MovieChat Forums > All That Jazz (1979) Discussion > Was Chorus Line a rip-off of opening sce...

Was Chorus Line a rip-off of opening scene?

posted 15 years ago by amazingann
6 replies | jump to latest

Just wondering. That opening number of the open call is mighty reminiscent of Chorus Line except, uh oh, All That Jazz was 6 years earlier.

Michael Bennett of Chorus Line was supposedly the disliked John Lithgow director character, All That Jazz is 79, Chorus Line is 85. Not that Bennett couldn't see promise in that opening scene and expand on it, and that would be legit.

But just wondering if anybody thought there might be a connection. That Bennett's "brilliant" premise was actually Fosse's, just filled out to a full-length movie.

And by the way, I just watched them both, and now in 2010, I think that All That Jazz has improved with age, whereas Chorus Line kind of wilted as a so-so relic.

[–] Celluloid_Dreamer 15 years ago

I doubt it since "A Chorus Line" was first performed Off-Broadway in 1975. The film was released in 1985 but the play it's based on was much older.

http://addictedtocelluloid.blogspot.com/

[–] abens_98 15 years ago

The opening number of All That Jazz was more Fosse thumbing his nose at Bennett in getting such a scene on film before he did. Michael Bennett directed the entire opening sequence of A Chorus Line for the Tony telecast the year it was nominated, and many people could see that he was clearly already planning out in his head the screen version, based on his use of the cameras for that telecast. Unfortunately the directing duties for A Chorus Line ultimately went to Richard Attenborough, who clearly did not understand what the material was really about, hence the movie being considered pretty much a trainwreck of a disaster.

[–] IMDBRefugee1SD (139) 8 years ago

Yes, the film of "A Chorus Line" was terrible. The "A Chorus Line" fans(including me) were rightly disturbed that
"What I Did For Love", one of the signature songs was reduced to background music in the film. Attenborough
got the drama right, but flubbed the music.

[–] murph24 15 years ago

I don't know who submitted the "trivia" item (on the IMDb page) that John Lithgow's character was based on Michael Bennett, but it's wrong - the Lithgow character was clearly based on Hal Prince, right down to the glasses perched atop his forehead. Prince and Fosse had worked together on The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees, then had a nuclear meltdown as they prepared New Girl In Town for Broadway. It produced a rift that never fully healed.

Fosse probably wasn't crazy about the fact that Bennett's A Chorus Line had taken the lion's share of the Tony Awards in 1976 (while his production of Chicago walked away empty-handed), nor I'm sure did he enjoy hearing all the talk in the mid-70s about A Chorus Line being "the best dance show ever" - Fosse didn't mind taking a back seat to Jerome Robbins, but he wasn't about to let that happen with Bennett. I'm sure he felt he could do an opening number that was every bit as exciting as A Chorus Line's - and many critics felt he did exactly that in All That Jazz. Some even felt he topped it.

But Fosse didn't really have anything against Bennett personally; however, he did when it came to Prince. Their New Girl In Town bust-up became the stuff of Broadway legend.

[–] MsLadybird99 15 years ago

Some useless trivia..
Bob Fosse's daughter was in the movie version of A Chorus Line.

~~
No, that's fame...Fame has a fifteen minute half-life. Infamy lasts a little longer.

[–] IMDBRefugee1SD (139) 8 years ago

I'm sure he felt he could do an opening number that was every bit as exciting as A Chorus Line's - and many critics
felt he did exactly that in All That Jazz. Some even felt he topped it.
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Yes, indeed. It's a measure of "All That Jazz's" greatness that the opening number encapsulates probably half the
themes of "A Chorus Line."