Playbill Feature: Five Cassies Celebrate Five Decades of A Chorus Line
- Lauryn Johnson
- Jul 30
- 8 min read
Donna McKechnie, Charlotte d’Amboise, Robyn Hurder, Jessica Lee Goldyn, and Sarah Bowden reflect on donning the red leotard as Cassie.
By Lauryn Johnson
This article was published on Playbill, July 23, 2025
The first time that Donna McKechnie lunged beneath the downlight—arms outstretched, chin lifted—in the final pose of her solo in A Chorus Line, “The Music and the Mirror,” a legacy was begun. Cassie Ferguson first appeared in her iconic red leotard and dance skirt in 1975 when McKechnie brought her to life in Michael Bennett’s A Chorus Line at The Public Theater. Although Cassie was inspired by aspects of McKechnie’s own life, the veteran chorus dancer was largely a fictional character whose failed bid for Hollywood stardom left her pleading for a second chance in the chorus line. McKechnie’s raw portrayal of Cassie’s passion, desperation, and resilience resonated with audiences who saw their own stories reflected in hers. Since then, hundreds of actresses have joined the elite and ever-growing sisterhood of Cassies: a multi-generational group bonded by their mirrored experiences and the Marvin Hamlisch melodies that pulse through their veins.
(L-R) Charlotte d'Amboise, Robyn Hurder, Jessica Lee Goldyn, and Sarah Bowden
Photos by Paul Kolnik, Michael DeCristofaro, Matthew Imaging
As a dance historian, I recently sat down with Donna McKechnie and four other Cassies who will be appearing in the sold-out concert A Chorus Line Official 50th Anniversary Celebration at the Shubert Theatre on July 27. Charlotte d'Amboise starred as Cassie in the 2006 Broadway revival, and Jessica Lee Goldyn stepped into the role during that production’s final week in 2008. Sarah Bowden performed the role at the Hollywood Bowl in 2016. Robyn Hurder first portrayed Cassie in the 2009 national tour and then again in the 2018 New York City Center production. Similarly, Goldyn and Bowden have also revisited the role in numerous productions, proudly honoring the legacy of McKechnie and Bennett.
Creating Cassie
During the development of A Chorus Line, composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Ed Kleban wrote “The Music and the Mirror” for McKechnie. Kleban interviewed McKechnie about her relationship to music and dance, then used her responses to build the song’s emotional core. In her memoir she wrote, “I had never verbalized my feelings about the protective fantasy life that dancing gave me.” She had to hold back tears the first time she heard the lyrics he wrote for her:
Give me somebody to dance with
Give me a place to fit in.
Help me return to the world of the living,
By showing me how to begin.
Play me the music,
Give me the chance to come through.
All I ever needed
Was the music and the mirror,
And the chance to dance for you.
McKechnie also influenced the structure of the music itself. One night, in a session with Bennett, Hamlisch, and drummer Bobby Thomas, she was encouraged to articulate the emotional arc of her character and how the music could support her. She suggested that a changing tempo could reflect Cassie’s emotional rollercoaster ride, with the driving rhythm of the drums representing her sexuality and the soaring trumpet line representing her yearning. By the end of the eight-minute virtuosic dance solo, McKechnie hoped that the audience would understand that Cassie had resolved something in herself that she had never confronted before.
An Inspiration for the Ages
Right away, young dancers took note of McKechnie’s solo, which soon became the standard every dancer strived to emulate. D’Amboise fondly recalled the tradition of “second-acting” Broadway shows when she was younger (sneaking into a theatre during intermission to watch the second act for free); she did so for A Chorus Line and watched McKechnie perform “The Music and the Mirror." “She was completely individual. Not a carbon copy of anyone else. There was not a dishonest moment,” said d’Amboise.
A decade later, as a student in New Jersey, Goldyn recalled her dance teacher bringing in a VHS recording of McKechnie performing her solo: “I’ll never forget watching her for the first time. And from that moment on, she became one of my greatest inspirations in dance.”
Every actress cherishes the opportunity to meet or work with the original Cassie. Goldyn remembers the first time she walked into a studio and saw McKechnie. “You don’t understand how much you mean to me!” she remembered thinking. Working with the dancing legend more recently, Goldyn mused, “She’s so vulnerable with me. She would tell me every day, ‘I want you to walk in and take off your armor.’”
Hurder echoes this admiration, saying, “Donna is so gracious and collaborative—just a dream.” In 2023, Hurder had the chance to perform an excerpt of the solo alongside McKechnie at Lincoln Center. “Backstage she said, ‘Promise me you’ll always do my dance.’ And I said, ‘I promise I would never, ever do anything else!” (Every Cassie I spoke to takes the responsibility of preserving this role very seriously.)
Bowden summarized everyone’s experience with McKechnie: “She takes the Cassies under her wing, and we’re part of her family.”
The Gift that Keeps on Giving
Though you may think that performing a role created for her would be simple, McKechnie admits, “I wasn’t as ‘whole’ of a person as I wanted to be. I was very fragmented in ways. All the years of just trying to survive…things were not harmonious.” After two years immersed in the creation and performance of A Chorus Line, from its world premiere Off-Broadway at the Public Theater to its Broadway transfer, McKechnie left the show to pursue other opportunities. She also struggled with health complications that kept her from dancing.
