From today's USA Today;

http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2009-10-15-bye-bye-birdie_N.htm

"Also, new this week on DVD:
"Every Little Step" **** 2009, Sony, PG-13, $29

Outstanding enough to deserve the 2009 documentary Oscar at next March's telecast. Though you never know in this category.

Back story: If Michael Bennett's A Chorus Line remains the ultimate word on the sacrifice professional dancing entails, its rival must be this first-hand backstage chronicle of the play's 2006 revival. Full of reminiscing principals (some key as well to the original's success), this one's a nail-biter, thanks to the competitive audition process. But it's also poignant: dancers, like jocks, have only brutally finite years to succeed.

Extras, extras: Commentary by composer Marvin Hamlisch and Step co-directors James D. Stern and Adam Del Rio; interview with revival director Bob Avian and dancer/choreographer Baayork Lee; a terrific deleted-scenes section; and the recollections of dance legend Donna McKechnie."

Re "A Chorus Line" and Marvin Hamlisch: He was here last summer to head up the San Diego Pops series, and did a revealing half-hour interview for a local TV station.

He said the entire story of "A Chorus Line" came from Michael Bennett taking a tape recorder with him to dance auditions and hearing the griping and frustration of the audition process....which will seem an awful lot like what job applicants for ANY industry go through today.

Or, to quote from Bob Fosse's brilliant "All That Jazz":
Dancer one, rejected by Fosse at audition: "Screw him!!, He NEVER picks me!"
Dancer two, also rejected by Fosse: "Honey, I DID screw him, and he never picks ME, neither."

UMSL, thanks so much for the firsthand account of the craziness and insecurity of showbiz.

I can't even count the number of times I've heard successful (by our standards) actors and actresses say, upon completion of their latest hit film or show, "I live in constant fear that this is the last job I'll ever have."

I've heard the often-heartbreaking audition process described as "Imagine, if you're a stay-at-home mom with a breadwinner husband, having to go door-to-door in a strange neighborhood, with your children, trying to convince every man who answers the door to support you financially for the next few months."

That's why seeing "A Chorus Line" always brought me to tears, with those aspirants all knowing they're all qualified...but only 8 will make it through. It's like "American Idol"'s entire season boiled down to two hours.

And, re your mention of being perhaps the only straight male dancer in a troupe where male/female dressing rooms are asexual....anybody who is afraid to join the military because "it means showering with (potential) gays!!" should know that if they've ever belonged to a fitness club, YMCA, etc.,.....they've already showered with gays.

[. I remembered that I really was straight and continued bangin' half the ladies in the show...
Hey- we were all young, in excellent shape, and had needs. And it was the Seventies.