Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter “Step, kick, kick, leap, kick, touch — again.” The famous refrain from A Chorus Line could easily double as the mantra of a Broadway actor. Eight shows a week demands a punishing cycle of performance and recovery, with physiotherapy, gym work, dance classes and vocal coaching squeezed around sleep, meals and whatever passes for life beyond the stage door. At this time of year, that intensity is compounded by Broadway’s awards season, with the Tony Awards looming large over an already relentless schedule. “They are like Olympic athletes,” Tony-nominated director Bill Rauch tells me at the New Dramatists Spring Luncheon in New York. “What they are doing on that stage is so, so extraordinary. The fact that they’re doing it eight times a week is beyond, and I’m in awe of all those artists.” On top of the physical intensity is …