Every Little Step

“I think we’re all pretty interesting,” director/choreographer Michael Bennett told the 22 dancers that he’d invited to get together one night in January 1974, “and I think that maybe there’s a show in that … somewhere.” Bennett was right: The now-legendary and much-honored musical A Chorus Line was born from that 12-hour rap session, and this documentary, by James D. Stern and Adam del Deo, mixes archival footage with recollections from original cast members to take a meta-ish peek backstage at a musical about what goes on backstage at musicals. The exuberant film also serves as a love letter to wide-eyed dreamers, chronicling the 2006 revival and narrowing its focus to a fraction of the 3,000 actors who auditioned for it, each of them hoping to be “one singular sensation.”