1st Year - Bob Fosse

Bob Fosse 1927-1987

In the Beginning 

Director-choreographer Bob Fosse forever changed the way audiences around the world viewed dance on the stage and film. Visionary, intense, and unbelievably driven, Fosse was an artist whose work was always provocative, entertaining, and quite unlike anything ever seen before. His choreography was sexual, physically demanding and very technical even for the most highly trained dancers. His dancers described his work as “bizarre, burlesque, exploitative, brooding, sordid, leering and lewd”.  But also they commented that it was “brilliant, original, searing, and sizzling. Through his films he revolutionised the presentation of dance on screen and paved the way for a whole generation of film and video choreographers and directors.

Chicago born and bred 

Robert Louis Fosse (Bob Fosse) was born in Chicago on June 23, 1927. He was the second youngest of six children born to a Norwegian father who performed in vaudeville and an Irish mother.  He grew up in a suburb of Chicago.  Early his father (Cyril Fosse) and uncle (Dick Fosse) had a vaudeville act of “song and spoons”. Their stage experiences were happy ones which rubbed off onto a young Bobby through stories from his father and uncle.

Fosse began dance lessons at age nine (9) at Chicago Academy of Theatre Arts. He was clearly a prodigy. He began quickly to perform in local events put on by the dance school. His forte would remain tap, with limited ballet training. By high school (1941), he
was a veteran of the Chicago burlesque scene, and after teaming with another young performer, Charles Grass, they toured the country in an act called The Riff Brothers. Fosse's talents caught the attention of producers who hired him for a show called "Tough Situation." The production toured military bases throughout the Pacific during World War II.

At school he was teased about his small stature. He suffered from both asthma and epilepsy. He graduated with honours, president of his class and voted most likely to succeed. Fosse enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17, right out of high school.  But the war was soon over.  To complete his two year enlistment the Navy transferred him to the special services entertainment division which allowed him to perform and stage shows for the troops, as he did in high school, until his discharge from the service in 1947.

Broadway Bound 

After spending two years in the Navy, (1945-1947) Fosse’s ship docked in New York and there he stayed. His talents were quickly apparent and suited to the fast openings of Broadway shows after the War.  His first Broadway show was Call Me Mister in 1947. It was where he met his first wife, Mary Ann Niles. This was quickly followed by Make Mine Manhattan (1948), Dance Me a Song (1950), Billion Dollar Baby (1951), The Roaring Twenties (1951) and Pal Joey (1952).  Fosse worked constantly. Although he only appeared as a performer in 6 Broadway musicals.  His significant work would be as a choreographer and director.

Fosse’s personal life was always unstable.  He was a complex individual. He would fixate on a project, have extra women, abuse alcohol and drugs or a myriad of other things. His first marriage to dancer Mary Ann Niles lasted just two years (1949-1951). After the divorce, he teamed with another dancer Joan McCracken (his second wife 1952-59) and began studying acting at the famous American Theatre Wing in the hopes of becoming an actor-dancer like Fred Astaire. He soon graduated to leads in summer-stock productions, which in turn, led to a screen test for MGM.

Fosse commented in a 1975 Dance magazine interview “I was always very bad in dance class.   I had a great deal of trouble with turnout and extension.  To compensate for this, I used to work on the other areas, such as rhythm, style of movement; taking ordinary steps and giving them little extra twist or turns.  My ‘style” came about mainly as a result of my own physical limitations.” Though physically small, asthmatic with pigeon toes and slouching posture, Fosse hardly fit the dancers’ ideal boy. He focused more on rhythm and style to make up for what he lacked physically. His trademark hat and gloves were used primarily to cover up his premature balding and small hands. His choreography would eventually “call on jumps and lifts from classical ballet, ballroom, character movement from dance.  And knee slides, tumbling, and acrobatics from popular entertainment – full bodied actions- as well as tap and soft shoe”.  Fosse’s style, which was dynamic yet reminiscent of everyday movement, depended on the isolation of joints and appendages moving compactly through a restricted space. He created his own movement language much like jazz pioneers Jack Cole, Jerome Robbins and Matt Mattox.

