Australian theatre opens 'A Chorus Line' without role of "Richie"

The cast of ‘A Chorus Line’ at Drew Anthony Creative (Photo: Drew Anthony Creative)

by Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog

This past week, the Bradley Playhouse had the licensing rights for their production of ‘A Chorus Line’ revoked because they had removed the character of “Richie” from the show when they weren’t able to find an actor to portray him. They apparently did this without approval from the rights holder, Concord Theatricals, and that is what led to the production’s cancellation, just four days before it was to open.

Now a theatre in Australia may have done same the same thing. According to a review of Drew Anthony Creative’s production of the musical, not only did they perform the show without the role of “Richie” but “Larry” as well. That production opened this past weekend and runs until Aug 20.

I came across a review of the show posted on Theatre Reviews Perth. Critic Kate O'Sullivan noted that both roles were absent from the show. She states,

“With a tight-knit ensemble cast, it was notable that there were a couple of characters removed from this version of the show. Removing the role of Larry (the director's assistant) has been seen before, as their role is combined into the role of Zach, which works well in this production. However, the exclusion of the role of Richie, the enthusiastic black dancer who sings "Gimme The Ball", removes the main Black character, who was a composite of the various Black performers who were involved in the creation of the show itself. It is disappointing in 2023 to not hear and see these B.I.P.O.C. perspectives on the stage, especially when the show was developed from real B.I.P.O.C. lived experiences.”

She doesn’t say whether or not permission to eliminate the roles from the script was permitted. It’s also not included if Drew Anthony Creative offered an explanation for the missing roles(i.e. sickness, etc).

On their website, they do list a performer named “Saolin Rogers” as playing Richhie. But their name isn’t listed on the initial casting announcement, nor do they seem to appear in any of the show’s latest marketing materials and didn’t perform the role for that performance.

While I’ve never seen the roles of “Larry” and “Zach” combined, I’m checking on that too.

It is not known at this time if Concord Theatricals U.K.(which oversees licensing in Australia) approved the removal of both roles. I’ve reached out to them.

For now, there are questions to be asked.

It looks like they did cast someone for “Richie”. But that person isn’t listed anywhere in the marketing materials I’ve seen and they didn’t perform the night critics came to see the show. If they were no longer in the cast, how would Concord approve the performance without the role?

Earlier, I mentioned the potential consequences of doing something like this without permission from the rights holder. Concord Theatricals has very clear language about changing anything in the script. Any changes are only allowed with written permission from the license owner. Proceeding without it would mean a theatre would be in violation of the agreement signed with Concord. Concord would then revoke the licensing and that would cancel the production.

But what happens if a licensee didn’t receive permission and went ahead with performances anyway?

Well, let’s just say, the legal process would then take over and it would be a steep cost on the part of the licensee.

According to the agreement form for productions in the U.S., if a theatre were to do this, Concord would terminate its agreement with the theatre and the theatre would have to pay all remaining dues and any other revenue owed for such violation. Concord could then have a court place an injunction on all performances and the theatre would have to pay for all the legal expenses related to that.

A theatre violating the agreement in this way could result in being barred from ever obtaining licensing from Concord again, as well as other licensing companies for that matter.

So in other words, don’t do it. And if Drew Anthony Creative did, then they should be expecting a call from Concord Theatricals very soon.

But could Concord Theatricals approve the removal of “Richie” and “Larry” from the script? It’s highly unlikely that they would. And there would be a ton more questions, if they did.

And finally, I posted a comment on Drew Anthony Creative’s Facebook page, asking if Concord Theatricals (who I tagged in the comment) approved the removal of the roles.

Despite it being later than 11:00 pm in Perth, my comment was very quickly deleted. Take that for what you will.

As I mentioned before, I have reached out to Concord Theatricals and Drew Anthony Creative for more information and I will update this piece or write additional columns when more information is gathered.