Just Sing and Dance

With Every Little Step, which I saw during the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival last month, filmmakers James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo (The Year of the Yao) explore the enthralling journey of A Chorus Line, from its experimental genesis to the 2006 Broadway revival against which this documentary is set.

The original idea for the singular-sensation musical belongs to director-choreographer Michael Bennett, who met with a bunch of dancers to hear their stories and reams at midnight on Jan. 26, 1974. Bennett taped that meeting, and based many of A Chorus Line’s characters on the young bright things with whom he talked. Stern and Del Deo had access to those tapes, and bits of them play throughout the doc.

Every Little Step goes behind the scenes with exclusive interviews and footage of the revival’s audition process, revealing the dramatic journey of the performers.

In a day and age in which revolting so-called reality TV rules, it is nice to see something that actually depicts real struggle, something for which real people – not fame-hungrybots but worthy performers – work hard, and something that is truly, really inspiring.

Bennett knew there was something life-changing to looking inward.

Every Little Step reminds us of that. And that’s just swell.

My Rating ***1/2

Photo: Sony Pictures Classics.