A Chorus Line No. 22 - Robert LuPone
- Lauryn Johnson
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
Robert: "In August of ’74 I had made the great big jump from chorus dancer to actor and was on a roll of regional theater in principal acting roles," he said. "That's something I was very proud of because I had decided that my dancing future, although I was talented, was ultimately limited because I didn't want to be a choreographer. I made a conscious decision to study acting at twenty-three and finally at twenty-seven I was starting to get roles.
"My agent at the time said, ‘This man, Michael Bennett-you should go audition for him.’ I said, ‘Why?'
"Because he's doing a musical about dancers.'
"My comment at the time was I don't dance anymore,' but my agent convinced me to go.
"I went down and I sang at Joe Papp's, in the Anspacher Theatre. Michael was sitting at the top of the bleachers about a hundred feet away from me and I was onstage and I felt that to be very odd that I was auditioning up to a man. I found that an interesting metaphor later. I was nervous and unfocused, young, and not really wanting to be there. I started to move side to side while singing and Michael made one brief hand gesture that immediately got to me and calmed me down. That moment of direction immediately endeared me to him because nobody in an audition has ever done that ever been personal."
"At the end we talked, only to find out that I was going to get a callback for a dancing audition. As I was wont to do in those days, I didn't show up for the dancing audition. Because of that, I considered the job gone. But through my agent a few days later I found out that in fact Michael Bennett still wanted to see me. That was the next moment of endearment, of respect.'
"'The dancing audition passed and I was called back again, this time at the Newman among all those people I did not know. I read a little bit again and I sang again. I sang poorly because at that time I was petrified of singing and it was all happening very fast. There was a lot of excitement and I had no relationship to it whatsoever. But at the end of that, Michael turned around and said to everybody, 'This is the cast. Welcome to the Shakespeare Festival.'
"'Suddenly I was cast in the show, and I was totally bewildered. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I wanted to do the show. I hadn't read a script, I didn't know anything about it.’ And then it was a workshop. So I said, okay, I guess, why not. I had no job, I'd give it a try. I don't know how I made that decision, I don't know why I kept to that decision. The next thing I knew, I found myself doing this show, dancing doing exactly what it was I didn't want to do."
—On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus Line by Robert Viagas, Baayork Lee, Thommie Walsh
“As Zach, LuPone had a unique vantage point on the show's progress during the first winter's run, 1975 to 1976. ‘I saw the show every night,’ he said. ‘I got so I could tell everyone about their performances, when they were on, when they were off. I knew how they hid from me, from 'Zach? I knew when they wanted to do the show, I knew when they didn't want to do the show. I knew when anybody was rolling the tape' on me and wasn't willing to play in the moment. I was able to perceive when people were dancing for me and when they weren't. There was a lot of bitching going on before and after the show but when show time came I can't think of any time for a prolonged period that anybody let the show go outside of fatigue. There were some Saturday nights, boy, you could see it in those last kicks. I'm not just talking tired, I'm talking exhaustion. But they gave it all they had.’”
—On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus Line by Robert Viagas, Baayork Lee, Thommie Walsh
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