With time, the chorus line evolves

Bob Avian, director for ''A Chorus Line,'' says he made only minor tweaks to contemporize the play. (Steve Miller for The Boston Globe)

When director Bob Avian - a former Broadway dancer of high repute - looked out at the 2,000 dancers assembled to audition for the 2006 Broadway revival of "A Chorus Line," he thought: If I were a young dancer today, could I make the cut in this cast?

"A Chorus Line," of course, is all about making the cut, as 19 dancers are pared down to eight, each one in turn baring his or her soul en route to boundless joy or bitter disappointment.

The landmark musical, winner of nine Tony Awards and the 1976 Pulitzer Prize, set a record as the longest-running American musical in Broadway history with its 6,137-performance run from 1975 to 1990. It was a huge success again in its 2006 Broadway revival, spawning the national touring production that comes to the Opera House today through Oct. 5.

Avian says the Broadway dancer has evolved greatly since he performed in 12 Broadway shows, including "West Side Story" and "Funny Girl" - or, for that mat ter, when Baayork Lee, choreographer for the current production of "A Chorus Line," was a member of its original Broadway cast in 1975.

"The bar has been raised so high now," says Avian, speaking by phone recently from his summer home in Connecticut. "These kids are remarkable. The training they get these days is incredible."

The evolution of the Broadway musical itself has had a lot to do with that. With smaller casts, chorus members have to be not only world-class dancers, but competent singers and actors, too.

"They have to be better on every level," says Avian. "We never had to worry about how well we sang. We had singers and we had dancers. Then came the economics of Broadway, and the size of the chorus was cut in half."

Lee agrees. "Now you have to be able to dance like Baryshnikov, sing like Pavarotti, and act like Olivier," Lee says by phone, adding that another factor is that many colleges and universities now have musical-theater programs, oftentimes taught by former Broadway professionals.

"Years ago, you had to come to New York City, to someplace like American Ballet Theatre or Juilliard," says Lee. "Now we have kids honing their craft all over the country before coming to New York."

The Broadway revival and national tour of "A Chorus Line" have been a labor of love for Avian, who helped develop the original show over two years of workshops as co-choreographer with director and choreographer Michael Bennett, lyricist Ed Kleban, composer Marvin Hamlisch, and James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, who wrote the book. Lee, who has directed national and international companies of the show, re-created the original choreography for the 2006 revival and this tour.

Avian's direction of the revival garnered two Tony nominations and earned back its $8 million investment in just 19 weeks, but it also generated some controversy.

"I got some flak from people who wanted me to rethink or reconceive the piece," says Avian, who did change a few topical references to make the show feel more contemporary, but otherwise pretty much left it alone. "I felt it was my obligation to do Michael's masterpiece as he created it," he says.

A Manhattan native, Avian graduated from Boston University in 1959 - he also studied with Boston Ballet while attending BU - and then got his big break as a replacement dancer in Broadway's "West Side Story" who then toured with the show internationally. During that tour he met Bennett, a 16-year-old high school dropout, who was playing Baby John. It began a friendship and partnership that lasted until Bennett's death in 1987.

Avian jumped on the running board for the ride as Bennett took Broadway by storm. He was an integral part of every Bennett production for 20 years, winning a Tony as co-choreographer of "A Chorus Line," earning another for choreography with "Ballroom" (for which he was also coproducer), and producing the original and national companies of "Dreamgirls," which won six Tony Awards. Avian also won an Olivier Award for his choreography of "Martin Guerre" in London's West End.

Avian says the dancer's lot is still hard, but in some small way "A Chorus Line" may have helped to change it.

"I think back to all those dancers who worked with us on the workshop productions for $100 a week," Avian says. "We were finally able to give them real work."

Of course, some things haven't changed.

There is a scene that opens and closes "A Chorus Line" in which all the dancers hold up their publicity photos above their heads.

"They briefly take off their masks of anonymity to let us see what's underneath them, but by the end of the show they are once again a faceless ensemble," said Avian. "And that is how it should be."