'I Hope I Get It!'

We did what we had to do..won't forget, can't regret what I did for love.

My friend V, and so many others like her, is the embodiment of that Edward Kleban lyric from the musical A Chorus Line. And it was life imitating art when I went to see her onstage in Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play set in the Congo, Ruined.

V is an understudy, covering the roles of Mama Nadi, a tempermental brothel owner with a weakness for Belgian chocolat and Josephine, one of Mama's gyrating working girls employed to service soldiers from the country's warring militias. On the night we saw her at the Manhattan Theatre Club at City Center, she was making her MTC stage debut in the role of Mama Nadi.

As a theatergoer, I had two simultaneous experiences happening: For one, I was seated next to actor John Lithgow watching my childhood friend give a compelling performance that mined humor to tell a story rife with brutality - in the same venue where I'd paid (okay, and a few press comps) to see countless New York City Ballet shows. But on another level, it was the full realization that my friend is a Fordham- and NYU- trained, working actress.

There are tables in restaurants all over Manhattan being bussed by aspiring actors who would give a year's worth of tips for the chance to give the performance she was giving.

Which brings me to life imitating art: A few weeks back, I caught a showing of Every Little Step at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on 62nd Street and Broadway. This must-see documentary for not only theater-buffs, but for anyone who's ever dreamed big, chronicles the near yearlong process of casting the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line. It opens with archival footage from the 1970s of the musical's wizard, choreographer and director Michael Bennett.

Bennett had this idea to gather the stories of the stage dancers who eke out a living on the stage, against all odds, and set them to a narrative. That of course became the long-running 1974 production. Bennett's co-coreographer, the charming Bob Avian, is still kicking and appears in the docu, overseeing the casting of the 2006 rendition. Not only do you you meet many of the players who originated the parts, but you follow their modern-day counterparts living in shitty walk-ups, FIGHTING for these roles, some in their 40s still waiting for that big break.

You watch auditions, call-backs, as well as the call-backs that never come. Every time "God, I Hope I Get It" starts to play, you get goosebumps. And you'll be mouth agape once you realize that the understudy is about to steal the role out from under one of the intended leads.

I was emotional and yet energized, not to mention determined to support the theater far more than I have been. I highly recommend both the play running until June 28 (V's back onstage June 5-7) and the documentary.