Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

When Madison Tinder was growing up in San Antonio, Texas, she fell in love with the movie version of “A Chorus Line.” The story about dancers taking part in a soul-baring audition fascinated her even more when she saw a 2008 documentary about it called “Every Little Step” and watched YouTube videos from the stage version of the show.

She was especially enthralled with the role of Cassie and the song “The Music and the Mirror.”

“Watching this girl in the red leotard do these jumps and turns, I had never felt that way before. I was crying and screaming. I wanted her to get that part so badly,” Tinder said. “My dream was to explore her character.”

Tinder is living her dream as she travels the country on tour with “A Chorus Line,” which will come to the Scranton Cultural Center Friday through Sunday.

If you attend the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning show, with music by Marvin Hamlisch, you’ll meet 17 characters desperate to land a job, to be chosen by director Zach for dancing roles in his new musical. When he asks them to tell him about themselves, they reveal glimpses of their past, from the woman for whom ballet was an escape from an unhappy childhood to the man who followed his sister to dance class and kept on dancing.

While the show is an ensemble production and there is no star, the character of Cassie is particularly interesting because she had a relationship with Zach before she moved to California to pursue an acting career.

Describing Cassie’s complex history with Zach, Tinder said, “She was kind of his muse and she could ‘finish his sentences’ with choreography the same way you can do it in conversation. Their romantic relationship did not end well, and when she ran away to California and failed at trying to become an actress, it very much broke her. She lost her way and had to go to therapy and figure out what she wanted.”

“What she wants to do is what she loves more than anything else in the world,” Tinder said. “What makes her light up is dance.”

Tinder, who began to study the liveliest art form as a preschooler, admits dancing means that much to her too.

“When I was little, I sometimes couldn’t put words together but I could communicate more clearly with my body and with someone else’s work (choreography) what was in my heart.”

The premise of the show, that director Zach asks auditioning dancers to talk and reveal themselves as individuals, was revolutionary when “A Chorus Line” opened at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre in 1975. Its long run extended to 6,137 shows, and thousands of theater-goers became familiar with the story — which Tinder predicts new audiences will still find fresh.

“When you leave the theater after seeing this show, you are inspired,” she said. “You know every single person on the stage is living their dream. They fought to be there. So many people have to do jobs they don’t love, and there’s something about watching 17 people do what they really do love. It’s always going to inspire someone else to take a risk.”

The dancers you’ll meet in ‘A Chorus Line’ are eager to survive the final audition cut, and they spell out their feelings in song, ‘Please, God, I need this job.’
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_photo-1.jpg.optimal.jpgThe dancers you’ll meet in ‘A Chorus Line’ are eager to survive the final audition cut, and they spell out their feelings in song, ‘Please, God, I need this job.’ Submitted photos

Each of the dancers in ‘A Chorus Line’ is living his or her dream, cast member Madison Tinder said, and she believes audience members will be inspired by that.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_Photo-2.jpg.optimal.jpgEach of the dancers in ‘A Chorus Line’ is living his or her dream, cast member Madison Tinder said, and she believes audience members will be inspired by that. Submitted photos
Show part of Broadway Theatre League of NEPA series

By Mary Therese Biebel

[email protected]

IF YOU GO

What: ‘A Chorus Line’

Who: Presented by Broadway Theatre League of NEPA

Where: Scranton Cultural Center, 420 N. Washington Ave., Scranton

When: 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 p.m. Sunday

Tickets: $40 to $72. Call 570-344-1111 or visit the box office. For group orders of 10 or more, call 570-342-7784.

Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.