Bob Fosse

Choreographer

  • Born: June 23, 1927
  • Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
  • Died: September 23, 1987
  • Place of death: Washington, D.C.

American choreographer and director

Fosse followed Jerome Robbins in the new art specialty of director-choreographer and created major hits for film and theater, such as Chicago in 1975, which featured his famed razzle-dazzle style.

Areas of achievement Theater and entertainment, dance, music, film

Early Life

Bob Fosse (FAH-see) was the son of a vaudeville performer. Even though he was small in stature, had asthma, and suffered from epilepsy (a fact he kept secret until late in life), he began taking dance lessons at age nine, proving to be an exceptional dancer. Before he finished high school he followed his father into the entertainment business. At age thirteen he teamed up with fellow dancer Charles Grass and performed under the name The Riff Brothers. The two young dancers performed in various Chicago-area theaters.

At age fifteen, Fosse choreographed his first musical number for a nightclub act, set to the music of Cole Porter’s “That Old Black Magic.” The routine featured young women in sensual poses wearing and “manipulating” ostrich feathers, marking the first use of what would become Fosse’s famous style of having performers manipulate accessories, such as fans, while striking angular and seductive poses.

Fosse graduated from high school in 1945 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Fosse was assigned to entertainment units and toured naval bases in the Pacific, all the while learning to act, dance, and sing. After his tour in the Navy he went to acting school for two years, and in 1948 he got a role in a touring company for Call Me Mister. By this time he had married and divorced the dancer Mary Ann Niles. After Call Me Mister closed, he moved, with his new wife, dancer Joan McCracken, to Los Angeles in 1954, hoping to find work in film. He obtained bit parts in three films: Give a Girl a Break, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis, and Kiss Me, Kate. In the latter film, he choreographed a short dance sequence that brought him to the attention of several Broadway producers, including George Abbott.

Life’s Work

Fosse’s choreography for Abbott’s 1954 Broadway production The Pajama Game made Fosse a powerful new force in theatrical entertainment. In particular the musical number “Steam Heat” showed audiences that a choreographer with an entirely different and compelling kinetic vision had appeared. The Pajama Game won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and Fosse won a Tony Award for his choreography. The show ran until 1956, the same year the film was made. Fosse’s choreography for the film, namely the musical number “Steam Heat,” excited audiences across the nation.

By this time Fosse had created choreography for the 1955 Broadway hit, Damn Yankees, featuring Gwen Verdon, the great musical star and dancer who was to marry Fosse. The couple had a daughter, Nicole, who would also become a professional dancer. Verdon, who sang the hit “What Lola Wants, Lola Gets,” won a Tony Award for Damn Yankees, and Fosse also won a Tony, his second, for the choreography. In 1955 Fosse found himself quite busy. Immediately following the success of Damn Yankees he traveled to Hollywood to choreograph and act in the musical film My Sister Eileen.

In 1956, Fosse also choreographed the Broadway production of Comden and Green’s The Bells Are Ringing. The later years of the 1950’s included choreography for the 1958 film version of Damn Yankees and choreography for two Broadway productions: New Girl in Town and Red Head. It was for the latter musical that Fosse assumed the functions of both choreographer and director. This was a new specialty for artists in musical theater, a speciality initiated by Jerome Robbins, who served as director-choreographer for West Side Story (1957).

In the 1960’s, Fosse acted as director-choreographer for two major shows: Little Me and Sweet Charity, the latter of which won the Pulitzer Prize in literature and also earned for Fosse another Tony Award for choreography. In addition, Fosse choreographed the film version of Sweet Charity. It was in the following decade, however, that Fosse’s career came into full flower.

In 1972, Fosse directed the musical film Cabaret, for which he won an Oscar, and in the same year was director-choreographer and co-librettist for Broadway’s Pippin. Two years later, Fosse returned to Hollywood to direct Dustin Hoffman in Lenny, which was nominated for six Oscars. In 1974, he also did choreography for the film The Little Prince, in which he performed the snake dance.

