Fosse/Verdon on FX April 9

[edjames]

NyPost has the to say abut the new miniseries beginning April 9th on FX:

 

‘Fosse/Verdon’ has a Broadway heartbreak beat

 

THE love story of mercurial Broadway choreographer and Oscar winning director Bob Fosse and his wife, four-time Tony winner Gwen Verdon, will dance onto TV screens April 9.

Their romance, told in the FX miniseries “Fosse/Verdon,” is the stuff of Broadway legend. Verdon was the most celebrated dancer of her time, winning four Tony Awards in six years, and Fosse helped her win them — shaping her performances in productions such as “Damn Yankees” and “Sweet Charity.” They married in 1960 and had a daughter, Nicole, born in 1963.

“Fosse/Verdon” boasts Oscar winner Sam Rockwell (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”) — also nominated for 2018’s “Vice” — as Fosse and four-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams as Verdon. As “Fosse/Verdon” opens, Fosse is looking for a job but he’s a tough sell in Hollywood. His 1969 film “Sweet Charity,” starring Shirley MacLaine in the role Verdon created on Broadway, was a $20 million flop, a dated curio in the year of groundbreaking films (“Easy Rider” and Best Picture Oscar winner “Midnight Cowboy”). Fosse wants to direct the big-screen version of “Cabaret” so badly he circumvents executive producer Cy Feuer (Paul Reiser, who’s unrecognizable) and petitions the head of the studio. He gets the job.

Left alone in Munich, where the film was partly produced, Fosse puts his special touches on the film — firing the actors hired as extras and finding their replacements in a German brothel — much to the consternation of Feuer, who arrives to supervise him and wonders why the set is so dark. “Uh…we’re supposed to be in a nightclub,” says Fosse.

Fearing another fiasco, Feuer turns to Verdon, who suggests that audiences don’t want escapist musicals anymore: “They want to see something true.”

As played by the redheaded Williams, Verdon is not only Fosse’s muse; she’s an ideal collaborator, flying to Germany to be his sounding board. She even rifles through her own closet for some of the pieces Liza Minnelli (Kelli Barrett, who can hold those Liza notes on the title tune) wears in the role of Sally Bowles and valiantly goes back to New York to fetch a gorilla’s head costume for one scene. When she knocks on her husband’s hotel room door to deliver the goods, Fosse is hesitant to answer. He’s in bed with the German translator hired for the film. It’s one of his many marital indiscretions; Verdon, who separated from Fosse in 1971, never divorced him.

“Fosse/Verdon” shows us how the director came up with the innovative, sexy choreography and camera work for “Cabaret,” which went on to win a staggering eight Academy Awards, including one for Fosse as Best Director. Based on a biography by Sam Wasson, the eight-episode series also introduces us to the artists who made up the Fosse/Verdon inner circle — playwright/screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (Norbert Leo Butz), Neil Simon (Nate Corddry) and theater producer and director Hal Prince (Evan Handler).

The series is a boldly romantic departure for FX, which has been relying on Ryan Murphy for nearly a decade to supply award-winning programs such as “American Horror Story,” “The People v. O.J. Simpson” and most recently “The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Really looking forward to seeing this, especially since FX has now cut ties with Ryan Murphy, who's one-trick-pony shows are wearing a little thin with me. The cast looks spectacular and the promos have been well-done.

 

If you want a great, in-depth read on Fosse, I highly recommend this book:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Fosse-Sam-Wasson/dp/0547553293

[foxy]

Last night I binge watched the first 4 episodes of Fosse/Verdon. It’s very, very good. Michelle Williams is a total reincarnation of Gwen Verdon. And thanks to Benjamin’s recommendation I just ordered the book Fosse which is already a page turner.