So far, Cincinnati actor Michael Gruber doesn't fear unemployment the way his character Mike Costa does in A Chorus Line.

In the musical, which is closing Saturday just shy of a phenomenal 15-year run, the character Costa is among 17 dancers auditioning for eight chorus slots in a Broadway musical. In real life, Gruber, 25, has no reason to fear auditions after the musical closes at New York's Shubert Theater. His 15 months in the production have made "a huge difference".

"I've been in New York 2 1/2 years, and I never got anything I auditioned for unless I knew the people," he said. "And now I've had three auditions and I've gotten all three jobs. And especially with the show closing now, the exposure is amazing."

But, because A Chorus Line was extended beyond March 31, the closing date originally announced, Gruber turned down 42nd Street, which is touring to Europe, and a new Broadway musical, A Change in the Heir. Instead, he will be playing Riff in a national tour of the musical West Side Story, for which rehearsals start in May.

Gruber, a Cincinnatian who was graduated from Indian Hill High School, was a champion swimmer; he initially went to University of Michigan on an athletic scholarship.

After losing his athletic scholarship because he did not want to commit to a six-hour-a-day training schedule, Gruber transferred back to the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music in 1984-86 but did not get a degree.

At CCM he was Rocky in The Rocky Horror Show, directed by Worth Gardner, now Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park artistic director, in the summer-stock series Hot Summer Nights. He also was in the chorus in Gardner's Playhouse production of Carnival! before moving to New York.

Having played in a summer-stock production of A Chorus Line in West Virginia, Gruber dropped his resume off in New York for the A Chorus Line Broadway production before heading off to work in Anchorage, Alaska. "I kinda wrote it off," he said. But, once in Alaska, he got a call to come to New York to audition. He won the role of the dancer who performs "I Can Do That."

"Mike Costa is a difficult role to cast because they want the tumbling," Gruber said. "And you have to look ethnic, act and be able to sing. "I was so thrilled. Very often there aren't those roles that a 24-year-old can go into and be a principal. Usually you start out in chorus, and you have to do a lot of chorus work before they will give you a role like that. Here I am - my first Broadway show, and I have my own number and a character that is very visible throughout the show."

Given the volatile temperament of the A Chorus Line director, the late Michael Bennett, Gruber said he doesn't mourn joining the show after the director's death in 1987.

As the curtain is about to fall on A Chorus Line in New York, Gruber has a sense of history about the show.

"It's so wonderful to be a part of the final cast. I think closing the show will give it the final respect it deserves. It will really become legendary after it closes because it's always been available. Alot of what makes a legend is the fact that it is not around and there is some mystery involved."