The disc: Every Little Step

The details: If Michael Bennett had thought of it, he might have made a documentary about the making of A Chorus Line. But as it happened, he was too busy mounting his show. It was left to the producers of the 2007 revival to make a documentary, and Every Little Step (Sony) is never less than compelling, despite its plot of examining the lives of dancers competing for parts in a show that examines the lives of dancers.

Casting is a long process that takes close to a year to complete, but talent will out and even in the first tryouts, your eyes wander to a skinny blonde with short hair whose moves have a snap that the others don’t. Sure enough, it turns out to be Charlotte d’Amboise, the daughter of the great Jacques d’Amboise. Sure enough, Charlotte ends up playing Cassie.

Juxtaposed with the casting of the new show is the story of the old show, and the fascinating material unearthed includes some of the original audiotapes that Bennett made with dancers to form the individual narratives of their lives. Also worth watching is some old kinescope footage of Bennett and Donna McKechnie as dancers in the early ’60s. Bennett’s dancing is particularly striking — “frenzied yet controlled” sums it up.

The filmmakers include interviews with Marvin Hamlisch, Bob Avian — who was Bennett’s assistant on the original production and who directed the revival — and Bayoork Lee, who also was in the original. And there’s some archival footage of Bennett himself, and there’s even some time with Jacques d’Amboise, feisty and funny despite the hip and leg problems that plague old dancers like head colds, except they don’t go away.

Basically, this is a film for and about Bennett, and some of his collaborators get short shrift: Writer James Kirkwood and lyricist Ed Kleban aren’t mentioned at all, and co-writer Nicholas Dante is mentioned only in passing.

Still, it’s a compelling film about the signature musical of the modern era.

Among the extras are a commentary track with the directors, a conversation with McKechnie and some other unedited interviews.