Let's Have a Look at Alisan Porter… following in her mother’s footsteps on stage in “A Chorus Line.”
How often is that? Daughter has the same role as her mother once had. Two Bebes in one family and not separated by too many years either. Alisan Porter has stepped right into shoes vacated by her mother who did the role in the first national tour of "A Chorus Line" in 1978. Imagine opening night 2006! Mother sitting in the audience watching and daughter on stage singing "Everything is Beautiful at the Ballet."
"When I heard 'A Chorus Line' was coming back to Broadway, I called my agent and said 'get me in there.'" Porter was talking about the audition - one of three she took before landing the role she felt had already been a part of her life. "This show is part of my history. It just seemed proper for me to do it here in New York."
No matter how destined one feels about being in a certain show, landing a job in a Broadway musical is more than because you feel it is right for you. Bottom line is you have to please a horde of higher-ups before you sign the contract, and the fact that mom did the role has as much bearing on the decision as being the director's second cousin--maybe less. You have to sing, dance, read lines, be the right size, weight, coloring, and bring a smile to the faces of those larger than life bodies sitting in the darkened house. 5-6-7-8 is only the beginning as the text of this fabled show tells you.
Porter had come in from Los Angeles for the audition where she had been working with her band "The Alisan Porter Project." Composing music for the band, teaching jazz and ballet, and performing had kept her busy after her first show "Footloose" closed. But the lure of "A Chorus Line" was strong and all through the auditions she felt confident. "But you never really know what the thinking is," Porter recalled. "After my third audition I went back to the hotel, realizing I was the only one left for the Bebe role. Still you can never really know for sure until the phone rings. I am a huge Harry Potter fanatic and knowing the ending of the sixth book would be very emotional, I dug in and tried to pass the time. When the phone rang my agent simply said 'Pack your bags. You are going to move.' Calling my mother to tell her was a surreal experience. I am telling her I am going to experience the same thing she did. It was wild."
For anyone who has ever danced in the theater "A Chorus Line" tells it all. "What You Did For Love, -- I was to leave my family, apartment, friends, and dog, come to New York and do this show," she said, with no pause for a breath. "It was a roller coaster, and I was about to take the ride."
Porter's grandmother, one of her early teachers and staunchest fans, lives in Massachusetts. She is still very active in dance on the dance convention circuit that was also a part of Porter's early performing life. "I went to high school in Connecticut, but I came to the city to take classes," Porter said. "Just watching the people I admired in classes, well I was like a sponge. My grandmother was on the board of the Dance Masters of America, and every summer I would take classes at the competitions. I still hang out in Westport during the weekends off. Getting away from Times Square and breathing some country air for 24 hours is a must for me."
Most of the theater-going public does not realize how hard it is to dance in a Broadway show eight times a week. "A Chorus Line" is especially difficult because the cast remains on stage all the time, standing on a line. There is no intermission. Once the cast assembles for the opening dance number and certain ones are eliminated...the remaining dancers stay on stage until the curtain falls. "Except during two scenes involving Cassie and Zach, and Paul's monologue," Porter said. "Then we have time to sit or stretch backstage or as we have done often, visit with the cast of 'History Boys' or 'Les Miz' our neighbors across the alley." Porter swears that some day the dancers will throw on some rags and join the barricade during their free time. "No one will know the difference between French revolutionists and us "Chorus Line" gypsies," she mused.
Keeping this hit show fresh every night is the most difficult task for the dancers. Standing on the line watching as each one moves forward to perform their number."
The cast must remember they are also auditioning for a mythical show. Staying focused is imperative. Porter often deliberates with herself while endlessly standing still. How should she even out her stance tonight? Where should she put her weight to be the most comfortable? "Today the right hip hurts, so I'll try the left side. Oh, but this leg is cramping. I will have to shake it out, but noone can see me. You know, all this standing is tortuous on your lower back and knees."
The dancers are permitted to move a little on stage, talk quietly to each other, but always must stay in the moment because "your moment" comes up quickly. In talking with Porter, her legs propped up on her table and stretched out to the fullest, it was easy to read her honesty when she reiterated the intensity of the strain on the body. With the bitter goes the sweet and thank-heaven for therapists," she said. Porter admits she cannot do much physically during the day, occasionally, yoga, Pilates, possibly a floor barre. "But at six o'clock I know I will be running up and down several flights of stairs to get dressed for the performance," she said. "I have to save my energy."
There isn't a dancer who wouldn't change places with Alisan Porter, despite the stiff muscles, the endless stairs to climb, and the crazy emotional experience that is her night at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. "When Zach, the show's choreographer (the Michael Bennett figure) asks us each night; 'what will you do when you can't dance anymore?" Her voice trailed off. Her long dark lashes hid the fullness in her dark eyes. She looked in her dressing table mirror and said. "In rehearsal we all cried the first time we did that scene."