.

-It's a big deal. -lt's beautiful.

From South Carolina, she's talking to hermom.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

I love this, too. Look at her. ls she a cutie or what?

And then:.

-She's on the phone with the agent. -Here she is, and Jessica.

-That's Jessica's agent. -Out ofnowhere, in Paramus, New Jersey.

-Parsippany. -Parsippity.

-Parsippaty, there we go. -Parsippany.

-Look at it, and then youjustsort of:. -Yeah:.

We decided to milk it a little bit, but that's okay.

We'll go for the slow-motion ofher, back when she was a kid,

and all the times she's done the show, and then l love this.

'Cause really, she's commenting on Jessica, almost, too.

-She's commenting on all ofthem here. -Yeah.

And what's interesting, given the times that we live in now,

it's a storyabout dancers and it's a storyabout all ofus.

-That's right. Absolutely. -Everyone's auditioning forajob today.

That's right. That's right.

-And trying to follow dreams and:. -Right.

-And trying to follow dreams and:. -Right.

Yeah.

Yuka's from:.

Followed a dream that no one thoughtpossible.

Yuka's from Okinawa, andshe's very well-spoken.

She's onlybeen here less than 10years. She articulates that well.

It's that one job that you've always wanted.

And here's Rachelle.

-Right. -Was in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels there,

so she's come back andshe actuallydid:. You know, theybounce back.

-Where's your picture? -My picture's right there.

This is beautiful andsad.

I'm still... I'm still waiting to have my chance...

l would have advised for that.

That's also another thing that's so great about these people.

-How resilient theyare. -That's right.

Particularly the good ones, you know what l mean?

See, l think there's a certain amount ofpeople in the business

who audition for the heck ofit, knowing they're nevergonna make it.

Who audition for the heck ofit, knowing they're nevergonna make it.

-But then, the ones who are reallygood:. -That's right.

-It's rough. lt's reallyrough. -That's right. That's right.

It's funny, l would've reallyadvised her not to go with the wig.

Go with the longerhair, actually. l know itsounds silly, but:.

There are people in show business that will always be missed,

whetherit's Michael,

-whetherit's JerryRobbins:. -Yep.

-:.Fosse, Gower Champion:. -Right.

-:.you know, Ron Field. -Yeah.

These people were notjust:. They were different,

you know, and theyhadsomething going that nobodyelse has had.

You're coming up, Marvin. We got a shot ofyou right:.

-Thank God. -Right here.

There you are! You're looking good. Looking good.

Well, this was the song l heard when l was fouryears old in 19í4 or 'í5.

This was what l would hearin myhouse in Phoenix, Arizona.

Well, l wrote it when l was six, but:.

And lsaw the show when l went from Philadelphia.

I was three, l think, actually, so:.

-How old do you want me to feel today? -Me, too! Me, too!

I remember when lsaid to Abe Lincoln, lsaid,

"Don't go, don't go. Stayhome, relax."

But mysisterand mom wouldplay this overand overand over.

But besides that, what didyou think ofthe show, Mrs. Lincoln?

I love this.

-Completely unscripted. -Yeah.

-And this is Fernando, cutting right here. -You know what l love, forme,

that l mustsayl'm pleased about?

-I really wanted to hit that hard:. -So manypeople have said to me

what this did, in terms oftheirlives. Not the people in the show.

-Absolutely, you know, what it did to mylife. -And that's wonderful,

-because l think ifl:. -Myparents are veryangryatyou.

I think the thing that l miss the most about Broadway, forme,

is that there's so manyshows out there now, and maybe it'll change,

-that arejust out there. They'rejustshows. -Absolutely.

And then there was this thing that had a:.

Well, this was organic. This had meaning. This was different.

This was different, and believe me, lproduce Broadwayshows

and l know the difference, and it's like:. This is it, andso much ofthis

is done on the same basis that we do film, which is demographics and also:.

But this came from the heart and there's:. You know. lt's different, you know.

And the costumes. Whose costumes are these? These are:.

I love this. And then watch the cut we make.

We find the eyes. There. lt's great. l love that. l love that.

-TheoniAldredge, by the way. -TheoniAldredge.

And then we want to make sure we go back to Michael's dream here.

-Right, sure, l love this. -Yeah.

-And this was a trickypiece to clear, too. -Yeah.

I really wanted this.

Really?

