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Nikki Snelson says the dancing in "A Chorus Line" is tougher than it looks. The show runs through July 27 at San Francisco's Curran Theatre.
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - For Nikki Snelson, playing Cassie in the new tour of “A Chorus Line” is an achievement in more ways than one.
“It’s special ... my mom can really see how all those dance lessons paid off,” says the Broadway thespian, recently on the phone from Los Angeles. Beginning this week, she’ll be in San Francisco, where the show runs through July 27 at the Curran Theatre in a Best of Broadway presentation.
Getting the part in the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning show, she says, was one of the most intense and incredible experiences of her career. It was a two-and-a-half month process, ending with an audition in which she was alone onstage performing the number “The Music and the Mirror” at the theater where the iconic musical originated.
The new tour isn’t her first brush with the hit show by James Kirkwood, Nicholas Dante, Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban, which premiered in 1975 and enjoyed a record-breaking 15-year run on Broadway, which it still holds.
A 2006 revival, which opened in San Francisco in a pre-Broadway run, introduced the heartfelt show about dancers trying out for a spot in the chorus of a big-time musical, to a new generation.
At that point, Snelson was up for the role of the glamour-challenged Val, who sings “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three,” but didn’t get it.
Instead, she went on to play villainess Brooke Wyndam in “Legally Blonde” on Broadway. (That show also previewed in The City before hitting Broadway.)
Later, she was asked to try out again for a new tour of “A Chorus Line,” and was about to say no — until she learned she was wanted for Cassie, which she calls “the quintessential dancer’s role.”
Too young to have experienced the original production, she says she remembers watching the movie on TV, and being particularly interested in the Cassie character. The theater veteran — she debuted professionally at 16 — has found the role tough, particularly the dancing.
“It looks so easy, but it’s shocking how taxing it is all the time,” she says. She and her fellow cast members push themselves, but also try to take time to rest.
Meanwhile, the resident of New York City’s East Village is pleased to come back to the Bay Area. She’s been here a few times. In addition to her stint in “Legally Blonde,” she appeared in two TheatreWorks productions in Mountain View, “Kept” and “Smokey Joe’s Café,” where she had “a blast.”
She says, “I love The City, and outside of it too, like Muir Woods. And Fisherman’s Wharf and the Haight … all the touristy things.”
IF YOU GO
A Chorus Line
Where: Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St., San Francisco
When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays-Sundays; closes July 27
Tickets: $25 to $99
Contact: (415) 512-7770 or www.ticketmaster.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
8:22 PM MST on Wed., Aug. 13, 2008 re: "Performer gets risqué in new act"
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2:23 PM MST on Mon., Aug. 20, 2007
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6:47 PM MST on Wed., Jun. 20, 2007
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2:03 PM MST on Wed., Jun. 13, 2007
re: "A trifle of a ‘Tempest’"
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10:45 AM MST on Wed., May. 30, 2007
re: "A harrowing choice at Theater J"
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9:33 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 23, 2007
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Bessica said:
The government should get out of marriage entirely. Straight or gay, we need good family law to protect children, we need contracts for interdependent relationships. Marriage is an important institution. Rename the legal part something else for EVERYONE. Many GLBT on the site **bisexualmingle c o m** want the same-sex marriage.
2 agree | 2 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I thought it was a great production and both Alexa Ortega and Adam Barry were absolutely fantastic.
16 agree | 10 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The Government Inspector: Quite poorly done. Actors unprepared. Line delivery mishaps. Overpriced. Prop failure at the end. It reminded me of sequels such as Oceans v11 - v13, where a group of well known actors use their names to draw a crowd and sell tickets. Uk. The result is a mediocre performance, in part because of too many cooks -- and some of these cooks, e.g. Geoff Hoyle are really good. Hopefully this review will save someone else the time and money.
16 agree | 11 disagree
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Parkside Poulegene said:
Re: High School Musical I just took my daughter Sharmuta to this show and we had to leave early! When we got home I took away all her "High School Musical" CD's and tee-shirts. If she even mentions the show again she's grounded for a month, and that goes for her other mother too. This show is really racist, homophobic and pro-Zionist and pro-Bush-Terror. There's too many white people in it. This show needs to be shut down and outlawed.
12 agree | 12 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Thank you for the first honest review that I have read on this production. The length of Act two was tortuous to sit through.
385 agree | 332 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I bet the scene where Macbeth and Macduff are branishing their CLAYMORES is a hoot!
300 agree | 314 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Playing naked? Not really - the main character's body is covered by fur! As the reader before wrote the actor playing Macbeth is extremely hairy. It is quite strange to see how hairy a mans body can be... His body hair was the most impressing thing of the whole play.
324 agree | 293 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Bloody, Bold, Resolute, and Naked - AND HAIRY!!! I read an article that all actors were not allowed to shave any body hair three months before the play started to look "naturally". So it is impressive how hairy the actor playing Macbeth is - he has a furry chest and even a quite hairy back and bushy pubic hairs. It is very unusual today to see such a hairy actor fully nude, because normally an actor shaves at least his back hairs doing a nude scene on stage or in a movie... So big compliments to Daniel Eichner for presenting us his great furry body fully nude!
353 agree | 308 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Good review... one of the few critics able to articulate some of the problems with this show. I left at intermission and the lighting was troublesome. sometimes I wonder what the other critics are thinking --- if you are still curious fgo on Saturday afternoons when the tickets are "pay what you can."
388 agree | 346 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Munch claims "there is no denying" that the nudity in WSC's "Macbeth" "does little to enhance or elevate Shakespeare’s Scottish play." Well, the critics at www.PotomacStages.com and www.DCTheatreScene.com have taken the opposite view. Potomac Stages, in fact, wrote: "in no uncertain terms that this is a quality production that presents "the Scottish play" in a new and very effective light (or is that a new and very effective darkness?)." DC Theatre Scene wrote: "The actors’ nudity provides an extra dimension to their presentations...By being physically naked, these actors become emotionally naked as well. This production of Macbeth is a great gift to those who have the will to receive it. We are unlikely to see anything like it in the foreseeable future." So it seems the only thing there is no denying is that Munch doesn't speak for everyone.
405 agree | 314 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Tonight's performance of "Macbeth" started at 8:05 pm and was done precisely at 10:30. I'm not the best at math, but that seems like under 2 and half hours...not over 3 hours, which the critic claims the play to be.
391 agree | 356 disagree
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JaimeK said:
Shame Fat Pig wasn't given an actual review on the acting. There were some pretty phenomenal performances. Especially Erin Riley as Helen and Courtney Ryan as Jeannie. Very VERY good show.
517 agree | 405 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Closes in 4 days
449 agree | 400 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Why review it a few days before it closes and not mention its closing in the review?
441 agree | 430 disagree
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EdnBetty said:
We just returned from Titus Andronicus, the play that Kenneth Tynan called "the worst play Marlowe ever wrote". We expected gore and got it! Tsoutsouvas was also great, but Valerie Leonard was vamping it over the top. And that voice set my teeth on edge!
745 agree | 480 disagree
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Reader said:
Yes, "She Stoops to Comedy" at Woolly Mammoth is a treat!
545 agree | 464 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Oh, we just a-DORed this show!
572 agree | 457 disagree
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