Ten years later, in 1986, she was invited to return to A Chorus Line, which was still running. What was meant to be an eight-week stint in the show turned into eight joyous months. “Coming back with all of that life experience, everything was better. I thought, ‘What a wonderful thing to have this gift, a show like this, and to really feel happy.”
Second chances, both at the role and at life, are a recurring theme among this group of Cassies. Goldyn and Hurder were both “too young” the first time they performed Cassie. Though they had the technical skill to sing, dance, and act the role, they hadn’t yet accumulated the life experience necessary to truly connect with Cassie’s emotional journey. Goldyn was only 16 when she first performed Cassie. “The first way I was able to connect with Cassie was figuring out the reckless abandon of the choreography. Dance was and is my gift, that is what I’m meant to do on this earth. So that’s how I connected to the material at that age.”
Hurder’s difficulty connecting with the character came from a string of early professional successes. “At the time I thought, ‘I don’t know this woman.’ I didn’t know what it was like to be unemployed yet. I was going from job to job to job on Broadway. I didn’t feel right doing Cassie.”
Both women have had the opportunity to revisit the role several times, eventually portraying her with the truth and honesty that comes with lived experience. Goldyn says, “I used to think of ‘The Music and the Mirror’ as a dance first, and now I think of it as an acting piece. Was I able to have the audience relate to me as a human, and not just a dancer? Everyone at some point has felt that feeling—of needing a second chance. I’ve had so many second chances in my life.”
Hurder agrees, “Now I’ve lived. I’ve gone through the horror that this business can give you. Working, losing jobs, rejection. And getting to do it again 10 years later [in 2018], it felt like this gift. I thought, ‘Now you’re going to do it correctly and it’s going to be so special.’”
Bowden, who last played Cassie in 2019, is looking forward to revisiting the role at the July 27 anniversary concert. “Cassie has done a lot in her career and then goes away for a moment and then comes back to do the thing that she loves. I’d never done that. Playing Cassie now—after a pandemic, and an injury, and getting older—I think it will be a different experience.”
“And Now I’m Free to Fly”
When I asked each Cassie whether they had a favorite moment in “The Music and the Mirror” choreography, unsurprisingly, their answers were as different as their strengths. They referred to sections of the choreography by nicknames like “Hullabaloo,” “Swan Lake,” and “Heatwave,” which describe how the music and dance styles change throughout the number.
Hurder prefers the very first dance sequence when she’s still “fresh and sprightly,” Bowden enjoys the slower, sensual choreography later in the dance, when she faces the mirror upstage. Goldyn loves the section that follows, when the tempo quickens and “you’re becoming aware again of your freedom.”
D’Amboise, whose dance style is the very definition of “reckless abandon,” says her favorite part comes after the large leap: “You’re near the end. It’s that push of exuberance at that moment. Joyful dancing. And I just love that ride.”
Despite their various favorite moments, when asked what the most difficult part of the number was, the answer was unanimous: stamina. The strength and endurance required to sustain the storytelling—from the dialogue, into the song, into the dance, back into the song, and back into the dance—is nothing short of a Herculean feat. The women listed the side effects they had experienced as a result of performing this eight-minute tour-de-force: “jello legs”, “brief loss of vision,” “temporary numbness,” and, when done to the best of their ability, unadulterated pride.
Favorite Lines From the Line
I also asked each woman, after performing the solo so many times over the years, which lines or lyrics had come to mean the most to them.
Goldyn: “My favorite Cassie line is, ‘Let me wake up in the morning to find I have somewhere exciting to go.’ You lose a piece of yourself when you haven’t been in a rehearsal space, or in front of that mirror, or on stage in a while, and having that feeling of the audience reflecting back.”
Hurder: "My favorite moment in the show was in the second scene between Zach and Cassie when she says, ‘I would be proud to be one of them. They’re wonderful.’ Zach says, ‘But you’re special’ and Cassie replies, ‘No, we’re all special. […] and I’d be happy to be dancing in that line. Yes I would.’ Because it’s not just about getting the job and being on the line. It’s about being a part of that community.”
Bowden: "When Cassie sings, ‘God I’m a dancer.’ That sums up everything—about my life, about me. That’s it.”
McKechnie: “The line that I loved saying every night was, ‘I want to do what I love so much as I can and as long as I can.’ At 82, I see it differently now. I’m trying to do what I love as much as I can, as long as I can.”
If there is one Cassie line that none of them take too literally, it is when Cassie says, ‘And what I really don’t want is to teach other people how to do what I should be doing myself.’ All five actresses are known to be generous with their time and talents when leading a studio full of beginner dancers, pouring wisdom into the next generation and each doing their part to preserve the legacy of this role and this show that means so much to so many.
Over the last 50 years, audiences around the world have been moved by Cassie’s search for identity. Hundreds of women have taken to the stage to share their own truth—what it means to be a dancer, what it means to fail, and what it means to have the courage to begin again. And though Cassie in A Chorus Line never achieved her dream of becoming a star, she has allowed every dancer who has donned her red leotard to have a star-making moment.
To learn more about each of these women’s personal journeys with the A Chorus Line, you can find their full interviews at the Immortal Icons of Dance Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
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