Best Known As: The choreographer of Sweet Charity and other Broadway shows
As a choreographer, Bob Fosse changed the course of Broadway musicals with his distinctively slinky, sexy style of dancing. Then he developed into a multimedia triple threat: in 1973 he won an Academy Award for directing the movie Cabaret (which also won a best actress Oscar for Liza Minnelli), three Emmy awards for directing, producing and choreographing Minelli's TV special Liza With a Z, and two Tony Awards for directing and choreographing the Broadway show Pippin. That feat is, so far, unmatched. Fosse's other hit Broadway shows included Sweet Charity (1965), Chicago (1975) and Dancin' (1978). Fosse was married three times, most famously to his dance partner Gwen Verdon, and was also famous for his extramarital womanizing and freewheeling lifestyle. He told his own story in the semi-autobiographical movie All That Jazz (1979). A 1998 revue, Fosse, collected his most famous dance works into one show.
Fosse died of a heart attack in Washington D.C. during the run of a revival of his 1965 show Sweet Charity... A 2002 film version of Chicago won the Academy Award as the year's best picture; it was directed by Rob Marshall and starred Renee Zellweger as Roxie Hart, the role originated by Verdon.
Fosse, [Robert Louis] Bob (1927–87), choreographer and director. Born in Chicago, he began dancing professionally at the age of fourteen and later appeared in the choruses of several Broadway musicals before choreographing The Pajama Game (1954). Fosse was immediately recognized as a fresh, imaginative talent, whose style leaned heavily on clever, angular groupings and showed a marked debt to urban street dancing. He later did the dances for, among others, Damn Yankees (1955), New Girl in Town (1957), How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1961), and Little Me (1962). Fosse served as both director and choreographer for Redhead (1959), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), Chicago (1977), Dancin' (1978), and Big Deal (1986). He sometimes returned to performing, as when he played the title role in a 1963 City Center revival of Pal Joey. The dance musical Fosse (1999) was a compilation of his work re‐created by others after his death. Biography: All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse, Martin Gottfried, 1990.
First Major Screen Credit: Give a Girl A Break (1953)
Biography
Though he was physically "wrong" as a dancer, Bob Fosse never let those limitations impede his artistic ambition. Molding his own imperfections into a distinct, sinuous style, Fosse left his mark on Broadway and brought an innovative dimension of sophistication and sensual energy to the movie musical in such films as Cabaret (1972) and All That Jazz (1979).
Born in Chicago, Fosse began dance lessons at age nine. Though physically small and asthmatic, Fosse was a dance prodigy; by high school, he was already an experienced hoofer in Chicago's burlesque scene. After spending two years in the Navy, Fosse moved to New York in 1947. Finding work in the show Call Me Mister, Fosse and fellow dancer/first wife Mary Ann Niles began performing as a couple after Call Me Mister closed, with Fosse choreographing their routines. After meeting his second wife, dancer Joan McCracken, in 1950, Fosse began studying acting and dance at the American Theater Wing. With pigeon toes and slouching posture, Fosse hardly fit the dance ideal so he focused more on rhythm and style to make up for what he lacked physically. Spotted by a talent scout for MGM in 1952, Fosse headed to Hollywood to become a musical star.
Though he displayed sufficient charm in Give a Girl a Break (1953) and The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), Fosse became disillusioned with Hollywood. Before he left, however, Fosse was given the chance to choreograph his brief pas de deux with Carol Haney in the screen version of Kiss Me Kate (1953). Based on his 48 seconds of sleek, jazzy moves in Kate's "From This Moment On," Fosse was hired to choreograph Jerome Robbins and George Abbott's 1954 Broadway production The Pajama Game. After winning the Tony for choreography, Fosse re-teamed with Abbott and Robbins for 1955's Damn Yankees, devising a then-shocking "striptease" to "Whatever Lola Wants" for his eventual third wife, Gwen Verdon. Between these shows, Fosse returned to Hollywood to co-star in and choreograph My Sister Eileen (1955). His first feature-length stint designing dances for film, Fosse made the most of the widescreen, particularly in his ebullient "Challenge Dance." Fosse's gift for merging film and dance was confirmed with the hit adaptations of The Pajama Game (1957) and Damn Yankees (1958). While The Pajama Game's exuberant outdoor number "Once a Year Day" revealed Fosse's ability to stage a dance over expansive locations, "Steam Heat" became a primer for the Fosse vocabulary of knock-knees, forward-thrust hips, hats, and wrist-snaps. Damn Yankees gave Verdon her only starring turn in a movie musical; the snappy "Who's Got the Pain" mambo was Fosse's only screen appearance dancing with Verdon.
