Bob Fosse
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| Bob Fosse | |
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| Born | Robert Louis Fosse June 23, 1927 Chicago, Illinois, USA |
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| Died | September 23, 1987 (aged 60) Washington D.C., USA |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Ann Niles (1949-1951) Joan McCracken (1951-1959) Gwen Verdon (1960-1987) |
Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse (June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American musical theater choreographer and director, and a film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of Cabaret.
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[edit] Early years
Fosse was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Norwegian father and Irish mother, the youngest of six children.[1] He teamed up with Charles Grass, another young dancer, and began a collaboration under the name The Riff Brothers. They toured theatres throughout the Chicago area.
Eventually Fosse was hired for the show Tough Situation, which toured military and naval bases in the Pacific. He later said that he had perfected his technique as a performer, choreographer, and director while serving his tour of duty.
[edit] Career
Fosse moved to Hollywood with the ambition of being the next Fred Astaire. His early screen appearances included Give A Girl A Break, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis and Kiss Me Kate, all released in 1953. A short sequence that he choreographed in the latter (and danced with Carol Haney) brought him to the attention of Broadway producers.
Although Fosse's career in film was cut short by premature balding, which limited the roles he could take, he was reluctant to move from Hollywood to theatre. In 1954, he choreographed his first musical, The Pajama Game, followed by Damn Yankees in 1955. It was while he was working on the latter show that he first met Gwen Verdon.
Fosse developed a jazz dance style that was immediately recognizable, exuding a stylized, cynical sexuality. Other notable distinctions of his style included the use of turned-in knees, sideways shuffling, and rolled shoulders.[2]
With Fred Astaire as an influence, he used props such as bowler hats, canes and chairs. His trademark use of hats was influenced by his own self-consciousness. According to Martin Gottfried in his biography of Fosse, "His baldness was the reason that he wore hats, and was doubtless why he put hats on his dancers."[3] He used gloves in his performances because he did not like his hands. His dance routines were intense and specific, yet had a simplicity to them.
Some of his most popular numbers include "Steam Heat" from The Pajama Game and "Big Spender" from Sweet Charity. The "Rich Man's Frug" scene in "Sweet Charity" is another example of his signature style. The filmed routines in Cabaret (1972) are particularly characteristic of Fosse, the vulgar energy of vaudeville and burlesque updated and coolly contained within a slick, conscious sophistication.
Although he was replaced as the director/choregrapher for the short-lived 1961 musical The Conquering Hero, he quickly took on the job of choreographer of the 1961 musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying[4][3] In 1986 he directed and choreographed the Broadway production Big Deal, which he also wrote.
Fosse directed five feature films. His first, Sweet Charity in 1969, was an adaptation of the Broadway musical. His second film, Cabaret won eight Academy Awards, including Best Director. Fosse next directed Lenny in 1974, a biopic of the self-destructive comic Lenny Bruce; it was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. In 1979, Fosse co-wrote and directed the semi-autobiographical All That Jazz, which won four Academy Awards and earned Fosse his third Oscar nomination for Best Director. It also won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. In the summer and fall of 1980, working with "All That Jazz" executive producer Daniel Melnick, Fosse commissioned documentary research for a follow-up feature having to do with the motivations that compel people to become performers, but found the results uninspiring. His final film, 1983's Star 80 was a controversial biopic of slain Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten. It evoked mixed critical reaction, although Richard Schickel of TIME and Rex Reed gave it rave reviews, and it has acquired a strong cult following.
As a film director, Fosse directed five actors in Oscar nominated performances: Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey, Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine and Roy Scheider. Minelli and Grey won theirs for their respective turns in Cabaret.
Fosse performed a memorable song and dance number in Stanley Donen's 1974 film version of The Little Prince. In 1977, Fosse had a small role in the romantic comedy Thieves.
[edit] Innovations
Fosse was an innovative choreographer and had multiple achievements in his life. For Damn Yankees, he took a great deal of inspiration from the "father of theatrical jazz dance", Jack Cole.[3] He also took influence from Jerome Robbins. New Girl in Town gave Fosse the inspiration to direct and choreograph his next piece because of the conflict of interest within the collaborators. During Redhead, Fosse utilized one of the first ballet sequences in a show that contained five different styles of dance; Fosse’s jazz, a cancan, a gypsy dance, a march, and an old-fashioned English music hall number."
