Is ‘A Chorus Line’ Ultimately Hopeful or Devastating?

(Photo: Robert Catto)

by Chris Peterson

This question came to mind while I was rewatching the film version of A Chorus Line, which I still think is better than people tend to give it credit for.

By the time those dancers step into the final number, what are we supposed to feel? Are we happy for the ones who made it, or devastated by what they had to give up to get there?

I have always found the ending hard to pin down because it manages to feel triumphant and sad at the same time. We spend nearly the entire show getting to know these people. We hear about their childhoods, insecurities, relationships, bodies, families, and fears. By the time the final casting decisions are made, they no longer feel like a group of nameless dancers standing on a line. Then, almost instantly, they become anonymous again.

The dancers who are selected get exactly what they came for. They have a job, and in this business, that is no small thing. The dancers who are cut simply disappear. There is no long goodbye and no promise that another audition will work out for them. They leave, and the process continues without them.

That may be one of the most brutally honest things about A Chorus Line. Talent, hard work, and even complete emotional vulnerability do not guarantee employment.

Still, I do not think the ending is entirely bleak.

There is real joy in “One.” The dancers are doing what they love, and the number captures what can be so thrilling about a great ensemble. Everyone is moving together, but that does not mean the people inside those matching costumes have stopped being individuals. We know their stories now, even if the fictional audience watching them does not.

Maybe that is where the hope comes from.

A Chorus Line does not promise that the most talented person will always be hired or that hard work will eventually be rewarded. It simply shows us a group of people who understand all of that and still choose to come back.

We may not know the names of the next chorus we watch, but after seeing A Chorus Line, we should never assume the people standing there are interchangeable.