Fosse/Verdon: Legends Playing Legends

Bob Fosse was one of the greatest creative forces in history. One of the most astounding choreographers and directors in the history of dance, his resume includes such iconic shows as Damn Yankees, Sweet Charity, Chicago and Pippin, to mention just his biggest hits. His work outside the stage was limited, but no less spectacular: three of the five movies he directed earned him Oscar nods, and he is remains the only man in history to win an Emmy, an Oscar and a Tony in the same year.

Fosse was also an obsessive perfectionist, a philanderer and a drug addict. His two previous marriages ended after he left his wife for someone he was working with in a show he was directed. Never was this more clear when Fosse left his dying second wife, for another Broadway legend, Gwen Verdon. Verdon was considered one of the greatest musical forces in her own right – in addition to her iconic role as Lola in Damn Yankees, she was at the center of Can-Can, Redhead, and Sweet Charity. When their paths crossed in Damn Yankees, one of the most legendary collaborative forces in history was born, and that is what is at the center of FX’s limited series, Fosse/Verdon.

Based on Fosse’s biography, and blessed by Fosse’s daughter Nicole (who is seen as a child in the series), Fosse/Verdon’s greatest failing is that it tries to do far too much. What it wants to illustrate, and has done so rather successfully in the first three episodes, is that Bob Fosse was a total mess, capable of having great visions for his art, but utterly incapable of putting them into practice, capable of incredible darkness and depression, and impossible to work with. The argument seems to be that without Gwen, he wouldn’t have been capable of producing such masterpieces. We see in the first episode, where Fosse basically relies on Verdon to figure out the motions for dance numbers in the movie version of Sweet Charity and how to physically walk through the editing process of Cabaret.

It’s also clear that this was a draining process on Verdon, who saw her star go into eclipse in the late 60s, mainly when she began to serve as the mother to Fosse’s children. It became increasingly clear in last night’s episode when she is called to audition for a ‘straight’ play, and has a hard time getting along with the writer and everyone else.

The series has the capability of singing in many places, but I honestly wonder why the production staff keep flashing back and forward throughout the title characters lives, as if to say : “Yes, this is peak TV.” This is such an intriguing story in its own right, and one wonders why a more linear setting wouldn’t have made it more affected. However, it all holds together magnificently thanks to title leads: Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams.

Rockwell is one of the great character actors of our time, and he seems to have the inner despair of Fosse nailed down to the science, as well as the ability to dance and leap in the same motions that would become forever associated with him. And Williams, arguably the most undervalued actress working today, is extraordinary in her return to television. One hesitates to use such a cliché as ‘Michelle Williams is Gwen Verdon’, but considering that this an actress who did the first real emotional portrayal of Marilyn Monroe that didn’t have a cliché in it, Williams seems to inhabit the body of this legend in a way that you wouldn’t expect, performing with the chameleon like abilities one associates with Streep or Fonda – and it seems certain that we now have to consider Williams at that level. In one of the best scenes in the series so far, Fosse and Verdon have their initial meeting at the early rehearsals of Damn Yankees. In a ten-minute sequence, they walk their way through the opening number, slowly getting to know each other, and taking the measure of each other, in a scene that is equal parts skepticism and flirtation. By the time its over, we know that in a sense they are already soulmates. Williams and Rockwell have now leapt to the forefront of an already crowded Emmy field.

This is a sorrowful and joyful series all at once, much like the lives of the title characters. I’m not certain whether Fosse/Verdon deserves to be considered among the great limited series of the 2018-2019 season – its too disorganized for that – but as a portrait of two legends – one world famous, and one mostly forgotten – it has definitely succeeded. Life wasn’t a cabaret for either of these two, but without the other, it would’ve been a lot worse.

My score: 4.25 stars.