STAGE REVIEW : ‘A Chorus Line’ Dances Back Into Shubert Theatre

“A Chorus Line” continues to captivate audiences not just because of its flash and dazzle. And it’s certainly not because of its almost invisible story or because it offers a wide variety of interpretive possibilities--it doesn’t.

No, we keep returning to it because its theatrical wizardry illuminates a timeless, universal concern: the intersection between I and we , between the private self and the public cog, between introspection and performance.

When these dancers “put themselves on the line,” it’s packed with literal and metaphorical drama, and the creators of this show extracted every drop of that drama.

Baayork Lee’s shipshape re-staging of Michael Bennett’s original moves is occupying the Shubert Theatre for the second time in 1992, though some of the players have changed. This is one show, however, where individual actors seldom bring individual flavor to the roles--ironic, perhaps, given the show’s theme, but not really damaging--and these are as fine as most of their professional predecessors.

For the record, Jill Slyter plays Cassie, Jon G. Orozco plays Paul and Paige Price plays Val (whose ode to breast enlargements takes on a new pathos since recent reports of the hazards of silicone).

“A Chorus Line,” Shubert Theatre, 2020 Avenue of the Stars, Century City. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturday matinees, 2 p.m. ; Sundays, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Ends Nov. 29. $30-$50. (800) 233-3123. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.