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[0:01] Jackson Klein: You're listening to The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. Welcome, I'm Jackson Klein.

[0:14] Jackson Klein: This month, we're digging deep into the Ensemblist archives to share highlights from some of our favorite interviews from our early days.

[0:27] Jackson Klein: Today, we're revisiting our 2015 interview with Cynthia Onrubia. In our conversation, Cynthia chats all things A Chorus Line.

[0:37] Jackson Klein: From making her Broadway debut in the original production as a teenager, to the legendary record-breaking gala performance, why this ultimate ensemblist musical is so powerful, and more. Here's our conversation.

[0:50] Cynthia Onrubia: Hello 12, hello 13, hello love. Goodbye 12, goodbye 13, hello love.

[1:00] Cynthia Onrubia: Hi, I'm Cynthia Onrubia and I have lived in New York City, Manhattan, my entire life.

[1:08] Cynthia Onrubia: Okay, I started in 1977, which was a very long time ago. I auditioned, they needed an immediate replacement for an understudy who was in the opening.

[1:25] Cynthia Onrubia: And I auditioned with another girl who I knew that they liked because she had been in before. And we danced and we sang and then we danced and we sang and sang again and sang again and danced again.

[1:39] Cynthia Onrubia: And they said to me, could you step outside? Okay. So a few minutes later, the girl came out. And I said, Did you get it? And she said, No, you did.

[1:51] Cynthia Onrubia: That's not an answer that you typically hear at an audition. So I got the job and I was filling out my insurance cards a few days before rehearsal started.

[2:06] Cynthia Onrubia: And I was putting my birth date, then I thought maybe I should change the year. So the ink on the last digit of my birth date was getting thicker and thicker and thicker.

[2:18] Cynthia Onrubia: And my mother came to me and she went, What are you doing? You're going to mess up your pension. You know, you've been in equity since you were seven years old.

[2:26] Cynthia Onrubia: So I went, You're right. Right. So the next day, I handed in my cards to the stage manager. And he said, Oh, dear, we have a minor on our hands.

[2:38] Cynthia Onrubia: I was 15. They didn't ask how old I was at the audition, you know, because I put on the eyelashes and the whole thing and the padded bra.

[2:48] Cynthia Onrubia: So I knew I had to, like, really have my act together, improve myself. And I think I did because I wasn't fired. So I did the show for two years.

[3:01] Cynthia Onrubia: And then I left to do the national tour of Dancing. So I did that. Then I came back and went back into A Chorus Line for three months.

[3:13] Cynthia Onrubia: They let a girl go do a film. So I was Connie for three months. And I went back out on the road. Then I came back to A Chorus Line.

[3:25] Cynthia Onrubia: I think in 1984, I was doing Michael Bennett's workshop of Scandal. And he asked me, you know, do you want to go back into the show? There's an opening.

[3:38] Cynthia Onrubia: I said, absolutely. Because in workshops, you make $250 a week. So I went back into the show. I think I was there for another 10 months.

[3:47] Jackson Klein: When you were auditioning for the show, was it the phenomenon that it is now when you were in your audition and rehearsal process? Or was it just another dance show?

[4:02] Cynthia Onrubia: No, because it was such a hit. After the audition, I ran out in Shubert Alley and screamed at my mother, I got it! I got it! I did.

[4:14] Cynthia Onrubia: I really did. Yeah. And just being at the Shubert Theater, that was the home of A Chorus Line. It was there for so many years.

[4:28] Cynthia Onrubia: And the show never moved to another theater. That was it. I think they gave me a three-week rehearsal period.

[4:46] Cynthia Onrubia: But I went on early, of course, because people were out. So they said, can you do the opening? I said, sure.

[4:54] Cynthia Onrubia: And I had known a lot of the cast people from years before doing an industrial show called the Millikan Breakfast Show. So they knew me as a Millikitty, as a child.

[5:12] Cynthia Onrubia: And all of a sudden, I'm playing an adult on the same stage with them. And what happened was, at the end of the opening, Robert LaPone, he says, you know, any Broadway shows?

