Still going strong at an energetic 75, Baayork Lee surely must have one of the longest and most storied theater careers imaginable. It all started at the tender age of five, when she debuted as the youngest of Yul Brynner’s royal children in the original 1951 Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I.” Later, she also appeared in the ensemble of the famous duo’s 1958 musical “Flower Drum Song,” directed by Hollywood legend Gene Kelly.
The Asian American performer’s lengthy association as a dancer for the choreographer-turned-writer/director Michael Bennett included a couple of Broadway flops (“A Joyful Noise,” “Henry, Sweet Henry”) in the 1960s. Then came a couple of hits (“Promises, Promises,” “Seesaw”) before she ultimately collaborated with him on his 1975 landmark show, originating the semi-autobiographical role of Connie Wong in his Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “A Chorus Line.”
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lee subsequently embarked on her own career as a director and choreographer, initially with several national touring company productions (“Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” “Porgy and Bess,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Carmen Jones”), and she even earned an honorary 2017 Tony Award for her work as a co-founding organizer of the National Asian Artists Project.
But it is her affiliation with “A Chorus Line” that has transported Lee across the country — and the world — carrying on the tradition of the iconic show-biz musical, in honor of her longtime friend and mentor Bennett (who died in 1987). The latest incarnation is City Springs Theatre’s mounting of it, which opens on Friday and continues through March 27.
Credit: Mason Wood
Credit: Mason Wood
“I’ve felt so blessed that Michael passed me this torch, and I’ve made it my mission to carry on his legacy and the legacy of this show,” Lee acknowledges during a recent interview.
Q: It’s easy to see why “A Chorus Line” would remain so popular with theater performers — after all, it’s a show about them — but why do you think it continues to endure and resonate with broader, more general theater audiences?
A: It’s a show that isn’t only about singing and dancing in a chorus line, even though that’s how it’s often promoted. I just came back from directing a production of it in Spain, and I’ve also worked on other versions of it in Sweden, Japan, you name it, and there’s a universal appeal about “A Chorus Line,” no matter where I’ve done it. It tells human stories about relationships, friendships and romances, parents and children, bullying, all sort of issues that are relevant, even now. People can still identify with the characters and their stories in the show.
Q: You’ve had a long personal connection to this show from its very inception back in the early 1970s. When you’re directing and choreographing other productions of “A Chorus Line,” is it your objective to add something new or different each time, or to mainly recreate what you’ve already fine-tuned and perfected over the years?
A: Probably all of the above, I guess. The show requires the same costumes and lighting and choreography. All of those elements are pretty much set, but every time we open the show with another cast of actors, they’re bringing parts of themselves to these roles. That’s what continues to be so exciting to me after all this time, and to audiences who keep coming back to see it again and again. The actors invest some their own experiences to these characters, how they feel about things, and that adds something fresh to the mix every time.
Credit: Michael Zorn/Invision/AP
Credit: Michael Zorn/Invision/AP
Q: You previously directed a rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” for City Springs back in 2014. How did your association with the company first come about?
A: Brandt (co-founding former artistic director Brandt Blocker) and Natalie (ongoing executive director Natalie DeLancey) came to interview me in New York, and I was just delighted at the prospect of being the first Asian woman to direct “South Pacific,” a musical with Asian performers in it. I didn’t know what to expect, exactly, but once I got here, I had everything I needed to put on the best show I possibly could. It’s been an absolute pleasure working here again on “A Chorus Line,” with such a smart cast.
Q: In between, weren’t there plans for you to come back and direct a version of “The King and I” for City Springs?
A: That was a few years ago, when the Black Lives Matter movement had really started heating up. It just wasn’t the right time to do that show. With shows like “The King and I,” “Miss Saigon,” and many others, people have started reexamining and questioning some of the racial aspects to those scripts, and I think that’s a perfectly valid conversation to be having now.
THEATER PREVIEW
“A Chorus Line”
March 11-27. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays (no matinee on March 26); 2 p.m. Sundays. $48-$108. Byers Theatre at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center, 1 Galambos Way, Sandy Springs. 404-477-4365, www.cityspringstheatre.com.
