the lyric of “A Little Priest.” I am using mirroring as a meta-
phor here, but the metaphor has examples of real mirrors in
musicals behind it. Mirror scenes happen often enough in mu-
sicals to make me think we can learn something from them.
For real mirrors in musicals, look at A Chorus Line. Dancers
use mirrors for rehearsing, and A Chorus Lineborrows this fact
of the dancer’s life in its solidly diegetic plot, which concerns the
audition and rehearsals that lie behind a musical. The story of
Cassie and Zach we have looked at before, and have noted that
dancing itself is more of a dramatic event than anything that
happens between them. Cassie has a big solo number late in the
show, “The Music and the Mirror.” The number alternates with
WHAT KIND OF DRAMA IS THIS? 183
Figure7. Donna McKechnie in “The Music and the Mirror,”
from the original production of A Chorus Line. Used by permission
of the photographer, Martha Swope.