Fosse, however, stuck with Broadway until the late '60s, choreographing and then directing eight musicals between 1956 and 1966, including New Girl in Town and Bells Are Ringing. After making his directorial debut with the Verdon hit Redhead in 1959, Fosse did double duties on the smash How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and the Federico Fellini-meets-Broadway hit Sweet Charity.
Returning to films with the choreography for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967), Fosse agreed to adapt Sweet Charity (1969) if he could direct. With former Pajama Game understudy Shirley MacLaine replacing Verdon as the optimistic hooker Charity, Fosse effectively translated such show stoppers as the rooftop jaunt "There's Got to Be Something Better Than This" and dancehall come-on "Hey Big Spender" to the CinemaScope screen. The dramatic parts, however, were not impressive and Sweet Charity failed.
Fosse got another shot at movie-directing when a neophyte producer hired him to adapt Cabaret (1972). Shooting on location in Germany, restricting most of the songs and all of the dances to the cramped Kit Kat Club stage and hiring dancers who looked the part of decadent Berlinites, Fosse gave the film an authentically grungy atmosphere that enhanced the story's dark intimations of the impending Third Reich. Anchored by impressive performances from Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles and Joel Grey as the emcee, Cabaret became a critical and popular hit and garnered Oscars for Minnelli and Grey and Best Director for Fosse. 1972 became a historic year for Fosse when he also won the Best Director Tony for the sexy rock musical Pippin and a Best Director Emmy for the TV special Liza With a "Z" (1972).
After co-choreographing and dancing in the film version of The Little Prince (1974), Fosse took on non-musical film drama with his next directorial effort, Lenny (1974). Starring Dustin Hoffman as trail-blazing foul-mouthed comedian Lenny Bruce and newcomer Valerie Perrine as his stripper wife, Lenny was a resolutely downbeat treatment of Bruce's rise and precipitous fall that earned accolades and Oscar nominations for Fosse and his stars. Fosse's work and personal habits, however, caught up with him before Lenny's release, when he suffered a heart attack and underwent open-heart surgery in late 1974. The following year, Chicago, Fosse's last musical collaboration with now-estranged wife Verdon, became yet another hit. Fosse turned his 1974 crisis into material for his next film, the Fellini-esque musical All That Jazz (1979). Starring Roy Scheider as a hard-living director-choreographer juggling women and work, All That Jazz amounted to Fosse's requiem for his own demise, complete with Jessica Lange as an ethereal angel of death, an elaborately imagined danse macabre, and onscreen open-heart surgery. Though some deemed All That Jazz self-indulgent, the Academy acknowledged Fosse's chutzpah with another Oscar nomination.
His onscreen death a tad premature, Fosse returned to straight drama with Star 80 (1983). A sordid biopic chronicling the brief life of murdered Playmate Dorothy Stratten, Star 80 proved too unpleasant for popular acceptance. Returning to Broadway, Fosse unsuccessfully adapted the Italian comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) as Big Deal in 1985. Working until the end, Fosse passed away with appropriate theatricality when he was felled by a heart attack shortly after the curtain went up on his revival of Sweet Charity in 1987. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Legendary director/choreographer Bob Fosse (1927-1987) is known for hits such as "Sweet Charity", with its trademark jazzy number, "Hey Big Spender," and Cabaret.
Bob Fosse began his unusual career as a dancer in the late 1940s, touring with companies of Call Me Mister and Make Mine Manhattan. After playing the lead in a summer-stock production of Pal Joey, then choreographing a showcase called Talent 52, Fosse was given a screen test by M-G-M and went on to appear in the film Kiss Me Kate (1953). This appearance, in a highly original dance number, led to Fosse's first job as a choreographer, the Jerome Robbins-directed Broadway hit The Pajama Game (1954). Soon after, he met the talented dancer Gwen Verdon, and the two proceeded to collaborate on several hit shows, including Damn Yankees (1955, film 1958), New Girl in Town (1957), and Redhead (1959). (Fosse and Verdon married soon after.) He was also frequently sought out as the "doctor" on shows in trouble, especially How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Little Me (both 1962).
Choreography Showcased Unique Style
Fosse's best collaboration with Verdon, Sweet Charity (1966, film 1969), demonstrated their perfect compatibility as a creative team and also flaunted his trademark style as a choreographer. Strongly influenced by choreographer Jack Cole, Fosse staged dance numbers that were highly stylized, using staccato movements and erotic suggestion. The "Steam Heat" number from The Pajama Game and "Hey Big Spender" from Sweet Charity were trademark Fosse numbers - jazzy, machinelike motion and cocky, angular, even grotesque poses. He favored style over substance (his patented knee slides and spread-finger hands), and mini-malistic costuming (all black, accentuated by hats and gloves). A perfectionist, Fosse liked detail in his choreography and would position his dancers down to the angles of their feet or their little fingers. As his career progressed, Fosse became increasingly fascinated with expressing sexuality and decadence through dance.