Heading to Hollywood

Spotted by a talent scout for MGM in 1952, Fosse headed to Hollywood to hopefully become a musical star. Fosse was given a screen test and went on to appear in his very first film; “Give a Girl a Break for MGM.  It was a low budget teen musical in which he dances with a balloon. His next film “The Affairs of Dobi Gillis, was also a low budget teen musical.  Both of these films he was allowed to do his own choreography but unaccredited. He was losing faith in the “Hollywood Dream” until he was cast in Kiss Me Kate (Broadway 1945, film 1953). This film was a huge success! This appearance, in a highly original dance number, led to Fosse's first legitimate job as a choreographer, the Jerome Robbins-directed Broadway hit The Pajama Game (Broadway in 1954 film in 1957). So back to Broadway he went.  Soon after, he met the talented dancer Gwen Verdon (soon to be his third wife),  and the two proceeded to collaborate on several hit Broadway shows, including Damn Yankees (Broadway in 1955, film 1958), New Girl in Town  (Broadway 1957), and Redhead (Broadway 1959).Verdon would continue as his best collaborator throughout his life.  They would have a daughter, Nicole, who would later grow up to have a Broadway leading career of her own. He was also frequently sought out as the "doctor" for shows in trouble.  He would come in to help fix, restage, and re-choreograph shows. Many times he would work un-credited so how many shows he worked uncredited is unclear. He knew how to put dance front and centre, to camouflage a paper-thin score or weak script.  He was the eleventh-hour stage paramedic who could resuscitate an out-of-town flop and turn it into a Broadway box-office blockbuster. He would choreograph 12 Broadway musicals and also direct 8 of those.  He still holds the record for receiving 8 Tony Awards for Best Choreography.

He continued working both Broadway and Hollywood through the 1950s and 1960s. He ended up choreographing a total of 8 films and 4 of those acting as director too. Many of these were the film version of his hit Broadway musical such as Damn Yankees, Sweet Charity, Pippin and Cabaret.
Fosse's best collaboration with Gwen Verdon was Sweet Charity (Broadway in 1966, film in 1969, pictured left with Shirley MacLaine).  It demonstrated their perfect compatibility as a creative team and also flaunted his trademark style as a choreographer. Strongly influenced by choreographer Jack Cole, Fosse staged dance numbers that were highly stylised. "Hey Big Spender" and “Rich Man’s Frug” from Sweet Charity are now trademark Fosse numbers.  They included his signature choreography movements like; jazzy, machine like motion and cocky, angular, even grotesque poses. He favoured style over substance (his patented knee slides and spread-finger “jazz” hands), and minimalist costuming (all black, accentuated by hats and gloves). A perfectionist, Fosse liked detail in his choreography and would position his dancers down to the angles of their feet or their little fingers. It was common place that when teaching new numbers he would spend entire rehearsals on one movement. There is a specific movement in the “Rich Man’s Frug” number where the wrists and hands are positioned at the hip like the dancer is holding “a soft boiled egg”.  Coupled with the hip isolations, “this minute detail took one entire day in rehearsals to perfect prior to the Broadway opening” said veteran dancer/actor and Tony winner, Ben Vereen.

Triple Threat

Fosse's peak year was 1973. In addition to his Oscar for the film Cabaret (Broadway 1966, Film 1973, pictured right).  Fosse had nothing to do with the Broadway musical but was drawn to the subject matter.  According to Joel Grey in his book; Master of Ceremonies: A Memoir, Fosse always looked at the film as a drama with music.  Not a musical per se.  The movie studio wanted Joel Grey in the lead.  Grey had won a Tony Award for playing the emcee on Broadway and the studio was hoping to capitalise on his success.  Fosse did not want the actor.  To the point of telling the studio “him or me”. Clearly Joel Grey stayed in the film.  But Fosse did his best to eliminate him.  For a preview showing of the finished edit Fosse cut most of his musical numbers out of the picture.  The studio stepped in and put the numbers back in but the relationship continued to be strained. Grey admits he has no idea why Fosse didn’t want him in the picture. But until Fosse’s death, Joel Grey and Bob Fosse never spoke again.  Even though both received an Oscar for their work on the film. 

His next award was a Tony for his direction and choreography of the Broadway musical Pippin, (pictured left),  which would become Fosse's longest-running Broadway show. That same year he won an Emmy for directing and choreographing a Liza Minnelli television special Liza with a Z, which garnered high ratings and featured groundbreaking production numbers. In 1973 Fosse seemed to be everywhere. He is the only person to have earned an Oscar, Tony and Emmy in the same year.  He is still the only person to have won a “Best Director” in all three genres; stage, film and television.

