Dionysian reflections upon A Chorus Line

Abstract

For a landmark musical that shouted chorus from its glitzy heights, it is surprising that the subject of the chorus in Michael Bennett's A Chorus Line (1975) has escaped formal scholarly appraisal. This article provides a critical contextualization of an iconic musical within the avant-garde theatre of its time and the underlying historical and cultural influence of the Nietzsche-based Dionysian paradigm on dance and Broadway. The paradigm a bivalent account of Dionysian and Apollonian principles contributed in American society to the Zeitgeist of personal liberation and also to the emblem of well-drilled chorus lines. In 1960s and 1970s America, group therapy methods and experimental theatre seized on Dionysus as both liberator and destroyer. The hierarchical power play that flowed between the leader/director and his chorus/ensemble, as well as in the dissolution of boundaries between audience and performer, was evidenced in both Bennett's processes and Richard Schechner's Dionysus in '69.