Monday, October 19, 1998
Team heat
THEATER: ‘Fosse: a Celebration of Song and Dance’ pays tribute
to the choreographer and director of famous shows like ‘Chicago’
and ‘Cabaret’
By Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
If only Bob Fosse’s friends could see him now.
After a sleek, stylized tour of ‘Chicago’ and a grittily sinful
revival of ‘Cabaret,’ it’s tempting to predict that the name on
everybody’s lips is gonna be Fosse.
The question is, why weren’t they singing the praises of the
director and choreographer a decade ago, when Fosse was living?
‘It takes about 10 years to realize what you lost,’ says Richard
Maltby, Jr., co-director of ‘Fosse: A Celebration in Song and
Dance,’ which opens Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre.
Though Fosse only took part in the film version of ‘Cabaret,’
and 1997’s ‘Chicago’ credits Ann Reinking with creating slinky
signature moves ‘in the style of Bob Fosse,’ such ventures were
perhaps the litmus test Livent Inc. needed.
‘When ‘Chicago’ was done, and there was suddenly a show that
evoked the Fosse style, everyone said not only, ‘Oh my god, how
wonderful!’ but ‘Oh my god, this is what we lost,” Maltby
says.
So while the clock is ticking and feet are tapping, Maltby,
Reinking, and Fosse’s widow and longtime collaborator Gwen Verdon
are doing their best to retrieve and showcase the dance icon’s
material in one massive retrospective.
Those who’ve worked with him  among them several members
of the ensemble  speak with enthusiastic wonder about both
the man and his work. All have anecdotes to reveal, all seem
happier reminiscing about Fosse’s work ethic than their own present
day careers, and all agree that the prolific but only marginally
recognized artist was ahead of his time.
Initially, audiences were uncomfortable with the blatant
sexuality that poured from his dancers’ limbs, as in the topless
flight attendant number in his 1979 film ‘All That Jazz.’ But
anyone who’s demanded their MTV in the last 10 years knows that a
little skin and dark sensuality set to music are hardly exotic
anymore.
‘Because there’s no more shock value, people get to see the
brilliance of this man,’ says Valerie Pettiford, a lead performer
in ‘Fosse’ who worked with the choreographer in ‘Dancin” and ‘Big
Deal,’ his last Broadway shows. She argues that Fosse’s genius lies
in his attention to emotion and detail.
Take ‘Steam Heat.’ The jazzy number smokes with the aura of a
beatnik dive and is noticeably out of place in the bubble gum
simplicity of 1956’s ‘The Pajama Game.’ Though recognized for its
altered poise, liquid limbs and frequent use of bowler hats,
Fosse’s repertoire was just as much about character.
‘Steam Heat,’ Maltby says, is ‘choreography about being goofily
in love and how complex those reactions are; ‘I’m completely in
love, but I may not be. It’s the most wonderful thing in the world,
but it might go away in a minute.”
If that sounds like a lot to convey in a matter of minutes, it
is. Fosse’s work is difficult to perform, not only for its
complexity but because of physical demands unknown to more
traditional genres. Like Pettiford, co-star Jane Lanier was trained
in classic ballet and found Fosse’s carefully vernacular moves a
welcome culture-shock.
‘With ballet, everything’s turned out and pulled up. With Bob,
everything’s turned in and hunched over. So I was really sore after
the first week of rehearsals,’ Lanier laughs.
Pettiford sympathizes, ‘You go to places that most other
choreographers don’t let you go. It’s like, ‘Oh my god, why does
that hurt? … Oh yeah, the twist on the chair with your leg up
while you’re standing on your head singing a song.”
But if a few aches and pains come with the territory, no one’s
complaining. It’s hard, when constantly prodded and inspired by
Verdon and Reinking. As wife and lover, respectively, the two women
attest to Fosse’s power to charm and bring out talent in those
around him, not to mention the power of theater to transcend
inevitable past differences. The show’s dancers testify that
Verdon, at 73, still executes her husband’s moves with more
veracity than anyone.
Yet, essentially working with three directors invites an
avalanche of opinions which the cast must reconcile.
‘It’s really great because you get three different perspectives
on it,’ Lanier says. ‘Sometimes someone goes, ‘Why are you doing
that?’ ‘Well, the other one told me.”
As many bodies as possible are needed to sort through Fosse’s
repertory. Though his films were immediately handy, some of Fosse’s
stage compositions and original television numbers required a
little more detective work. Maltby estimates that a third of the
show has never been performed on stage before and that a sixth of
the material would have been lost if not for the diligence of team
Fosse.
For example, they wanted to include the ‘Shoeless Joe’ number
from ‘Damn Yankees’ but found the substantially cut film-version
lacking. Eventually, they stumbled on a tribute to ‘Yankees’
director George Abbott, which was performed one time only on the
‘Colgate Comedy Hour.’ The choreography was laid out before them in
its entirety.
Tributes are inherently risky, for the opposite reasons that
most Broadway musicals are risky. While new shows must consider
whether audiences will be receptive to provocative new material,
tributes and revivals compete with existing opinions about old
favorites.
Though by definition a homage, creators must assess what’s
worthy of inclusion and how to integrate it.
Maltby, who cut his tribute teeth with ‘Ain’t Misbehavin”, an
ode to Fats Waller, says, ‘You want the work to speak for itself.
That’s why we don’t have any kind of narrative structure.’
So what would Bob himself, known as much for his perfectionism
as his perfection, think of the concert-style montage of numbers
excerpted from everything from ‘Sweet Charity’ to Liza Minelli’s
one-woman show?
‘He’d be nervous as hell,’ Lanier says. ‘Like most geniuses, he
was never satisfied and always worried that it wasn’t going to be
good enough.’
And on the off chance that it’s not (though reviews from Toronto
suggest that it’s well beyond good), Lanier again cites Fosse’s
vast repertory as back-up. ‘The cast members always joke, ‘We could
do ‘Fosse 2,’ ‘Fosse 3,’ ‘Fosse 4’ …”
So friends can see him now and possibly for years to come Â
plenty of chances to attract more top-drawer, first-rate chums.
THEATER: ‘Fosse: A Celebration in Song and Dance’ opens
Wednesday and runs through Dec. 6 at the Ahmanson Theatre in
downtown Los Angeles. Tickets are $22.50 to $62.50. For ticket
information, call (213)628-2772.
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