THE DVD SHELF: "Every Little Step," "Julie and Julia," Holiday Favorites and More

By Steven Suskin
December 13, 2009

This month's releases include the documentary about A Chorus Line; Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in the culinary confection "Julie and Julia"; a Turner Classic movie collection of four holiday titles; and a Blu-ray disc of "North by Northwest."

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The 2006 revival of A Chorus Line has come and gone, having done moderately well without beginning to approximate the excitement of the original production. Producer/directors James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo stood by with cameras rolling through the audition process of the musical about the audition process, and have come up with a surprisingly gripping documentary that seems to have been intended to support the revival but — coming after the production's early demise — serves to illustrate both the revival and original productions, memorializing Michael Bennett along the way. The directors start their film with the original tape recordings that Bennett made with a select group of dancers in a 12-hour marathon therapy session in the winter of 1974 — tape recordings that contain the roots of the characters and numerous phrases later incorporated by lyricist Ed Kleban into song. We hear Bennett, mostly, at first; as they move onwards, the film directors cannily contrast the young 21st century actors' auditions with corresponding words from the original. ("I've run out of unemployment," explains the Connie-to-be, seemingly unaware of the plaint "my unemployment is gone" in the opening number.)

"Every Little Step" fascinates on many levels. To begin with, it is as accurate a view of the Broadway audition process as you're likely to see. A Chorus Line itself is a theatricalization of the process, but carefully sculpted by a master showman and his writing staff. Here the central characters are Bob Avian, Bennett's longtime artistic partner, co-choreographer of the original Chorus Line, and director of the revival; Jay Binder, a veteran New York casting director who specializes in musicals; and Baayork Lee, one of the original cast members whose autobiographical tale was lifted off the tape and who has been restaging Bennett's choreography for years now. These are not actors performing scripted roles, but behind-the-scenes workers caught by omnipresent cameras.

Also on camera are composer Marvin Hamlisch, offering informative comments; John Breglio, Bennett's attorney/executor and producer of the revival; and original star (and Bennett muse) Donna McKechnie, who along with Avian offers interpretations of the late director-choreographer. What's more, there is a fair amount of footage of Bennett himself, which borders on the mesmerizing. Here you have actors getting callbacks and other actors not getting callbacks; called-back actors getting the part, or losing the part; and the especially difficult scenes of the creative staff trying to chose between final contestants. One wonders at the level of participation of the auditioning actors, who are generally labeled only by their surnames; in some cases, audition cards with their full names are clearly visible. (Among those unceremoniously cut is Andy Blankenbuehler, who has since choreographed In the Heights and 9 to 5.)

The major drama of the piece deals with the casting of Cassie, with plenty of screentime for the two frontrunners. Charlotte d'Amboise got the role, as theatregoers will remember. Up against her, and giving an excellent set of auditions, is Natascia Diaz (here simply called Natascia); am I the only person who saw the revival who wonders how things might have fared if they had made the other choice? One of the leads, whom I didn't much like at all at the Schoenfeld, earns their role against tough competition with an especially strong audition which ultimately didn't translate to the stage; for other actors, this film might as well serve as an audition for future work.

The film is accompanied on the DVD release by commentary from Hamlisch and directors Del Deo and Stern; a Donna McKechnie featurette; and a new interview with Breglio, Avian and Lee. Bonus material also includes some extended sections of the original tapes, which are understandably fascinating. There has been a fair share of discussion over the years about whether the original storytellers were properly recompensed for their stories, and that's not something we can comment upon without facts, figures, and contracts. "Every Little Step" helps point out, though, that these mini-biographies have become little legends within the annals of the Broadway musical; not Aesop's Fables, but Bennett's Fables. Let the original non-fictional prototypes know that that they have encouraged, consoled and otherwise inspired two generations of kids who have followed in their footsteps, or rather dance steps. That doesn't help pay the mortgage or health care premiums, no; but they have each of them made a difference, in real life, to numerous people in and out of show business. And continue to do so.

The most remarkable moment in the film, perhaps, is the audition of Jason Tam (who won the role of the "pony"-dancer Paul, relating the true-life tale of co-librettist Nick Dante). Tam was very strong in the revival, and Sammy Williams gave an unforgettable performance in the original Public Theater and Broadway productions. But Tam's final audition, on film, is absolutely shattering; Avian, Binder and Lee, who by this point had seen and heard the monologue hundreds upon hundreds of times, are sitting in the rehearsal room literally in tears. That, my friends, is the magic of Broadway; and it can be seen in "Every Little Step."

