At surface level, Michael Bennett's A Chorus Line - here receiving its hugely enjoyable Irish premiere, courtesy of Michael Poynor's Ulster Theatre Company - is all sweetness and light. A group of 50 or so supremely confident young performers crowd into an audition room, fired with the ambition to strut their way into the chorus of a new Broadway musical.
Many fall by the wayside after the first easy stages; 18 remain, from whom just eight will finally be chosen. The cattle market that constitutes the stage audition is exposed in all its cheap, superficial horror and when one frustrated young hopeful laments: "What am I doing in show business?", the innocent onlooker is forced to concur. But, driven on by the roar of the crowd, the smell of the greasepaint, the music and the mirrors, they all admit that there is nothing else in the world they would wish to do.
Had this show been only about cheesy stuck-on smiles and high kicks, it would never have reached the dizzy heights it has achieved. But, under Poynor's inventive and relentlessly energetic direction, this hard-working young cast cleverly locks into the dark, ironic vein that underlies the surface saccharine and, in response to choreographer Zach's (Glen Wallace) search for the person beneath the swaggering veneer, they expose a wobbling mess of personal, social, sexual and romantic misfits.
The ensemble work is strong and cohesive, but in a cast of this size, there are inevitably some individual performances that are stronger than others. Outstanding moments belong to Tommy Wallace as the sexually ambiguous Paul, to Karen Rush as the brassy Puerto Rican Diana and to Jonjo O'Neill, who stamps ownership on his small piece of stage and is surely destined for great things.
A Chorus Line is at the Belfast Grand Opera House (Belfast 241919) until tonight, then plays the Opera House in Cork (021- 270022) from August 25th to 30th and the Rialto (Derry 260516) in Derry from September 8th to 13th