Fosse/Verdon
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What if meeting Gwen Verdon was the bestandthe worst thing ever to happen to Bob Fosse?
They replace the usual years remaining countdown with a rapidly increasing ticker ofCabarets box office take.
… Ifyourebullshit, and theyre giving you an award,theyrebullshit.
She doesnt have to visit your hotel room to get the solo.
This is a more nuanced take on Gwen Verdon than the typical spurned-lover routine.
But theres more to Verdons story here than just her preying on her loutish husbands worst impulses.
More importantly, we see the frustrating power imbalance in her relationship with Bob.
Yes, he makes her feel needed justly when he asks her to help him fine-tune some of hisPippinnumbers.
But he doesnt return the favor when she asks him to use his clout to help saveChildren!
Children!from becoming a disaster.
Fosse comes off more callous and cruel in Glory than he has in any of the previous threeFosse/Verdonepisodes.
Glory does gets a little more granular withPippin, showing Bob micro-managing the dancers movements and expressions.
Just the mouth, not the eyes!)
Instead, he hit the jackpot, three times over.
The special hadnt been seen in decades, and for a time was thought lost.
I doubt very many of the people at the Elgin Theatre that afternoon had seen the show.
(I sure hadnt.
I wouldve been about 2 or 3 years old the last time NBC had rerun it.)
The place went bonkers when Minnelli walked onto the stage.
Reader, I was in tears by the end.
(Oh who am I kidding?
I was in tears by the middle, when Liza hit the twist ending of Ring Them Bells.)
That awful show that Joan Simon refers to in her conversation with Gwen about their time being pregnant together?
Its been revived a few times since then, and has fans.
DuringPippinrehearsals, while guzzling too many Tabs, Nicole Fosse is reading a Nancy Drew mystery.
The title?The Clue of the Dancing Puppet, of course.
