"I was doing Cats in Los Angeles, and that's not an easy show to do. You spend most of it on bent knees!" Scott says. "My chiropractor had to come backstage and adjust me between shows."

But now Scott is the one adjusting alignments backstage. After sitting out professional performances for more than 15 years to care for bad backs in his Sunnyvale clinic, he's back onstage as Al in A Chorus Line, which runs through March 6 at the American Musical Theater of San Jose. Scott, now 52, is doing the show that originally brought him to California on tour back in the early 1980s.

"That was my first big show," Scott says. "When I first did A Chorus Line, a lot of these people I'm working with now weren't even born yet."

Scott was born in Gary, Ind., the son of a steel worker father and a mother who drove a school bus. Despite his background, he developed an interest in performing at a young age. He won the Indiana Junior State Championship in roller skating and was a professional drummer in a rock band by the time he was 12. Scott became the principal dancer with Ballet Chicago when he was 16 and refused scholarship offers from institutions like the University of Cincinnati to pursue his career. "I couldn't see putting off a career while I learned how to do things I already knew," he says.

Starting in 1980, Scott began performing in musical theater. He made the touring company of A Chorus Line, playing the character of Mike, and went all over the United States, including the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. He relocated his family to L.A., where he continued to perform.

But it was during this period that Scott began to feel the wear of stage performing. "My body was totally trashed," he says. "Plus, it seemed like a good idea to settle down--I had a young daughter at the time." Scott had also been a massage therapist since 1980, and becoming a chiropractor seemed like a natural next step.

After seven years of living in L.A., Scott's family moved north to San Jose so he could attend the Palmer College of Chiropractic West. After graduating, Scott offered his services to the clientele that made him think of the career change in the first place--dancers.

"My first two years out of school I concentrated on treating dancers, but they don't get paid a lot of money," he says. "I was treating people backstage, but I was giving my services away."

Scott eventually joined a larger practice--HealthNOW Medical Center in Sunnyvale--which has a diverse mix of physicians, chiropractors and nutritionists on staff. The professional support was a great help, he says, while his schedule was complicated by auditions and rehearsals for A Chorus Line. This foray back into musical theater wasn't completely out of the blue--Scott has continued to teach dance with various groups in the area, including the Sunnyvale Players.

"But it sucked me back in," Scott says.

After 12 years out of musical theater, Scott returned in 1998, when a friend was working on a production of State Fair in Saratoga. Scott then directed and choreographed A Chorus Line for West Valley Light Opera. That experience was still fresh in his mind when he heard about American Musical Theater's local auditions for its the same show. "I never thought I'd be back on the line," he says. "I went in to audition for the role of Zack, but they told me they wanted to see me for the [larger] role of Al."

Returning after so much time away is an interesting experience, says Scott. "I'm a different person now, so it's making a profound impact on me now," he says. "I'm looking at it as a mature adult." Scott had to relinquish his union card when he performed in Saratoga, so he's not making the same money he used to, and working with his schedule is tough, "I wouldn't mind doing a professional show every once in a while," but he says.

Much has changed since the last time Scott performed in A Chorus Line--he and his first wife have divorced and he's since remarried. His daughter, now 22 and his son is 13. And his sense of perspective theater as an older cast member helps as well.

"I'm 52, and I'm playing a 30-year-old in the show. My 'wife' [in the show] is 24," he says. "But art imitates life--my wife now is 34."