Nothing

**Nothing** is the seventh song of the 1975 musical A Chorus Line and the second part of the montage.

## Synopsis

The song goes through how a dancer feels after being bullied, and how one feels having a pre-mature romance.

## Lyrics

**Diana Morales****:** ...So excited because I'm going to the High School of Performing Arts! I mean I was dying to be a serious actress. Anyway it's the first day of acting class and we're in the auditorium and the teacher Mr. Karp...oh Mr. Karp. Anyway, he puts us up on the stage with our legs around each other, one in back of the other and he says 'Okay! We're going to be doing improvisations. Now, you're on a bobsled, it's snowing out, and it's cold. Okay, go.' Everyday for a week we would try to feel the motion, feel the motion, down the hill. Everyday for a week we would try to hear the wind rush, hear the wind rush, feel the chill. And I dug right down to the bottom of my soul to see what I had inside, yes I dug right down to the bottom of my soul and I tried, I tried! And everybody's going 'Whoosh! Whoosh! I feel the snow! I feel the cold! I feel the air!' and Mr. Karp turns to me and he says 'Okay, Morales. What did you feel?' and I said 'Nothing. I'm feeling nothing.' and he says 'Nothing could get a girl transferred!' They all felt something, but I felt nothing, except the feeling that this bullshit was absurd. And I said to myself, 'Hey, it's only the first week, maybe it's generic, they don't have bobsleds in San Juan!' they don't Second week, more advanced and we had to be a table, be a sports car, ice cream cone. Mr. Karp, he would say 'Very good! Except Morales. Try, Morales. All alone!' and I dug right down to the bottom of my soul to see what I had inside, yes I dug right down to the bottom of my soul, and I tried to melt! The kids yelled 'Nothing!' they called me 'nothing'. And Karp allowed which really makes me burn. They were so helpful, they called me 'hopeless'. Until I really didn't know where else to turn. Went to church, preying Santa Maria send me guidance, send me guidance, on my knees. Went to church, preying Santa Maria help me feel it, help me feel it. Pretty please. And the voice from down of the bottom of my soul came up to the top of my head! And the voice from down of the bottom of my soul, here is what it said! 'This man is nothing! This course is nothing! if you want something, go find a better class! And when you find one, you'll be an actress!' And I assure that's what finally came to pass. Six months later, I heard that Karp had died. And I dug right down to the bottom of my soul and cried. 'Cause I felt nothing. I mean, I didn't want him to die or anything but...

**Don Kerr****:** The Summer I turned fifteen, I lied about my age so I could join AGVA, you know, the night club union! 'Cause I could make sixty dollars a week working these strip joints, outside of Kansas City. I worked this one club for about eight weeks straight, and I really became friendly with a stripper. Her name was 'Lola LaTorres'! And her dynamic twin forty-fours. Well, she really took to me, I mean, we did share the only dressing room and she did a lot of dressing. Anyway, she used to come and pick me up and drive me to work night, well the neighbours would all be hanging outside their windows, and she'd drive a bitter sweet pink Cadillac convertible. And smile, and I'd come tripping out of my house with my little tuxedo, and my tap shoes in my hand, and we'd take off down the block, with her long flaming red hair blowing in the wind.

**Maggie Winslow****:** Why do I pay for all those lessons? Dance for Grandma! Dance for Grandma!

**Bebe Benzenheimer****:** My god! That Steve McQueen's real sexy, Bob Goulet out! Steve McQueen in!

**Cassie Ferguson****:** You cannot go to the movies! Until you finish your homework!

**Al DeLuca****:** Wash the car!

**Mike Costa****:** Stop picking your nose!

**Maggie Winslow:** Oh darling you're not old enough to wear a bra! You got nothing to hold it up!

**Mark Anthony****:** Locked in the bathroom with Peyton's Place!

**Val Clarke****:** Tits! When am I gonna grow tits?

**Bobby Mills****:** If Troy Donahue could be a movie star, then I could be a movie star.

**Don Kerr:** Well, when the guys on the block all saw Lola, they wanted to know that the story was. So I told them all about this big, hot, heavy romance we were having. But actually, she was going with this...

**Judy Turner****:** Little brat! That's what my sister was! A little brat! And that's why I shaved her head, I'm glad I shaved her head! But then my father lost his job, so we had to leave El Paso, and we wound in St. Louis, Missouri, well it was the furthest thing from my mind to leave El Paso, but then my mother would embarrass me, so when she'd come to pick me up at school with all those great big yellow rollers in her hair no matter how much I begged her and she'd say 'What, are you ashamed of your own mother?'. But the thing that made my daddy laugh so much was when I used to jump and dance around the living room.