Michel Stuart, a member of the original company of "A Chorus Line" and later a costume designer and theatrical producer, died on Sunday in an automobile accident in Malibu, Calif. He was 54, and lived in Los Angeles.
Stuart (whose first name was pronounced Michael) was born in New York, the son of parents who had fled Nazi Germany. At 16, he was a dancer in the London production of "West Side Story" (along with Michael Bennett). He was also in the chorus of "Little Me" and other Broadway musicals in the 1960s and '70s.When Bennett began his first workshop for what later became "A Chorus Line," Stuart was in the company. He went on to play the role of Greg. In the musical, his character was not chosen for the cast of the show within the show, which was, he said, the only time he had failed an audition.
"Being rejected night after night for almost two years," he said, "my legs started bothering me, my phlebitis started to kick up. Nature was telling me something." While on tour with the show, he decided it was time to stop dancing.
He began designing clothes for Giorgio Sant'Angelo on Seventh Avenue in New York. Then he designed costumes for "A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine" and "Cloud 9," both directed by Tommy Tune, who was his longtime companion.