Had Hit with Cabaret
Fosse's peak year was 1973. In addition to his Cabaret Oscar, he nabbed Tonys for his direction and choreography of the Broadway musical Pippin, the eerily magical and sexually decadent story of the son of King Charlemagne on a journey of self-discovery. Like Cabaret, Pippin featured exaggerated, grotesque makeup and costuming and erotic dance numbers. Fosse's experiment - to place the story and music at the service of choreography - paid off when Pippin (helped by a television advertising campaign) became Fosse's longest-running Broadway show. That same year he won an Emmy for directing and choreographing Minnelli's television special Liza with a Z, which garnered high ratings and featured groundbreaking production numbers. In 1973 Fosse seemed to be everywhere.
Heart Attack Led to Autobiographical Film
In Lenny (1974), an exploration of the life of controversial comic Lenny Bruce, Fosse experimented with a mock-documentary filmmaking style. He identified with Bruce's attempt to liberate inhibited audiences with shocking and challenging material. Fosse suffered a heart attack while editing Lenny and rehearsing the successful Broadway musical Chicago (1975), which starred Verdon as notorious murderess Roxie Hart. Chicago was a cynical, stylized homage to 1920s-era burlesque and vaudeville. In the fascinating but disturbing film All That Jazz (1979), he used the heart attack (including a filmed bypass operation) to kill off the main character, an obsessive, womanizing, workaholic director clearly based on Fosse. His other 1970s stage musical was the innovative Dancin' (1978), which featured three acts constructed purely of dance numbers, eliminating story, song, and characters.
Fosse's work in the 1980s received mixed responses. His film Star 80 (1983) explored the violent, obsessive relationship between Playboy-model-turned-actress Dorothy Stratten and Paul Snider, the husband who brutally murdered her in 1980. Audiences and critics did not respond to the tough, gruesome subject matter. Nor did they appear to enjoy the jazz ballet Big Deal (1986), Fosse's last Broadway show. A revival of Sweet Charity in 1986 was more successful, but just as the touring company was about to be launched, Fosse died of a heart attack on 23 September 1987.
Further Reading
Martin Gottfried, All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse (New York: Bantam Books, 1990).
Kevin Boyd Grubb, Razzle Dazzle: The Life and Work of Bob Fosse (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989).
(born June 23, 1927, Chicago, Ill., U.S. — died Sept. 23, 1987, Washington, D.C.) U.S. theatre and film choreographer and director. Born into a vaudeville family, Fosse began dancing professionally at age 13. He won his first Tony Award for choreographing the Broadway musical The Pajama Game (1954) and went on to win six more Tonys for his choreography, which was known for its sensuality, precision, and jazz sensibility. His later hit shows included Damn Yankees (1955) and Sweet Charity (1966) — both starring his wife, Gwen Verdon (1925 — 2000) — as well as Pippin (1973) and Dancin' (1978). He directed the film musical Cabaret (1972, Academy Award); his film All That Jazz (1979) was a thinly disguised autobiography.
Fosse, Bob (b Chicago, 23 June 1927, d Washington, DC, 23 Sept. 1987). US dancer, choreographer, and producer. The son of vaudeville performers he danced in burlesque from the age of 13 and performed as the opening act of striptease shows at 17. In 1940 he formed a night-club team with Charles Gross called the Riff Brothers and began choreographing for amateur productions. He made his debut as a Broadway dancer in 1950 and established himself as a professional choreographer with the musical The Pajama Game (1953, filmed 1957). With his provocative jazzy style, and unsentimental, even acid tone, he became one of the most sought-after choreographers of musicals and films and a profound influence on succeeding generations of theatre choreographers. In his later works he was director and choreographer, including Sweet Charity (1966), Cabaret (the film, 1971), Chicago (1975), and Dancin' (1978). His film All that Jazz (1979) was a frankly autobiographical portrayal of a workaholic Broadway director with a heart problem and it featured his most aggressively erotic dance number Airotica. In 1986 he wrote, staged, and choreographed his final musical, Big Deal. A compilation of his greatest dance numbers was presented in the Broadway show Fosse (dir. Tod Haimes, 1999).
Fosse, Bob (Robert Louis Fosse) (fô'sē, fŏs'ē), 1927–87, American choreographer and director, b. Chicago. Fosse first appeared on Broadway in Dance Me a Song (1950). He choreographed dances for The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), and Pippin (1972). He also directed and choreographed the film Sweet Charity (1966) and the supposedly autobiographical All That Jazz (1979). In 1972, he became the only director to win an Academy Award (Cabaret), a Tony Award (Pippin) and an Emmy Award (“Liza with a Z”) in the same year.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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]
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]
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]
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.
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.