[5:25] Cynthia Onrubia: And then he looked at me, and he hadn't seen me before. And then he went, Broadway shows? I went, touring company!

[5:33] Cynthia Onrubia: It was heaven. It was just absolute heaven. Facing away from the mirror when that orchestra kicks in is a great rush.

[5:44] Cynthia Onrubia: And I don't think that ever really disappears, no matter how long you do the show. Because, you know, the first part is just piano.

[5:53] Cynthia Onrubia: And then you face away from the mirror, and bam! You're in it. Okay, well, first I had to go to school during the day. Okay.

[6:12] Cynthia Onrubia: And then I was very disciplined. A couple days, I would go to ballet class after school. And then I'd take the bus down Broadway and get off on 44th Street.

[6:25] Cynthia Onrubia: So then I'd get to the theater, and even though I had had my class, you know, still had to warm up. It was still another two and a half hours, three hours before the show.

[6:37] Cynthia Onrubia: So I would do the opening. Then change clothes, do some homework. And then the first thing that we had to sing in the booth was, I think, the Badas in Hello 12.

[6:56] Cynthia Onrubia: And so then we would just hang out through the end of the monster montage. And then during Val, I'd go back up to the dressing room, do my homework, until the ones.

[7:09] Cynthia Onrubia: And then go back down. And then take the bus home. Either my father or my mother would pick me up. We'd go home.

[7:19] Cynthia Onrubia: I'd have something to eat, go to bed, get up the next morning, go to school. But what was great in school, of course, on Wednesday matinees, I was in professional children's school, PCS.

[7:32] Cynthia Onrubia: I got to leave at 12 noon to go do the matinee. And there was another girl. She was in The Wiz. I think her name was Ertha Robinson. I think I got that right.

[7:45] Cynthia Onrubia: So we would take the bus down together. And she'd get off at the Broadway Theater. And then I'd continue down to 44th Street.

[7:55] Cynthia Onrubia: No, it was just me. It was just me. Clive Clark put me in the show. And then, I think a week into rehearsal, Bayork Lee came in.

[8:09] Cynthia Onrubia: And she had two chairs. She sat them down in the middle of the stage. And she said, OK, tell me about Maggie.

[8:16] Cynthia Onrubia: So it was good. I was thinking about my backstory and my subtext. And Bayork had worked with my mother in Flower Drum Song in the late 50s, early 60s.

[8:33] Cynthia Onrubia: So generations pass and everything. And I knew Bayork also from Millikin. She used to be a Millikitty because she was so tiny.

[8:44] Cynthia Onrubia: So that's how I knew Bayork. How is, to you, A Chorus Line the ultimate ensemblist show? Or is it?

[8:57] Cynthia Onrubia: Well, I think it is. Even if the stories are dated or whatever, everyone has a story. Everyone has a history.

[9:10] Cynthia Onrubia: I think in this day and age, even if one person seeing the show grabs on to grandmother or I had my boobs done or whatever, there's something that I think every person can grab at and identify with or parallel it with something else.

[9:36] Cynthia Onrubia: So I think it still does work. And of course, at the end of the show, everybody's dancing in the same costume, doing the same steps the same way. Nobody's a soloist.

[9:49] Cynthia Onrubia: If Troy Donahue could be a movie star, then I could be a movie star. But the thing that made my mommy laugh so much was when I used to jump and dance.

[10:03] Cynthia Onrubia: The Gallop was the over 3,000th performance.

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[18:21] Cynthia Onrubia: What does "What I Did For Love" mean to you?

[18:51] Cynthia Onrubia: What does "What I Did For Love" mean to you?

[19:21] Cynthia Onrubia: What does "What I Did For Love" mean to you?

[19:31] Cynthia Onrubia: What does "What I Did For Love" mean to you?

[19:41] Cynthia Onrubia: What does "What I Did For Love" mean to you?

[19:51] Cynthia Onrubia: What does "What I Did For Love" mean to you?

[20:01] Cynthia Onrubia: What does "What I Did For Love" mean to you?