Mike Bennett’s seminal production of A Chorus Line will receive its first ever London revival next year when it opens at the London Palladium.
Featuring the iconic songs One (Singular Sensations), What I Did For Love, I Can Do That and Hope I Get It, with a book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, the Olivier Award-winning musical about 17 dancers auditioning for a Broadway show will play a strictly limited season from 2 February (press night 19 February) to 29 June.
Bennett’s production, which won nine Tony Awards when it opened on Broadway in 1975 before going on to become the longest running musical on Broadway at the time, notching up a staggering 6,136 performances, transferred to London in 1976, winning the Olivier Award for Best New Musical.
Next year’s revival, which marks the first time the musical has been seen in the West End for almost 35 years, will be directed by veteran stage director and co-choreographer of the original production Bob Avian, who also directed the 2006 Broadway revival.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, owner of the London Palladium, described the musical’s arrival in the West End as a way of honouring the show’s composer Marvin Hamlisch, who died last month aged 68, saying: “I am delighted to welcome A Chorus Line into the London Palladium. Marvin Hamlisch was a great friend and supporter in my early career and I can think of no more fitting tribute to him than this major revival.”
A Chorus Line will open at the Palladium following the festive musical fable based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Scrooge The Musical, which plays from 24 November, booking until 5 January.