In 1974 Fosse took on a non-musical film drama with his next directorial effort, Lenny staring Dustin Hoffman as the trail-blazing foul-mouthed 1970s comedian. This gritty treatment of Bruce's rise and fall earned Fosse accolades and another Oscar nomination for Direction of a film. Also that year Chicago, would be Fosse's last musical collaboration with now-estranged wife Gwen Verdon.  Although he was exhausted and fatigued after the whirlwind of the previous years, he agreed to direct and choreograph Chicago (1974) as a star vehicle for Verdon.  He felt he owed her this show as a way to make up for all the infidelity and to help secure her financial future and that of their daughter. They started work on Chicago before the movie Lenny was released. Fosse's work and personal habits however caught up with him during this time and he suffered a heart attack and underwent open-heart surgery in late 1974. Of course Chicago became yet another hit (Broadway 1975, Film 2002, although not under Fosse).  Fosse turned his 1974 crisis into material for his next film, the musical All That Jazz (1979), starring Roy Scheider as a hard-living director-choreographer, juggling women and work. Though some deemed All That Jazz self-indulgent and clearly semi autobiographical, the Academy acknowledged it with 8 Oscar nominations including another for Fosse's direction.

His last big musical hit would be Dancin’ (1978), a spectacular musical theatre extravaganza. It was a revue with no plot.  He cast 15 of the top dancers out of 2000 that auditioned.  The show was a “dazzling display of show stoppers, pitched at breakneck speed and heartbreak intensity.  Something new, a dance evening for the general public”, mentioned Agnes De Mille, famed choreographer. New York Times reviewer Richard Eder commented, “with appealing audacity, the proclamation is made right at the start that this is to be an almost plot-less musical.  Mr. Fosse is one of the architects and craftsmen of the dance style of American musicals. It is a style that possesses many qualities, and many of them are evident in this show. The genre has wit, excitement, impudence and gaiety.” In the Fosse interview he described the show to be about “the sheer joy of dancing” It also included Ann Reinking, a talented ballet dancer that would be the next Fosse muse and would remain the preeminent authority of Fosse work well after his death. To this day, Ann Reinking is tasked with keeping the Fosse legacy alive and in the forefront of American Musical Theatre.

Not all his shows were big hits. Fosse returned to film with a straight drama entitled Star 80 (1983). A sordid biopic chronicling the brief life of murdered Playmate Dorothy Stratton. The movie proved too unpleasant for popular acceptance and was considered a failure. Returning to Broadway, Fosse staged Big Deal in 1985. It closed early to generally poor reviews and weak sales. It would be the only Fosse musical to close for poor ticket sales.

In the End

Fosse passed away with appropriate theatricality when he died of a second heart attack at the age of 60.  He was working on the revival of Sweet Charity in 1987 and died of a heart attack in his hotel room on opening night.  This was in Washington D.C. on September 23, 1987, (The day Miss Davis was born!)   Fosse will be remembered as a genius, and innovative choreographer and a visionary director. His contribution to the art of dance is forever imprinted on our collective feet.

Sources:

• Gottfrie, Martin, All His Jazz: The life and Death of Bob Fosse, 1998
• Mrozowski, Cheryl, Jazz Dance; A History of the Roots and Branches; edited by Lindsay Guarino and Wendy Oliver 2014, pp 97-102.
• Grubb, Kevin Boyd, Razzle Dazzle, the life and work of Bob Fosse,1989
• www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/Bob-Fosse
• www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/fosse
• www.verdonfosse.com/bob-fosse-chronology
• Dance magazine, Interview with Bob Fosse 1975
• www.dancehelp.com/articles/jazz-dance/bobfosse.
• Grey, Joel, Master of Ceremonies: A Memoir,  February 2017

Answer the below 2 Questions in 400 words:

1.            What are three qualities that make Bob Fosse's choreography unique?

2.            How do you think these qualities are reflected in your Wild Party - Jugganaught Routine?

The blog of 400 words to answer the two questions mentioned earlier is due by Friday 6th March at 8.30am. 

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