Once Broadway's Val, Darlings, She's Now Paper Mill's Cassie!!!!!!!!!!

                                         When Donna McKechnie was tying on  that now famous red skirt nightly at both the Public and the Shubert, back in 1975, when originating her now signature role of Cassie in "A Chorus Line," Jessica Lee Goldyn had not even been born yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           So, once I heard that the upcoming production of this show, at the Paper Mill Playhouse, had been cast, I just had to find out who was in it!!!!!!!!!!  I was appalled, first of all, girls, to discover I had not been chosen!!!!!!!  Hey, Donna, Baayork, Kelly, Priscilla--when are you going to let me get out there, and do it?????????  I have been wanting to, since 1975, and I have no intention of giving up, until I do.  Getting past my heartache, I looked to see if there were any names familiar to me in the cast list, and there was one--Jessica Lee Goldyn.

                                           Now, in the 2006 revival of "A Chorus Line", which I visited six times, I saw Jessica do Val.  She danced like a dream; she knew those steps, honey, and she had the charm, sauciness and..uhm...other assets for Val.  Now, I had heard even then that she was understudying Cassie (played by Charlotte D'Amboise!!!!!) and, the final week of the revival's run, she went on in the role.  I was curious to see her, but I never got the  chance.

                                              Jessica is one of  our own, darlings; a real Metropolitan Area kid, who yearned for Broadway, but, unlike so many of us who did, actually got it!  She was born in Staten Island,and grew up in Parsippany, New Jersey.  If you watch the documentary "Every Little Step," about this revival, you will get Jessica's back story.

                                             You have to understand, darlings!!!!!!!!!  To those of us, like moi, who were fortunate enough to see the show's Original Cast live,  especially Donna McKechnie as Cassie, no one will ever dance that role like she!!!!!!!!!  And even if you were not alive, then, you can get the idea on something called YouTube.  Let me tell you, when I am down in the dumps, and need a Donna/Cassie fix, I turn to it, at once!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                             So, I decided to do the same with Jessica, to see if she is on there,and get an idea.  Well, she is there.  She looks great in the costume.  She executes all the moves correctly.  But, girls, I have to wonder.  For one thing, at 27, Jessica is a bit young, for Cassie.  I wonder if, in so-called "professional" productions of ACL, she is the youngest to play the part?  The point of the character is that she is a much older, and accomplished, dancer than the rest. She has been struggling to make it in a business she feels limits her by her dancing, but she wants to get back to that, because it is what she does best.  There is even a line in the show when Zach says to her, "You left the chorus when you were 22!  What makes you think you can go back to it, now that you're 32?", suggesting the character is past 30, a dangerous and often terminating point in a dancer's career.  Jessica may have the accomplishment, but her youth, I think, could work against her, here.

                                           There is another matter, and I mean no disrespect to Jessica.  She doesn't seem to have the right body type, for Cassie, and I don't mean because she is not Donna McKechnie. When she played Val, the costume, as it should, emphasized her chest, which is the point of that character.  But, despite her skillful dancing, looking her over, I had to admit to myself, she looked a little chunky.  As the show went  on, she was so good it ceased to be a liability, but it is something one notices.

                                            On the YouTube excerpt, she does all the right moves, and, while still chunky, dances gracefully.  But her arms are too short, so when she does Cassie's arm moves, which were not only tailored for Donna, but for dancers with longer limbed, more balletic bodies, some of the poetry in movement gets lost.  So, I have to wonder how Jessica will fare, when I view her on Sunday, October 7, at the Paper Mill!!!!!!!!!!

                                              But, remember, I am basing this on what I saw on a small screen, on a computer.  Live theater is much different, darlings, but, then, my girls know that!!!!!!!!!  So, I am sure, when I am in my seat at Paper Mill on Sunday, October 7, and the lights go down, enshrouding us in blackness; as I hear the sounds of the dancers walking onstage to take their places, before those opening notes, the show, the environment, will seduce me.  It always does!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               See you at "A Chorus Line," girls!!!!!!  'A five, six, seven, eight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!