Director brings Broadway legacy to Theatre Three production
From A Chorus Line to A Class Act, Michael Serrecchia passes on what he knows about the shows' legendary creators
08/27/2002 By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News

Michael Serrecchia may be the only original cast member of A Chorus Line not to make a life's work out of performing and directing the hit musical – over and over again. This summer, though, two offers he didn't want to refuse came along at the same time. On Monday, Theatre Three opened A Class Act, an intimate musical about Edward Kleban, who wrote the lyrics to the songs in A Chorus Line. Theatre Three producer Jac Alder asked Mr. Serrecchia to direct. And Plano Repertory Theatre mounts A Chorus Line as the first musical in its new home, the Courtyard Theatre, on Sept. 5. Plano Rep artistic director Mark D. Fleischer talked with Mr. Serrecchia about playing the male lead, Zach. Michael Serrecchia has to repress some of his behind-the-scenes knowledge while directing A Class Act.

JUAN GARCIA / DMN

Both projects appealed to Mr. Serrecchia, who left show biz years ago to run an art gallery in Dallas. He knew well all the people the characters in A Class Act are based on. He had played five of the male roles in A Chorus Line during its record-setting Broadway run (starting out as one of the dancers rejected in the show's opening scene), but never Zach. Mr. Serrecchia proposed taking both jobs simultaneously. "I know it would have been difficult, but I think I could have done it," he says. But the theater managers essentially told him, "Get real." Reluctantly, he made his choice – to direct A Class Act, while offering Mr. Fleischer any advice he might want with regard to A Chorus Line. The Broadway version of A Class Act was a serious contender for a Tony Award for best musical last year. Mr. Kleban thought of himself as a composer more than as a lyricist, but despite all his efforts he never got any of his own music to Broadway during his lifetime. Thirteen years after his death from lung cancer, a group of Mr. Kleban's associates put together a string of his songs and turned them into a musical biography of their friend. Because of his inside knowledge, Mr. Serrecchia would seem to be a natural to stage the show. He has kept his hand in the theater, directing locally for Crossroads Theatre, which he co-founded, as well as for Plano Rep. But A Class Act has proved a challenge in unexpected ways. "It's cathartic, to say the least," he says. "Directing a show you are so personally involved in has its pros and cons. It can give you a false sense of security because first and foremost you are telling a story, not putting forth your own point of view about these people you knew well. You might want to say, 'I'll get you back now!' But you put that aside for the most part, keeping it for your ace in the hole." A Chorus Line, famously, was constructed out of a long series of workshops for Broadway dancers – it's like a collage of their life stories. Mr. Serrecchia remembers Mr. Kleban coming to rehearsals, asking members of the cast to talk to him, and finding out what words real dancers might use. For instance, when he was writing the lyrics to "Dance: Ten; Looks: Three," he asked the actors for all the slang words they knew for breasts. Mr. Kleban would drag A Chorus Line cast members to his own projects, so Mr. Serrecchia heard some of the songs in A Class Act back in the 1970s. At that time, he says, they seemed "serviceable" rather than brilliant. When A Class Act opened in New York, all the original cast members of A Chorus Line went to the new show as a group. Although the circumstances hardly fostered a balanced judgment, Mr. Serrecchia realized then that the songs were more than serviceable. "Now that I have been working on the show," he says, "I realize that it is a beautiful score."

Michael Serrecchia talks about the real-life creators of A Chorus Line, who show up as characters in A Class Act
Lyricist Edward Kleban: "Ed was difficult. The show's portrait of him certainly is rosified. Oh my Lord, you would never in your life go to a restaurant with him a second time. He would go on and on about the details of his order, and when he was nearly finished, he would start all over again."
Composer Marvin Hamlisch: "The portrait in the show is pretty much right on. He was so young – in his late 20s, maybe. We all knew he had won Oscars, but he was so hard to take seriously. He was a big baby, like a mama's boy."
Director-choreographer Michael Bennett: "I've given Michael more of the mean edge I remember so well. He could be as nasty as [the proverbially difficult] Jerome Robbins, but in a more subversive way. The man made brilliant theater, though – maybe that was his pact with the devil."

A Class Act Continues through Sept. 28 at Theatre Three in the Quadrangle, 2800 Routh St. $20-$35. 214-871-3300.



Show Review:

Review: 'A Class Act' perfectly captures Kleban, 'Chorus Line'

08/27/2002 By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News Theatre Three's A Class Act is a class act. This intimate musical tells the real-life story of Edward Kleban, best known for writing the lyrics to the songs in A Chorus Line. Mr. Kleban was a talented composer as well as wordsmith, but his career was badly hampered by his thorny personality. His music never made it to Broadway during his lifetime, but a couple of seasons ago some of his associates put together this show featuring his songs. It was nominated for a Tony Award in 2001. Theatre Three offers an ideal setting for such an intimate backstage biography. In some ways, in fact, the production that opened Monday is superior to the New York version. That's in part because director Michael Serrecchia, one of the original cast members of A Chorus Line , puts more energy into developing the characters – based, as they are, on people he knew and worked with.
Mr. Serrecchia has encouraged his players to take their time over details. The moment when Doug Jackson, playing Kleban, first performs a song for other members of a writers' workshop is priceless. The notoriously phobic and compulsive composer- lyricist, drafted to display his wares against his will, gets ready by taking object after object out of his briefcase, arranging each meticulously on the piano. Like much else in this production, the moment uses Mr. Jackson's formidable comic gifts to marvelous effect. Mr. Jackson has had a terrific year in show after show, playing dramatic roles as well as musical ones, and in A Class Act he reaches a new level. He nails both Kleban's irritating idiosyncrasies and his nebbishy charm. Vocally, too, he does well by the score's lyricism as well as its humor. Although the quality of the singing varies somewhat, each cast member hits a high-water mark here. Jennifer Freeman, usually typed as the good girl, gets to be deliciously naughty as the nubile Mona. Kyle McClaran is both suave and outrageous as Lehman Engel, the conductor who was Mr. Kleban's mentor.
Two actors play dual roles – longtime friends of Mr. Kleban and his two most famous collaborators on A Chorus Line. Helped no doubt by Mr. Serrecchia's reminiscences, Shay Edwards and Jon Paul Burkhart turn in wickedly hilarious performances. As director-choreographer Michael Bennett, Mr. Edwards wears a moustache like Hitler's and prances savagely. Mr. Burkhart makes composer Marvin Hamlisch a little boy as likely to worry about his mother's reactions as to boast about the Oscars he has won. The show is tuneful, fun – and, ultimately, surprisingly moving.
A Class Act, presented by Theatre Three at the Quadrangle, 2800 Routh St., Thursdays through Sundays through Sept. 28. Tickets $20 to $35. Call 214-871-3300.