The Play's the Thing
(L to R) Jack Rouse, Managing Director Abby Marcus, Osborn Family Producing Artistic Director Blake Robison, Moe Rouse, Board Chair Ellen van der Horst and the Playhouse staff at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the all-new mainstage theatre complex, featuring Moe and Jack's Place - The Rouse Theatre. Photo by Mikki Schaffner.
If You Go
A Chorus Line
March 16 – April 15
Moe and Jack’s Place — The Rouse Theatre
962 Mt. Adams Circle
To purchase tickets or for more information, or visit www.cincyplay.com.
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park celebrated the completion of its capital campaign this week, with a ribbon cutting for its new Mainstage Theatre Complex, featuring Moe and Jack’s Place — The Rouse Theatre. The $50 million project began construction in 2021.
With its new Rouse Theatre comes a re-imagining of A Chorus Line that adds a contemporary vantage point to the classic musical and considers how dancers audition today, and how they dance differently now than they did in 1975.
This new production of the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning A Chorus Line features choreography by Alex Sanchez (Paradise Square on Broadway). Sanchez won the SDC Joe A. Calloway Award for best choreography and was recognized as one of Dance Magazine's “25 to watch.”
“It’s a musical about theatre and the artists who make it,” explains Osborn Family Producing Artistic Director Blake Robison, who is directing the production “It's also of the moment. We're emerging from a pandemic in which there was literally no work for actors for nearly two years. When they sing, ‘God, I hope I get it...I really need this job,’ that sentiment is raw and real.”
The musical features a cast of young New York City dancers led by Shiloh Goodin (Paradise Square) as Cassie and Cincinnati-native Drew Lachey (from the band 98 Degrees, Dancing with the Stars) as Zach. Also featured are Courtney Arango as Diana Morales and Diego Guevara as Paul. Set Designer Tim Mackabee, who designed The Elephant Man on Broadway, has envisioned a stage that transforms from a rehearsal/audition studio into a more traditional theatre stage as the story unfolds
“When I was talking to Blake about the show, he expressed wanting to do a new take on A Chorus Line and how it could be accomplished choreographically,” says Sanchez. “At the time, I had just worked on creating new choreography for a production of West Side Story in Chicago. The way that I approached both iconic works is by diving into the narrative, intention and event of the moment. Capturing the spirit and being true to the story is what will make the creation of new movement feel like it's part of the original story.”
Though the musical was contemporary to the 1970s, it still authentically reflects a love for the art form that feels timeless — it’s part of what makes A Chorus Line so beloved, no matter the generation of the audience. Robison aims to find that same cadence through his directorial approach.
“We haven't changed a single word or lyric in this production,” Robison explains. “But I think that audiences will see the characters responding to the situation in a more contemporary way. Auditions don't happen the way they did in 1975 anymore. And so we set our production in an audition studio, not on a mythic empty stage. Today's dancers are much more athletic. You'll see that in Alex Sanchez's superb new choreography. And I hope you'll get a sense that our dancers endure this unusually grueling audition process with more personal agency.”
The Rouse Theatre and Schueler Lobby officially opens March 16 with A Chorus Line. The new facility features expanded comfort and accessibility for patrons and enables the Playhouse to host Pre-Broadway productions, which means a production that premieres in Cincinnati could go straight to Broadway for the first time ever, further solidifying Cincinnati’s reputation as a city with a thriving arts scene.
Enhancements to outdoor features and landscaping this spring will connect the Playhouse to the Cincinnati Ballet and Cincinnati Art Museum in the emerging Eden Park/Walnut Hills arts corridor. New design elements also deepen the Playhouse’s roots in its Eden Park home.
While the opening of A Chorus Line in many ways celebrates a resurgence of live theatre after work slowed down or stopped for many theatres across the world, the Playhouse spent the pandemic ramping up its work to finance and build its new theatre. It turbocharged fundraising efforts and locked in the GMP (guaranteed maximum price) of the project before the pandemic-influenced supply chain and labor issues inflated construction costs, and the opening remains on time and on budget.