A Chorus Line No. 15 - Don Percassi
- Lauryn Johnson
- Jul 10
- 3 min read
“For Don Percassi, a short, dark, muscular Italian with a Lebanese nose, boundless energy, and a rapid-fire infectious laugh— singing and dancing are just what he always did. ‘I’m not gonna tell you my first show, 'cause it dates me!’ Don first met Michael Bennett and Bob Avian when he was doing West Side Story in London and they were in the European touring company; Jerry Robbins took both companies to dinner in Paris. He met Michael again when he worked for him in Coco, the musical Michael staged starring Katharine Hepburn as Coco Chanel. ’I knew he was a genius,’ Don recalls.”
—What They Did for Love by Denny Martin Flinn
"We'd get in at ten in the morning," Don Percassi said, "and everybody would be crying and I hadn't had my tea yet. That was the workshop. When my mother called me and asked me how everything was going I would say, Terrific. I go there and dance for three hours, I sing for three hours and I cry for three hours! I told her it was getting to be an Italian melodrama or an opera. I told her I had the feeling that Marvin Hamlisch was taking his things from Puccini. I thought, ‘This is too much, I'm getting a headache.’”
—On the Line by Robert Viagas, Baayork Lee, Thommie Walsh
"The ever-amenable and cheerful Percassi was offered the role of Al. He complied, not complaining that the part had been pared down from a central character to a supporting role. 'Every time I did the part they would laugh,' Percassi said. 'It was too macho. Bob LuPone had been fine, but when I did it, it was silly. That's when Michael started realizing that we all had different colors. That's when things started changing. They had to make the part funnier because that's the way I am.'"
"Aside from his easygoing temperament, the reason Percassi didn't mind a minor role is, quite simply, 'I loved the creative process.' He said, 'They'd put us around the piano and they would tell each of us to sing something. It was actually being created on us. Michael would unleash us and if he liked it we could keep it in. You don't get that most of the time. To be free to do anything-wow!' One of the experiments resulted in Percassi's part actually getting a little bigger. 'Sing!' was the number Hamlisch and Kleban had written during the hiatus for Renee Baughman. In the song, Kristine boasts of her dancing skills, but despairs of ever learning to sing. The number began as a solo for Baughman, but though the melodic line is a simple one, Baughman, true to her character, could not carry it. The song then was redrafted for the entire chorus, but, as Baughman recalls, "I almost lost that number because it didn't work for so long. I'm sure that a lot of people wondered why I had a song when I couldn't really sing. I know it was frustrating for everybody. I remember chanting for that number whenever I got the chance."
"Aside from the creative team, show business insiders often were invited to the workshops to examine the show's progress and give Bennett and Avian feedback. Many of the top directors and cho-reographers, including Ron Field and others, gave Bennett advice and criticism. But the piece of advice that saved 'Sing!' came from an unexpected source. 'It was Ed Kleban's girlfriend [Lina Klein],' Baughman said. 'She was sitting in at a rehearsal, we had tried everyone helping me sing, and she suggested that my husband help me sing.'
"She proposed that Al and Kristine come forward and explain Kristine's problem together, since they were man and wife and it was in Al's macho nature to finish his wife's sentences for her. As the song now goes, Kristine sings the first six notes of each line, with Al popping in with the final and rhyming note—and completing each of her thoughts. Not only was it cute and funny, it also worked. The chorus still comes in at the end, but now it's a number that reveals two characters instead of just one.
"Percassi said, 'We tried it for Michael and I just remember him standing up and saying, 'That's the number!' When 'Sing!' was rewritten as a duet, suddenly I felt like I had something to contribute.'"
—On the Line by Robert Viagas, Baayork Lee, Thommie Walsh
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