Fosse/Verdon
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The answers in the title.
Williams brings an often-overlooked entertainer back to life.
Life Is a Cabaret starts in the middle of theFosse/Verdonstory.
Well, actually, it starts and ends in the final minutes of Bob Fosses life.
We see him directing the 1969 movie adaptation ofSweet Charity.
We see him at aSweet Charitypremiere party, realizing that the pictures going to bomb.
The original production ofSweet Charitywas the apotheosis of Fosse and Verdons Broadway years.
It was Gwens comeback show after she took time off to have Bobs baby.
But the movie got away from them.
Universal Pictures poured $20 million into this project, but in 1969 1969!
Fosse or at least Rockwells Fosse pretended in public that the flop didnt matter.
But it burned him up that he didnt fail on his own terms.
This time, he was determined to make somethingtrue.
Life Is a Cabaret doesnt get to the part of the story whereCabaretbecomes an Oscar-winning blockbuster.
Nor is it especially heavy on backstory or context.
(Am I going to be unhappy when I get there?
she asks before she agrees to come over.)
I just know how to speak Bob, she laughs.
Whats exciting about this first episode ofFosse/Verdonis that it looks like this miniseries is also going to speak Gwen.
Once more, from the top …
I say this episode doesnt overexplain things to the audience, but its not without some clunk.
Thats some bad biopic stuff.
Thats a good discussion to have, and one Ill be exploring more in the weeks to come.
This first episode, Id say, splits the difference pretty well.
I hope the rest of the series maintains this kind of character complexity.
Itd be irresponsible to ignore that Fosse was a jerk to women.
Ill have more to say about this in future reviews.
