Main content
This programme will be available shortly after broadcast

A Chorus Line

A Chorus Line was the first Broadway hit to turn the spotlight on the supporting dancers to tell their stories about trying to make it in show business.

It's 50 years since theatre history was made - the premiere of A Chorus Line. It was seen as a seminal moment, turning the spotlight on the people who make the show for the first time.

Baayork Lee tells Josephine McDermott how she played Connie Wong in the original production. Like many of the first cast, her true life experiences made it into the show which was developed in workshops by director and choreographer Michael Bennett.

Baayork Lee describes “the buzz” the musical generated soon after opening in a small venue off Broadway on 21 May, 1975, with everyone from singer Diana Ross and former first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis to comedian Groucho Marx vying for seats. Two months later on 27 July the show transferred to Broadway. It won nine Tony Awards and became one of the longest-running shows on Broadway.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.

We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher.

You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.

(Photo: A Chorus Line at the Shubert Theatre. Credit: Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

Release date:

10 minutes

On radio

Fri 25 Jul 2025 07:50GMT

Broadcasts

  • Fri 25 Jul 2025 07:50GMT
  • Fri 25 Jul 2025 11:50GMT
  • Fri 25 Jul 2025 17:50GMT
  • Fri 25 Jul 2025 21:50GMT
  • Sat 26 Jul 2025 02:50GMT

Podcast