Broadway comes to Brum next month when award-winning musical A Chorus Line stops off at Birmingham Hippodrome. The story focuses on a group of dancers as they’re put through their paces during an audition. Actor, dancer & choreographer Adam Cooper stars in the currently touring production. What’s On recently caught up with him to find out more about this latest version of the hit show, which celebrates its 50th anniversary next year...

The showbiz musical A Chorus Line is one of theatre’s success stories. Opening in 1975, it became a stage sensation, picking up a host of awards and playing Broadway for 15 years. Indeed, back in the day, it was the longest-running production in Broadway history.

The musical takes audiences behind the scenes at an audition, where a group of dancers have pinned their hopes on getting a slot in the chorus line. But this is to be no typical audition; director Zach doesn’t only want to see their dancing skills, he also wants to learn what makes them tick, so demands they open up on their pasts and their most personal stories.

In the Leicester Curve production visiting Birmingham Hippodrome next month, the role of Zach is played by Adam Cooper, who also took the part when the production -  helmed by Curve’s artistic director, Nikolai Foster, and choreographed by Ellen Kane -  was staged in 2021.
With a CV including being a principal dancer with Royal Ballet, playing the iconic role of the Swan/Stranger in Matthew Bourne’s all-male Swan Lake, an appearance in the film Billy Elliot and countless West End shows, Adam says the role is ideal for him.

“The thing about Zach is that he’s sort of a version of me in a way - I spend half of my time as a director/choreographer and half as an actor, so I could easily tap into his character.
“He’s very different to me. I’m not quite as blunt as he is, and I don’t lose my temper as much as he does, but I certainly know where he’s coming from in trying to find different ways of discovering what people are really like.”

As the would-be chorus-line members open up to Zach, he emerges as a Svengali-like figure, holding the fate of each of them in his hands. But Adam is also determined that audiences get to see the character’s softer side.

“Interestingly he’s normally played a lot harsher than I play him; the kind of human side of him doesn’t come out so much. But that was something I was very keen to do because, for me, that is what director/ choreographers are like these days. They are much more sensitive to people’s feelings, rather than just ‘This is what I want, and we’re just going to get on and do it.’ 

“Zach definitely has that side to him because he’s a very driven person. He comes from a background of Broadway, and a lot of them used to work like that. But because in Nikolai’s production Zach is a lot more present on stage than in the original production, I have to react honestly to the stories I’m hearing.
“If someone is telling me a story and it moves me, then I can’t ignore that as a character; it would be inhuman of me. That is what is really nice about this production - it makes Zach much more human, a more rounded character, and you see many, many sides to him. It also makes it a much more rounded experience for me to do.”

A Chorus Line may depict the glamour of Broadway but it also shows just how hard life can be for a performer. 

“You have these big dance calls. I’ve done auditions with something like 60 people in the room. You’re teaching all of them the routine or multiple routines, and then you have to cut people. Then you go into the next routine and you cut some more. It’s brutal in that respect. You do something and you stay on or get cut, and that’s how the day progresses. 

“What’s so great about A Chorus Line is that it really shows the sacrifices people have to make in order just to get onto the line, into the audition, let alone get the job. Performers have to have this kind of resilience; you go for an audition and it’s a 50/50 whether you’re going to get it; and then, if you don’t, you go on to the next, and then you go on to the next. It’s a way of life that dancers and actors and singers get used to, but it’s not nice and requires a lot of guts.”

A Chorus Line also showcases the highs of showbusiness - those moments when the performers finally step out into the limelight. 

“It’s also about hope. These people striving for their dream because that is what they have given their life towards. It’s about being a performer, and everybody has to go through hardships on the way to achieving their dreams. Most people have to work really hard and prove themselves.”

Adam certainly knows the work involved. Having set his sights on a career on the stage from childhood, he studied at both Arts Educational School and Royal Ballet School before initially performing as a classical ballet dancer with Royal Ballet. He then joined Matthew Bourne’s Adventures In Motion Pictures company, before taking on roles in musicals such as Singin’ In The Rain, The Wizard Of Oz, Guys And Dolls and White Christmas. He’s also directed productions of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Candide and The Rake’s Progress, and choreographed shows including On Your Toes, The Merry Widow and Carousel.

Now in his 50s, how has he made the transition from principal ballet dancer to West End performer and creator?

“I started out as a tap dancer and a singer, which helps. Between the ages of 11 and 16, I went to a theatre school which did everything, so I was very much an all-rounder. It was only when I got to the age of 16 that I decided to concentrate on ballet and joined the Royal Ballet. Then I left and joined Matthew’s company for a few years, and then I thought ‘I want to be doing what I set out to do.’ I never started in the business to be a ballet dancer; I started dancing to be a theatre performer - I wanted to be Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly - so when the time felt right, I said to my agent ‘Can we see if I can get some work in that field?’ 

“Luckily people took a punt on me, but I probably didn’t feel like a proper actor until a few years later when I did Guys And Dolls in the West End with Patrick Swayze, among other people. That was the time I thought ‘I’m a bona fide actor’ because I was doing a show that was just acting and singing and no dancing required. So it felt like I was proving myself as an actor for the first time.

“I’ve also worked as a choreographer and director, and I’m lucky because I’ve never stopped working. I really enjoy it. I love being a part of the whole scene, from whichever direction it comes.”

And now Adam is looking forward to sharing that enjoyment of theatre with Hippodrome patrons when A Chorus Line visits the venue next month.

“I hope audiences will feel like they’ve gone through an emotional evening. It’s an emotional show, but it’s the most uplifting show as well, because the production is stunning - the numbers, the choreography, the singing, the acting, the band are brilliant. 

“I think with this production we’ve proved it’s as good as the original. Now is the chance for it to be shown to a whole new generation, and that’s exciting. It’s an iconic musical very rarely done, and this production of it is the most exciting, vivid and emotional version that they will see.”

A Chorus Line shows at Birmingham Hippodrome from Tuesday 10 to Saturday 14 September.

Feature by Diane Parkes