That Meryl Streep is an actor beyond classification is at this late date no surprise; I don't know that I've ever seen her give any performance that wasn't fascinating, and that's going back to Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton in 1976. Not a typical Streep role, I guess you could say, but that's the point. At any rate, here she is as Julia Child, and needless to say she is convincing.

Julie and Julia [Columbia/Sony] is the confection, and it is pretty tasty. Amy Adams serves as co-star (playing Julie); Stanley Tucci offers strong support as Julia's husband Paul; Nora Ephron wrote and directed. And now my kids have taken to standing by the stove shouting "more butter, more butter." Special features on the Blu-ray disc include "Family & Friends Remember Julia Child"; a tour of Child's kitchen; cooking lessons featuring Child and other chefs; and recipes, too!

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Movie studios like to package together existing DVD releases in various groupings, hoping to get additional sales for titles that have already been restored and released. Such is the theory behind the popular-priced Turner Classic Movies Greatest Classic Films Collection. A case in point is Holiday TCM Greatest Classic Films [Warner], which mixes four films with a Christmas-time flavor. Given that at least two of the four are highly recommendable favorites, this four-film-on-two-double-sided DVDs item is a welcome addition to the collections of anyone who likes heartwarming pre-'50s black and white comedies. The high spot for me is something called "Christmas in Connecticut" (1945), one of those career-girl-with-the-wrong-fiance-falls-in-love-with-a-soldier yarns. The girl is Barbara Stanwyck, which sets us on a high level from the beginning. (The soldier is Dennis Morgan, who is okay but clearly not on her level.) Stanwyck is bolstered by two veteran scene-stealers, Sydney Greenstreet and S.Z. (Cuddles) Sakall. Stanwyck is a Martha Stewart-type homemaking columnist whose publisher (Greenstreet) decides she should entertain a wounded soldier at her farm in Connecticut for the holidays; problematic in that Stanwyck doesn't have a farm in Connecticut, doesn't have the husband or infant featured in her columns, and doesn't know how to cook. She borrows house, husband and infant, and brings along the chef from her neighborhood restaurant. It all works out as you'd imagine, but the no-name director and screenwriters have a fine time getting us there. Of a similar pedigree, but needing little description here, is "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940). Theatre fans know it as the basis for Broadway's finest musical valentine, She Loves Me; filmgoers are familiar with remakes "In the Good Old Summertime" and "You've Got Mail." The first Hollywood version, a veritable sacher torte of a confection, features Margaret Sullavan and Jimmy Stewart, with screenplay and direction from the great Ernst Lubitsch. The other two items in the box are the 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol" starring Reginald Owen, pretty good if not comparable to the 1951 Alastair Sim version; and the not-especially-Christmasy "It Happened on Fifth Avenue" (1947). This last does hold some interest, as the cast contains future TV-star Gale Storm and former musical comedy-star Victor Moore.

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It seems to me that if the purveyors of Blu-ray really want this format to take off, they would spend less time advertising and simply lasso fans into watching what Blu-ray can do for their favorite movies. Invite them to screenings of a favorite, send them home with a free copy of said favorite, and that customer will surely buy a Blu-ray player and start building a collection of other favorites. This theory comes courtesy of Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest [Warner]. A grand movie, no doubt, thanks to the varied contributions of Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, and Martin Landau, not to mention screenwriter Ernest Lehman and composer Bernard Herrmann. But those grand segments — the car ride along the mountain cliff, the knife-throwing at the UN, the police accosting the bellcaps in the train station, and most especially the crop-dusting sequence and that unparalleled Mt. Rushmore chase — are even more grand in Blu-ray. But even mundane moments grab our attention. Remember two detectives questioning Eva while she walks with Cary along the railroad platform in Chicago? Extras mill about in the background. There's a rail worker in a white shirt in the far corner of the screen, a couple of platforms away. As Eva talks, so help me, you can see this guy exhale a cloud of cigarette smoke. Now, that's Blu-Ray. This "50th Anniversary Edition" comes within a 48-page hardcover book, conveniently sized to fit on your DVD shelf. And filled with photos, including some shots of the Mount Rushmore set that might well alter how you watch that dazzling final sequence.

(Steven Suskin is author of "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations" as well as "Second Act Trouble," "Show Tunes" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com)