Music and the Mirror Lyrics – Chorus Line, A

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

• Cassie’s showpiece in Act 1 - a sung monologue that bursts into a dance argument.
• Music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban; staged by Michael Bennett with Bob Avian.
• Recorded for the 1975 Original Broadway Cast album produced by Goddard Lieberson; captured at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio.
• Not issued as a stand-alone single; revived on later cast recordings and concert tributes.
• Replaced in the 1985 film by a new number titled “Let Me Dance for You.”

Creation History

The number sits at the heart of the show’s thesis: working dancers tell the truth about work. Cassie is not angling for stardom - she is negotiating for a job she used to consider beneath her. That tension shapes the writing. The lyric fires off action verbs and plain asks - “use me,” “choose me,” “play me the music” - while the accompaniment drives in steady four. The underscoring tightens, then the band opens lanes for the dance break. On record, you can hear how nimble the pit is: brass punches clear the air, reeds color the edges, percussion clicks along like a metronome with swagger. Harold Wheeler is widely cited for additional dance arrangements tied to this section, a clue to how much architecture sits inside the “do-you-see-me-now” whirl.

Studio lore gives it extra heat. Goddard Lieberson presided over a marathon session at Columbia’s church studio - morning to after midnight - coaxing a stage event into grooves without losing its breath. That immortal room - high ceilings, natural reverberation - lets you hear space around consonants, breath, and shoes. The result feels like theater captured in amber, not embalmed.

Key takeaways

1. It is a plea wrapped in a demo reel - Cassie lays out her case in sound and motion.
2. The lyric’s bluntness is a choice: no poetic mist, just verbs and willpower.
3. The arrangement is built to pivot: vocal urgency into dance, back to vocal laser focus.
4. Its afterlife is twofold - original on stage and album, replacement in the film, and a steady stream of revival interpretations.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Auditions are running. Cassie finally gets a window to address Zach, the director who once shaped her path. She does not come to reminisce. She makes a clean offer: put me to work and I will solve the chaos in my life by solving tasks on your stage. The piece is staged as a conversation that becomes movement. The mirror on the back wall turns into an extra character - judge, coach, liar. When the dance explodes, it is not decorative; it is evidence in a case. Cassie’s closer - “and the chance to dance” - lands not as a dream but as logistics. She wants the job.

Song Meaning

Identity through labor. That is the core. The text frames love of craft as a survival tactic: if the work is steady, the rest can be managed. The emotional register is determined rather than sentimental, with the music holding a poised mid-tempo that can snap to double-time when the body takes over. The mirror stands in for every feedback loop in a career - casting tables, critics, partners, one’s own brain. The dance reads as proof that language cannot carry all of what she needs to say. So she says the rest with turns, lines, and breath.

Annotations

“Give me somebody to dance for”

History shadows the line. Donna McKechnie premiered the role and won Best Actress at the Tonys. Years later she returned to play Cassie again; life imitated art, folding a real career arc into the character’s plea.

“And the chance to dance for you”

The “you” is plural. It is Zach, yes, but it is also the industry gaze. The number hints at their shared past - a director and a dancer who once tried the leading-track life - which lifts the stakes of this proposal.

How it works under the hood

Call it Broadway pop with a dancer’s metabolism. Piano and drums lock the grid. Reeds and brass shade the argument, never blocking the diction. The verse-bridge-plea scaffold feeds energy to the dance break, which returns charge to the final vocal push. You can hear the choreography in the phrasing - clipped attack for footwork, longer lines for extension, a last-mile belt over a tight vamp.

Cultural and historical touchpoints

The show premiered in mid-70s New York - post-Vietnam malaise, city-on-the-brink headlines, and an arts economy reshaping itself. This number captured the dignity of craft during that churn. Revival casts and gala tributes keep returning to it because the subtext is evergreen: artists explain themselves to a moving target. The film’s choice to swap the song is a reminder of medium limits - the stage can hold a five-minute dance argument in silence; the film wanted narrative spoon-fed differently.

Key Facts

• Artist: Original Broadway Cast - featured vocal by Donna McKechnie
• Composer: Marvin Hamlisch
• Lyricist: Edward Kleban
• Producer (album): Goddard Lieberson
• Release Date: October 1975 (cast album)
• Genre: Broadway pop - solo with integrated dance sequence
• Instruments: Piano, drum kit, bass, reeds, brass, strings, percussion, voice
• Label: Columbia Masterworks
• Mood: resolute, hungry, focused
• Length: around 6:36 to 6:40 on most album editions
• Track #: 10 on the Original Broadway Cast album
• Language: English (official Spanish-cast recording available as “Musica y Espejos”)
• Album: A Chorus Line - Original Broadway Cast Recording
• Music style: mid-tempo 4-4 with a dance interlude and reprise
• Poetic meter: conversational iambs and imperative bursts; syllabic delivery for crisp diction

Canonical Entities & Relations

• Donna McKechnie - portrays Cassie - wins Tony Award for Leading Actress in 1976.
• Michael Bennett - directs and choreographs the production - shapes staging of the solo.
• Bob Avian - co-choreographer - helps model the solo’s kinetics.
• Marvin Hamlisch - composes music - supplies modular cells for dance and song.
• Edward Kleban - writes lyrics - frames Cassie’s language as action requests.
• Goddard Lieberson - produces cast album - supervises marathon recording session.
• Don Pippin - music director on the album - steers the band through switchbacks.
• Columbia Masterworks - releases the recording - later issues a 40th anniversary edition.
• Columbia 30th Street Studio - New York - location of the 1975 session.
• Shubert Theatre - Broadway venue - home of the original production.
• Charlotte d’Amboise - sings the role on the 2006 revival recording - keeps the number in circulation.
• Antonio Banderas’s Malaga production - records a Spanish-language cast album including this number.

