Wasson traced his complex relationship with women back to an incident said to have occurred when Fosse was a 13-year-old dancer, and was molested by strippers in a burlesque club where he was working. One note about Fosse, made clear in Sam Wasson’s biography, on which Fosse/Verdon is closely based: the choreographer and director was not great at closing the curtain on his real-life romances. Ahead, a deep dive into this mythical Broadway relationship: the demons, drugs, and philandering that dismantled it, and the mutual love and masterpieces that endured. In Tuesday’s premiere episode, Sam Rockwell plays Fosse, the drug-and-depression addled choreographer and director, and Michelle Williams portrays Verdon, the effervescent star who could help save her husband’s productions but not his tortured soul.
But as FX’s Fosse/Verdon attests, Fosse and Verdon were an incredible, untraditional team, onstage and off-and their legacies remain enmeshed. Almost.When Gwen Verdon died in 2000, the four-time Tony-winning performer was eulogized as arguably “the best dancer ever to brighten the Broadway stage.” The New York Times wrote that Verdon’s “high-kicking artistry, flaming red hair, and head-turning figure made her an unforgettable presence in musicals like Can-Can, Damn Yankees, and Chicago.” Nearly 20 years later, Verdon’s artistry and accomplishments may be less familiar to the average American than those of her husband, Bob Fosse. Great solo work by Kurt Curtis (son of Larry) on trumpet, Jeremy Swem on euphonium, and Ed Martell on a celesta-sounding keyboard almost had me liking the thing. I guess I’m just allergic to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s brand of cloying uber-Romanticism, but I just could never get into “The Phantom of the Opera.” Here, for me, the attraction was Dutch musician Johann de Meij’s skillful, creative arrangement, not to mention the quality of our hometown band. Joe Stone, oboe, and Eileen Holt, English horn, had some lovely solo moments.
Robert Russell Bennett is certainly one of the great arrangers, and in his hands excerpts from Frederick Loewe’s sparkling score sounded fabulous. “Something Wonderful” and “I Have Dreamed” are masterpieces, and who can resist “Shall We Dance?” Arranger Stephen Bulla wove these and a couple of other tunes into a nice tidy package that got the concert off to a good start.Īnd “My Fair Lady” was perhaps the greatest musical of all time.
“Getting to Know You” might be on the cutesy side, but everything else is a gem. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I” is an almost perfect score.
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