Actors on Broadway have the difficult task of being singers who must

MANHATTAN REVIEW OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

Choices B, C, D and E incorrectly use the singular ‘dancer’. Choices D and E also incorrectly uses the singular ‘a singer’ to refer to the plural ‘actors’. Choice A is the correct answer.

eGMAT states that being is correct on the GMAT only in the following 2 circumstances -

1. When Being is used as a noun.
2. When passive continuous verb tense is required to communicate the meaning.

Here in my opinion Being satisfies the 1st condition! Please correct me if I am wrong..

I am guessing a lot of us would have incorrectly marked E because we are drilled with the dictum "if you see a gerund, eliminate it" during our GMAT prep. But let me make sense of this here.

(A) of being singers who must also perform as dancers -- "being singers...perform as dancers" is a noun entity here. Sounds correct and makes sense.

(B) of singers who must also perform like dancer -- Incorrect. difficult task of <<what??>> singers? It is missing a verb here. Perform like singers? Be like singer? Its unclear.

(C) that they are singers who must perform like dancer -- Incorrect. The "that" here is problematic and unidiomatic.

(D) that, as a singer, they must also perform as a dancer - Incorrect. same as D.

(E) to be a singer that must also perform as a dancer -- Close. But this is worded incorrectly. "to be X that must also do Y" could have been better conveyed as "to be X who also does Y". In light of A, I would eliminate E.

A. There is no other proper way to project the meaning without using being. Actors have the difficult task of being singers. Here use of as is correct as the singers are actually peeforming as dancers. Correct.
B. B says the actors have the difficult task of singers, not that they actually are singers. Also use of like is incorrect. The singers are actually performing as dancers. Incorrect.
C. Use of that distorts the meaning. Use of like is incorrect.
D. As a singer cannot be made non essential. The meaning changes.
E. To be a singer does not make sense. Moreover using that to refer to singer is incorrect.
A is correct