PETA KROST MAUNDER
It was so professional, I kept forgetting that I was watching school kids and not hungry actors and dancers desperate to get a shoe-in on Broadway (as is the storyline).
In fact, I bumped into an old colleague, Lara de Matos, the former editor of The Star’s Tonight section, who was equally blown away by the quality of the performance. And this was only the first night of the show.
While the general quality was superb, there were clearly big stars-in-the-making. One of these was Georgia Stoller, who plays Cassie Ferguson, the talented actress who should have made it big and was desperate to get back onto the chorus line because she was out of work with no prospects.
Stoller has a magnificent singing voice, dances beautifully and appears to have a confidence that only star quality brings. I would be surprised if she doesn’t join the King David grads who have made it in the theatre world, like Gina Shmukler and the late Lisa Melman.
And then there was Rebecca Matisonn, who played Sheila Briant, who shone brightly when it was her moment, as did Nathan Lieberman as the unfortunate Paul San Marco. Lieberman’s performance left many youngsters in the audience quite troubled that he had been injured and that he might not get a part on the Chorus Line.
The truth is that while I have named just these youngsters, there were few – even those with small parts – who didn’t do themselves and the school proud.
There were one or two instances that I battled to understand what was said by someone, but that did not detract from the sheer quality of the show.
While A Chorus Line was a huge Broadway hit, it could not have been an obvious choice for a Jewish school production for a number of reasons. Firstly, most of the female roles are done in leotards, which might not have been easy for all the girls. Then, then there were some lines that were bordering on risqué.
More than that, though, it couldn’t have been an easy production to get youngsters to perform because there was no simple, easy-to-follow storyline.
Having said all of that, King David did it. A Chorus Line was slick and professional from beginning to end and I went home singing: “What I did for love!”
