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His delicate mental state is explored at length, and the songs and story begin to feel redundant. The audience travels on a roller coaster ride with Kleban, where every success is immediately succeeded by a crashing fall. “Mona,” a strong seduction number performed by a talented Katherine Koehler, demonstrates Kleban’s weakness for women and marks the end of his romantic relationship with Sophie. A rousing number called “Fridays at Four” introduces the audience to Musical Comedy Class, the workshop where Kleban meets his colorful circle of Broadway friends.
Lucy and the chorus line free#
We continue to follow Kleban as he matures into a young adult, working as a producer at Columbia Records and spending every free second writing songs. Sophie, a Bryn Mawr student, has visited him, and he professes his love to her before sharing his newfound passion: songwriting. They travel to a New York mental hospital where an 18-year-old Kleban has been committed after having a breakdown while studying at Columbia University. Kleban’s childhood sweetheart and lifetime muse Sophie, played by the charming Elizabeth Ferraro, appears to Kleban’s befuddled ghost and forces him to look honestly at his life. Kleban’s enthusiasm fades as his guests’ attentions shift from idealized memories to reality, and we learn that Kleban was as difficult and troubled as he was talented. The ghost of Kleban, played convincingly by Robbie Thomas, waltzes in unbeknownst to his guests, performing a spirited rendition of “Light on My Feet,” a ditty which reappears throughout the show as Kleban’s rarely realized motto.
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His close friends - and there aren’t many - have gathered to lament his life. The play opens at the end of Kleban’s story: his funeral.
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Lucy and the chorus line series#
Through a series of song and dance numbers taken from Kleban’s unproduced musicals, A Class Act gives a unique insider’s perspective into what it takes to succeed in the competitive world of musical theater.
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The musical celebrates the life of the songwriter, best known for the Broadway hit A Chorus Line. Orchestra and chorus were well rehearsed and confident in their realisation of Anderson’s rich sound world.Edward Kleban would have turned 71 on the opening night of the Footlight Players’ production of A Class Act. These fascinating fragments only hinted at the ambitious scale of the work, which aims to draw in experiences relating to the pandemic. Overlaying this was a fiendishly intricate choral contribution, combined with a dramatic soprano line. The sophistication of the orchestral writing shone through. The more complex Tsiyon included a choir, the London Symphony Chorus, which sat aloft in the balcony on this occasion. Lucy Crowe delivered the beautifully written vocal line with allure and precision. The first, Le 3 mai, was a lush, Ravelian song for soprano and large orchestra. Instead, only two relatively short movements were premiered. A change of programme was necessary as it transpired that for various reasons, it was not possible to perform Julian Anderson new work Exciles in full. Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra opened their new season with an eclectic mix of British music that saw the charismatic conductor at his chimerical best and the orchestra at their most lustrous.