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Police Lineup

Mark Halpin

Each group consists of eight real or fictional people. Solvers may notice that there are many repetitions among the first names. These names are drawn from a pool of seventeen names: the dancers in A Chorus Line. The iconic image from that show's logo is recreated in the poses of our criminal cast. Identifying the characters from left-to-right, and assigning each a "one" or a "zero", depending on whether or not that character makes the line at the end of the play, gives the following tableau:

DON (0) – MAGGIE (0) – MIKE (1) – CONNIE (0) – GREG (0) – CASSIE (1) – SHIELA (0) – BOBBY (1) – BEBE (0) – JUDY (1) – RICHIE (1) – AL (0) – CHRISTINE (0) – VALERIE (1) - MARK (1) – PAUL (0) – DIANA (1)

For each group, consider just those dancers indicated by the clues. Their numbers, taken in the order in which they appear on the line yields:

0 - Connie (Chung)
1 - Bobby (Riggs)
0 - Bebe (Ruell)
1 - Judy (Jetson)
0 - Al (Roker)
0 - Christine (Ebersole)
1 - Val (McKee)
1 - Mark (Twain)


0 - Don (King)
1 - Mike (Delfino)
0 - Gregory (Goyle)
1 - Cassie (Campbell)
0 - Sheila (E.)
1 - Richie (Rich)
0 - Christine (Todd Whitman)
0 - Paul (Bunyan)

0 - Maggie (Smith)
1 - Mike (Tyson)
0 - Connie (Willis)
0 - Gregory (House)
0 - Bebe (Neuwirth)
0 - Al (Unser Jr.)
0 – Paul (Reubens)
1 – Diana (Ross)

0 - Maggie (Simpson)
1 - Cassie (Ventura)
0 - Sheila (Carter)
0 - Al (Bundy)
0 - Christine (Daae – The Phantom of the Opera)
1 - Val (Kilmer)
1 – Mark (Foley)
1 – Diana (Muldaur)

0 - Don (Knotts)
1 - Mike (Malin)
0 - Connie (Mack)
0 - Gregory (Peck)
0 - Sheila (Broflovski)
1 - Richie (Cunningham)
0 - Paul (Revere)
1 - Diana (Rigg)

Considered as ASCII characters, these groups represent the letters S, T, A, G, and E, for the solution word STAGE.