One dancer, Cassie (Rebecca Riker), is more carefully self-effacing than Paul, yet striking in her presence and her red leotard. She turns out to have a history with Zach, who thinks she's too good, and too distinctive, for the chorus line. Cassie has been studiously suppressing her star attributes, but finding herself in a rare moment alone on stage in front of the mirrors, she dances a spontaneous solo — gorgeously performed by Riker with technical acuity and a singular, riffling-water phrasing — in which she remembers the force and pleasure of dancing.
By the end of the show, Cassie and all of her fellow contenders will have retreated from their personalities back to the glossy, identical unison of a corps. But the sum of that corps will be all the richer for having been briefly seen as its parts.
A CHORUS LINE | Original conception, direction, and choreography by Michael Bennett | Original choreography restaged by Michael Gorman | Original direction restaged by Donna Drake | Produced by Maine State Music Theatre, in the Picard Theater in Brunswick | through June 23 | 207.725.8769.
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