Despite a sincere tendency to sometimes discount his distinctive choreography as mesmerizing "razzle-dazzle", his successes continued, and he contributed even more innovative ideas to the world of Broadway choreography. He utilized the idea of subtext and gave his dancers something to think about during their numbers. He also began the trend of allowing lighting to influence his work and direct the audience's attention to certain things. During Pippin, Fosse made the first ever commercial for a Broadway show.
In 1957, both Verdon and Fosse were studying with Sanford Meisner to develop a better acting technique for themselves. Fosse believed that, “The time to sing is when your emotional level is too high to just speak anymore, and the time to dance is when your emotions are just too strong to only sing about how you feel."[citation needed]
[edit] Marriages/relationships
Fosse was first married to fellow dancer Mary Ann Niles (b. 1923 - d. 1987), then to dancer Joan McCracken from 1951 to 1959. His third wife was dancer/actress Gwen Verdon in 1960; they had one daughter, Nicole Providence Fosse, who is also a dancer. He separated from Verdon in the 1970s, but they remained legally married until his death. Verdon never remarried. He had been romantically involved with, among others, Ann Reinking and Jessica Lange.[citation needed]
[edit] Health
During rehearsals for The Conquering Hero in 1961, it became known that Fosse had epilepsy, because he had a seizure on the stage during a rehearsal.[3]
[edit] Death
Fosse was in Washington D.C. on September 23, 1987, for a revival of his musical Sweet Charity, which was opening at the National Theater. He collapsed in his room at the Willard Hotel at about 7 p.m. as the show was beginning nearby. He was taken to George Washington University where he died of a heart attack at the age of 60.[5] His first wife, Mary Ann Niles, died the following month at the age of 64, and his third (and last) wife, Gwen Verdon, died in 2000, at the age of 75.
[edit] Honors and awards
Fosse earned many awards for his works, including the Tony Award for Pippin and Sweet Charity, the Academy Award for Cabaret and the Emmy Award for Liza with a "Z". He was the first person to win all three awards in the same year (1973).
His semi-autobiographical film, All That Jazz (1979), won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It portrays a chain-smoking choreographer driven by his Type A personality. In 1999, the revue Fosse won a Tony Award for best musical, and in 2001 the show earned Fosse (together with Ann Reinking) a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer.
Bill Henry's 1990 documentary of Fosse's work (Dance In America: Bob Fosse Steam Heat), was produced for an episode of the PBS program Dance in America: Great Performances. The production won an Emmy Award that year.
There was a resurgence of interest in Fosse's work following revivals of his stage shows and the film release of Chicago (2002). Rob Marshall's choreography for the film emulates the Fosse style but avoids using specific moves from the original.
Fosse was inducted into the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York on 27 April 2007. The Los Angeles Dance Awards, founded in 1994, were called the "Fosse Awards", and are now called the American Choreography Awards. A length of Paulina street in Chicago at roughly 4400 north received the honorary designation of Bob Fosse Way.
[edit] Work
[edit] Stage productions
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[edit] Filmography
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[edit] References
- ^ "Hardcover in Brief". The Washington Post. 18 November 1990. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1159456.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-07.
- ^ Cutcher, Jenai (2005). Bob Fosse, The Rosen Publishing Group, ISBN 1404204466, p. 21, 27
- ^ a b c d Gottfried, Martin (1998). All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse. Da Capo Press. pp. 81, 85, 124-125, 130, 139. ISBN 0306808374.
- ^ "That's Dancin:Fosse on Broadway, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying",www.pbs.org
- ^ Irvin Molotsky (1987-09-24). "Bob Fosse, Director and Choreographer, Dies". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEEDC123AF937A1575AC0A961948260. Retrieved on 2008-05-21.
- ^ "Liza with a 'Z". The Internet Movie Database. 2008. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256153. Retrieved on 2009-01-22.
[edit] Further reading
- Beddow, Margery (1996). Bob Fosse's Broadway. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. ISBN 0435070029.
- Grubb, Kevin Boyd (1989). Razzle Dazzle: The Life and Work of Bob Fosse. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312034148.
[edit] External links
- Bob Fosse at Find a Grave
- Bob Fosse at the Internet Broadway Database
- Bob Fosse at the Internet Movie Database
- Fosse.com
- Bob Fosse bio. - "The Guide to Musical Theatre"
- Bob Fosse bio.
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