In 1975, Fosse reached the pinnacle of his career with the great classic musical Chicago. Chicago, written, directed, and choreographed by Fosse, starred Verdon, Chita Rivera, and Jerry Orbach. The dancing was classic Fosse, particularly in such numbers as “All That Jazz,” “Mr. Cellophane,” and “Razzle-Dazzle.” Indeed, it was the term “razzle-dazzle” that became the identifying phrase for the Fosse style of dancing. In 1997, after Fosse’s death, Chicago was revived on Broadway, winning the Tony Award for Best Revival, and it continued to run for more than ten years. The musical was also made into a multiple-Oscar-winning and Golden Globe-winning film in 2002, starring Renée Zelwegger and Catherine Zeta-Jones. There is no doubt of Chicago’s enduring excellence and wide-ranging artistic impact.

Following the triumph of Chicago, Fosse acted as director-choreographer for two more Broadway shows: Dancin’ in 1978 and Big Deal, which he also wrote, in 1986. Big Deal received mixed critical reviews but did feature the tune that became a classic, “Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar.” In 1979, Fosse borrowed another highly popular phrase from Chicago, “all that jazz,” and used it as the title for the semiautobiographical film that he directed. All That Jazz won four Oscars, including the Best Director award for Fosse. In 1980 it won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Fosse’s artistic contributions began to diminish after the success of All That Jazz. In addition to Broadway’s Big Deal, he wrote and directed the 1983 film Star 80, which received generally poor reviews but has a cult following. In 1987, during a revival of Sweet Charity in Washington, D.C., Fosse suffered a heart attack and died. He was survived by his wife and daughter. In his honor a street in his hometown Chicago is named Bob Fosse Way.

Significance

Along with Robbins, Fosse created the new theater artistic specialty known as director-choreographer. He innovated the use of dance and song as the fundamental structural elements of musicals. Singing and dancing communicated the intent and meaning of his productions. His style grew out of jazz but was unique for its time. It featured pelvic thrusts, splayed fingers, backward leans, bowler hats, and white gloves. Wrists were cocked, elbows were up, and hats were always tipped to one side. Women’s legs were usually covered in fishnet stockings.

Fosse’s directing revealed his fine knowledge of kinetic design, as well as strong insight into the art of acting, which he had studied and practiced since an early age. In later life he consulted with Sanford Meisner at New York’s famed Actors Studio. He always urged his singers to approach the song as if it were a special piece of dialogue and to study deeply the emotion underlying the song. He felt that emotional involvement in the lyrics was fundamental to singing.

The effectiveness of Fosse’s approach is evident in his winning nine Tony Awards for Broadway shows, an Academy Award for film directing, and an Emmy Award for his television show Liza with a Z. Indeed, in 1999 the Broadway musical Fosse, featuring all his famous musical numbers, opened, playing for 1,011 performances.

Bibliography

Beddow, Margery. Bob Fosse’s Broadway. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1996. A show-by-show analysis by a dancer who appeared in numerous Fosse productions. This work is especially interesting and useful for practicing dancers and choreographers.

Martin, Gottfried. All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse. New York: Bantam Books, 1990. A solid, highly detailed, and interesting biography of the great theater artist.

Wilmeth, Don B., and Christopher Bigsby. Post World War II to the 1990’s. Vol. 3 in The Cambridge History of American Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Fosse’s contributions to American theater are detailed throughout this thorough history. He is especially noted for his development of the new director-choreographer art form.

Wilmeth, Don B., and Tice L. Miller. Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. A long and informative entry on Fosse is included in this important reference volume. Also covers most of his Broadway productions.

1901-1940: 1930-1935: Von Sternberg Makes Dietrich a Superstar.

1941-1970: 1944-1957: Kelly Forges New Directions in Cinematic Dance; March 2, 1965: The Sound of Music Captivates Audiences; April 26, 1970: Broadway’s First “Concept” Musical Premieres.

1971-2000: June 10, 1982: Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy Meets with Unexpected Success.