A Chorus Line No. 43 - Ann Reinking
- Lauryn Johnson
- Jul 24
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 25
ANN REINKING: "Michael and Bob Avian called and asked if I would be interested in doing Cassie, and I said, "Yeah, absolutely." There was no problem with whether I could dance it, but Michael wanted to know if the song would work in a lower key. Donna is a soprano, and I am almost a tenor. Fran Liebergall transposed it into my key. Michael said it was fine so I went into rehearsal at City Center.
"It was mandatory that the National and
International Companies be excellent. We were the first to go out into the world to represent the show. Michael worked with everybody one on one.
"Michael was so quiet, sometimes he was perceived as being cold— but he wasn't, he was very sweet. I had dinner with him once; he was taking his "next" Cassie to dinner, saying welcome. And he was quite chatty. The dinner wasn't anything other than what he was supposed to do.
"Michael had almost an entirely new New York Company, with most of the Originals going to California. We were being treated, and being received as an original cast. We were re-reviwed and because if had not been open that long, people who were comping to see it were still unbelievably enthusiastic. It was really the first time I was one of the principal parts in a show that was obviously a monumental hit. It was a good learning and growing experience. The Cassie dance is very hard and long and because of that, it keeps you honest. I had to really stay true to myself and be fit. I could enjoy all the wonderful perks that were happening, but there was no way I could buy into them.
--The Longest Line: Broadway's Most Singular Sensation by Gary Stevens and Alan George
Photos by Martha Swope, 1976.
ANN REINKING: "I had asked Michael if we could make a couple of changes in the dance, because Donna dances primarily from the waist up. She's got a great torso and body work, but for me, it's legs; I'm very short-waisted. We put in jetés for me, quite a few. Michael was really good about it, and I think that's why it worked for so many different Cassies. He said, 'This is the foundation and you must stay within this sphere, but within this sphere, you must be yourself and find your way.' Michael really let me be me, within the confines of the part. 'If you don't want to do the ending the way it is, you can do your own ending' Donna ends almost in a fourth position, and I was uncomfortable with it. Michael said, 'Go where you want to go. If it's not right, I'll tell you.' For a while, I was ending the dance with a variety of poses, but Michael ultimately liked where I just turned my head over my shoulder and looked at Zach. He thought it had a realistic feeling to it. I think that ending was very appropriate, because the character got so involved with her own love of dance, that she just all of a sudden remembered, 'Wait a minute, he's watching me.' It had kind of a cinematic real thing that Michael enjoyed.
--The Longest Line: Broadway's Most Singular Sensation by Gary Stevens and Alan George
ANN REINKING (Cassie): "My Cassie leotard didn't have a scoop neck. I always wore things to elongate that which was short and make longer that what was long. I asked if I could shear the neck down and make it a V, and Theoni agreed. In the beginning, I didn't want to use a skirt at all, it just cut me all wrong — I didn't look good. So for about a week, we tried it without the skirt. Michael missed the skirt. If you're doing SWEET CHARITY, you have to wear a little black dress, and if you're doing SWAN LAKE, you should wear feathers. The red skirt is a Cassie signature that shouldn't be missed. I was primarily doing the same choreography, but without the skirt, the look changed. I asked if we could drop the waist, "It will look like it's on my waist, but it's really on my hips." Theoni put snaps all around so the skirt would stay in place. Donna's skirt always opened on the right. Doing the bourrés at the end of the Cassie dance, her skirt would flow out. I thought it would be beautiful if it were on the other side. You could see the leg working and the skirt would flow more gracefully - fanning out one way as the legs were going the other way. All the subsequent Cassies decided they liked that. Donna always wore it on the right; I wore it on the left, and from then on all the girls followed suit.
--The Longest Line: Broadway's Most Singular Sensation by Gary Stevens and Alan George
"The strap on my shoe broke and I had to finish the Cassie dance with one shoe on and one shoe off. In stocking feet, you're just slipping all over the place. I re-choreographed instantly, but thank God it was toward the end. I got my heel caught in my skirt, and went straight down into a "dying swan" position and did a backward slide almost into the wings."
--The Longest Line: Broadway's Most Singular Sensation by Gary Stevens and Alan George
Alyce Gilbert: "Annie has a completely different body than Donna. The one thing you never want to put on Ann Reinking is a leotard and a skirt. She has a very short torso, which is why she has legs that are a mile long. It looked odd on her because it snapped around her hip and it was so long, but it looked even odder when it was around her waist. Michael did try the dance without the skirt, but it just didn't work. The dance needs a skirt; she needs to be covered. You need that movement.
ANN REINKING: "I left the show because Bob Fosse had asked me to replace Gwen Verdon in Chicago. I wanted to try something else. I had spent five or six months with the Broadway Company and a couple of months in Los Angeles.
If they had asked me, I probably would have considered going back to A Chorus Line. But I was just fortunate at that time to be working, one project after the other. I don't think anybody thought about it, including myself. I wasn't that available.
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