Questions and Answers

Where does the song land in the show’s arc?

Late in Act 1, after we understand the audition stakes. It functions as Cassie’s case file - why she is here and what she offers the line.

Why is the mirror so central?

It is not just a prop. The mirror is casting, audience, and self-judgment merged. Cassie argues with all three at once.

Is it a love song?

It is love-of-work framed like a plea. The subtext with Zach adds friction, but the main romance is between a dancer and the job.

How do recordings differ?

Album timings vary by edition, with the 40th anniversary release clarifying cuts and restorations. Revivals adjust key and pacing to fit their Cassie.

Why did the film replace it?

Film pacing and a different emotional map for Cassie. The movie turns her arc into a new set piece, though many stage fans consider the original more truthful to the character’s skill set.

What about key and tempo?

Publishers circulate multiple keys. Many modern editions center near E major; some sheet sources print F major. The feel sits in the high 70s BPM with dance passages feeling like double-time.

Who else has nailed it on record?

Charlotte d’Amboise on the 2006 revival album is a popular reference, and the Spanish cast recording documents a full-language adaptation.

What makes the orchestration click?

Lean rhythm section plus winds and brass that punch in punctuation marks. It leaves air for the dancer to breathe and push.

Any canonic callbacks inside?

Yes - motivic figures from elsewhere in the score crop up, stitching Cassie’s argument into the show’s larger sonic fabric.

Is this a diva belt fest?

Partly. But the trick is clarity. The belt moments land because the earlier lines are spoken-sung with surgical diction.

Awards and Chart Positions

The song itself was not a single, but the performance and the production around it became hardware magnets. Donna McKechnie won the Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Musical for originating Cassie. The show took multiple Tonys and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the original cast album reached the U.S. albums chart.

How to Sing The Music and the Mirror

This is two jobs at once: a laser-focused monologue and a kinetic demo. Treat the beat as a moving sidewalk and drop each consonant on it cleanly. Then move.

• Tempo: commonly around mid-to-high 70s BPM, often feeling like double-time near the dance break.
• Key: variable by edition and performer. Several revivals sit near E major; many published piano-vocal scores list F major. Choose the key that keeps the belt bright without strain.
• Time signature: 4-4 throughout, with subdivisions tightening under movement.
• Range & placement: mezzo-soprano territory with belt peaks around B4-C5 in common cuts, with higher options in certain keys.
• Style cues: conversational attack, narrow vibrato in patter, then expanded tone for the plea sections.

Step-by-step HowTo

1. Map the text. Speak the lyric in rhythm. Underline the verbs and the direct asks - those carry the argument.
2. Lock the grid. Practice at a slow click, then double the click without changing vocal weight. Keep the jaw easy in the quick bits.
3. Key fit. Test E major and its neighbors; if you lose clarity on the top, drop a half-step. If the low phrases sag, go up a half-step.
4. Breath policy. Small, frequent inhales timed to rests. Save tank breaths for the lead-in to the final plea.
5. Dance integration. Run the song while marking the choreography. Add one physical variable at a time: legs, then arms, then turns.
6. Mic craft. If amplified, stay slightly off-axis in the heaviest peaks. Step back on the belt crest rather than pushing air.
7. Pitfalls. Over-dark vowels that bury diction; rushing the vamp before the dance break; turning the plea into a primal scream. Precision reads braver than volume.
8. Practice kit. A click at 76 and 152, a lyric sheet with stress marks, a piano or reliable track, and a mirror you are willing to argue with.

Additional Info

The 2006 Broadway revival documents a fresh take with Charlotte d’Amboise in the role; tempo and key nudges tailor the arc to her grain. The 2015 anniversary release widens the show’s audio footprint and clarifies joins in the big montage numbers, while preserving the dramatic contour of this solo. A Spanish-language cast album led by Antonio Banderas finally fixed an official non-English recording on disc - proof that the piece translates not just in words but in work ethic.

A small note for liner-note nerds: the orchestra’s sheen on the album is not an accident. Columbia’s 30th Street church had an acoustic halo favored by classical engineers, and it flatters the bright brass and crisp winds that propel Cassie’s argument. As stated in Tony Awards records, McKechnie’s win turned the performance into a calling card for generations of Cassies to come. And according to Masterworks Broadway, the anniversary edition curates demos and alternates that sketch the show’s evolution, even as this number remains the spine of Cassie’s case.

Sources: Tony Awards; Masterworks Broadway; Discogs; CastAlbums; The New Yorker; Wikipedia; Concord Theatricals; Concord Theatricals Recordings; Apple Music; Spotify; BroadwayWorld; SongBPM; StageAgent; YouTube.