...so many people did so much to help me get this,

and not only Joe Papp and Marvin and Ed and Nick...

He reallyshares it with all ofyou here.

You notice that nine orchestrators. There's a reason for that.

Donna.

I wanted to make sure that we didn'tpush anybody

to finish something until they were finished.

So, instead ofhaving one orchestrator do everything,

which would've meant they would've had to start early,

'cause, you know, one person can onlydo so much,

l ratherhad:.

-You know, stufftoward the end. -We had a choice here

to go with the TonyAwardspeech orcome back to the tapes:.

-No, l love the tapes. -:.and we were gonna do only one,

and we decided at the end to do both, which was absolutely the right choice.

-No, no. This is wonderful. -Yeah.

:.and that all ofyou are prettyinteresting.

And l mustsay, for the revival,

Jonathan Tunick did a brilliantjob oftaking all those nine orchestrators' stuff

and making it into one, which was wonderful.

I love that. lt's amazing that he said it.

-Yeah. -This was the great bookend for the movie.

That tape machine was Adam's idea.

-That's the real tape deck. -Yeah.

I love these shots. These are beautifullyconstructedshots there.

There was actuallya time when we started the film with thatshot,

ofthe shot from behind.

Butyou see, there you are again,

you see howyou started one way, and then when it's all over,

-you realize it's about a whole other thing. -Exactly.

That's the truth ofthe matter. lt'sjust how it always is.

That's right.

I would be surprised ifl ever write a musical

where the opening number stayed through the whole thing.

-It'sjust:. lt's veryrare. -Veryrare.

-Yeah, it's the same as making a film. -Yeah.

It's been over three years since Jim called me.

John Breglio had called Jim

andsaid there maybe an opportunity to make a movie,

and Jim called me and we decided to do it,

and, Marvin, it's a real treat to have you here todayand be a part ofthis.

It's a thrill.

You guys did a greatjob, l must tellyou, because when l went to see this,

you know, l hadn'tseen one frame on anything.

All l heard was that there was a film,

and l went to see it, and l mean, l cried, too, and everybodycried. The people l know:.

And it's verycathartic. lt's verybeautiful.

-It's a beautiful film. -Thankyou so much.

When we firstshowed this at the Toronto Film Festival,

we had a five-minute standing ovation,

andAdam and l had neverseen it with an audience.

And we stood up to go onstage to do the Q&A,

-and everyone stood up:. -lsn't that beautiful?

:.and l:. Yeah. l had tears in myeyes. lt was:.

That's one ofthe great moments l'll remember.

And Donna McKechnie came out, took the mike andsaid,

-"Michael:." -"Not onlydo l love this film,

"but Michael would've loved this film," and it's one ofthe:.

Ifyou've achieved that, you've achieved it all.

That's right. Yeah.

You know, the one thing aboutshow business l can always sayis,

the highs are the highest in the world and the lows are the lowest.

-Youjust have to be able to live with that. -That's right.

Phil Jackson, who coached the Chicago Bulls and now the Lakers, always said,

"Just tryand not get too high in the wins

"and too low in the losses. That's all l can tellyou."

-He's got it. -That's right.

Thanks so much forlistening. Thanks forlistening to the commentary,

and we hope you gotsomething out ofit and enjoyed it.

Yeah. l mean, l hope thatsome ofthis has been instrumental

in terms ofbeing a little bit more understanding

ofhow the process worked, and a little educational.

Also, to know that there was a lot offun and a lot ofwonderfulpeople involved.

-Absolutely. -Yeah, thanks to ourentire team

that crafted this movie. We always have a great bunch thatpulls together

andshoots these images and edits it and logs it,

and there's a lot ofbehind-the-scenes work, and it's a real tribute

-to everyone at Endgame and our team. -Thanks to John Breglio

for trusting us with the movie.

Thanks, John. Thanks, Jim. Thanks, Marvin.

-You got it. -Thanks, buddy.

Thanks, Ed.

-Thanks, Michael. -That's right. Thanks, Michael.

-Until next time. -That's right.

So, has anyone made a doc aboutyou, Marvin? Let's talk afterwards.

-There she is. -There she is.

And wejust decided to go to:.

-To go to night for the lastshot. -You betcha.

Jason.

-She's lovely. -Yeah.

Saying bye.

-Beautiful. -Thanks.

Lights out.