The Passion of ‘Fosse/Verdon’
The FX limited series ‘Fosse/Verdon’ details the stormy partnership that fueled an iconic choreographer’s work
The FX limited series details the intense and rocky partnership that fueled the iconic directorchoreographer’s body of work.
When we first meet the main characters of FX’s electric new limited series Fosse/ Verdon, stage and screen director-choreographer Bob Fosse (Sam Rockwell) assumes such control over his wife, the dancer Gwen Verdon (Michelle Williams), that he moves her body into the position he wants. She tries it his way, then moments later does her own version. “Yours is better,” he admits.
That scene, along with the use of both their names in the title, makes clear that while Fosse/Verdon will depict the triumphs, tragedies and bad behavior of the legendary Fosse, it will not be yet another stylish celebration of a brilliant but damaged male antihero from a pre-#MeToo era. Yes, Fosse ( Cabaret, Chicago) was a temperamental, philandering genius, but this is the story of a true partnership onstage and off, one that illustrates the many ways in which Verdon ( Damn Yankees) was the uncredited genius behind the cultural icon. In the bigger picture, it’s also about the fact that this dynamic has been present for as long as there have been men and women.
“That’s what Bobby does,” Fosse’s previous wife, actress Joan McCracken (Susan Misner), tells Verdon when they first meet. “He takes what’s special in a girl and makes it his own.”
“That’s what they all do,” Verdon replies.
The eight-episode Fosse/ Verdon comes from a superstar creative team: It is written primarily by Dear Evan Hansen’s Steven Levenson and directed mostly by Hamilton’s Thomas Kail, with Lin-Manuel Miranda and The Americans’
Joel Fields executive-producing. That offscreen talent is as apparent in the early episodes as the dynamite performances by Rockwell and Williams. The storytelling blurs lines between past and present, the couple’s home and work lives, the musicals that made them icons and the traumas that went into the work. It’s all happening at once, in ways that enhance our understanding of Fosse and Verdon as individuals and as a couple, rather than distracting with the “flash” for which Fosse was often derided. The second episode, for instance, features Fosse and Verdon’s tense first meeting, where he teaches her the “Whatever Lola Wants” choreography from Damn Yankees — and she inevitably improves his work as they go along. Soon, the full company is rehearsing the show, intercut with the two of them (both in committed relationships at the time) having sex. There’s no attempt to display the moment when they decide to go from being co-workers to lovers, because it was decided for them in that seductive opening encounter. Everything after is details, best left unspoken in favor of focusing on their messy hearts and minds.
The show has spiritual echoes of Fosse’s semiautobiographical 1979 film, All That Jazz, while stylistically feeling entirely like its own bold thing. There are re-creations of classic moments from their stage and screen work, but these usually focus on what the audience couldn’t see. When Verdon is kept out of Fosse’s movie production of Sweet Charity, despite having starred in the Broadway rendition, we see her not only coaching the dancers but mouthing the words to “Big Spender” as she watches them perform it without her.
Williams and Rockwell seem completely comfortable and credible as dancers; Rockwell is particularly convincing in the way Fosse carries himself even more like a hoofer than his Tonywinning wife, because he can’t let go of his dream of becoming the next Fred Astaire. Fosse’s ever-thinning hair makes it easier to place Rockwell than Williams in the correct era as the story bounces around, but the stars are equal in their intensity and commitment — just as their characters are in creativity and talent. His name may go first in the title, but Fosse/Verdon makes clear how much each needed the other.