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Nicole Fosse is dancing with memories.
Nicole choreographed the number with a disarming naturalism that belies its layers.
I always danced with my father in the living room, Nicole says.
He did lifts with me, and he would twirl me around, and wed laugh and giggle.
Hed [direct] me like he would a dancers body, like, Put your leg over here.
Do this, do that.
The father-daughter number onFosse/Verdonmirrors some of the movements and lines fromAll That Jazz, but the feeling is different.
This dance creates a moment of detente and mutual respect in a relationship thats otherwise awkward and distrustful.
Fosse/Verdonis filled with scenes like this, which allude to and critically annotate Fosse and Verdons art.
and he says, No, its candy.
You cant have one.
She says, Well, if its candy, how come I cant have one?
And I said, Well, I have two brains.
I have my child brain that does not notice that that is odd behavior.
And then the mature woman part of me steps in and says, No, thats not okay.
Thats hurtful and harmful.
But shes mostly stayed away from biographies of Bob Fosse and theater histories that mention her family.
She changed her mind and decided to take an active role inFosse/Verdonfor two reasons.
She wanted to participate in sculpting that version.
Second, and most important, she wanted to be sure that her mothers story was given equal weight.
There had already been multiple accounts of her fathers life plus a cinematic autobiography but nothing on Gwen Verdon.
As of this moment, theres not even a biography of her.
The production design, set decoration, and costumes turned the experience into even more of a memory trip.
My first day on set was when they were filming a party in our living room.
That set wasexactlymy living room.
Like that one fit of rage of my mothers.
Even with a general commitment to accuracy, there were compressions and omissions.
I hope most of the changes we made are permissible, like in good historical fiction.
Another bond that Nicole shared with her mother is the trauma of losing a husband.
Gwen quickly moved in to help her, only to die eight weeks later.
I think she died of a broken heart, she says.
I know how that sounds, but how else can you explain it?
I dont know where the present ends and the past begins.
Or maybe its the other way around, I dont know.
