The electricity of one of Broadway’s greatest talents springs to life in Fosse, a tribute to the man behind such favorites as Cabaret, Chicago, Sweet Charity, and Pippin. A seductive mixture of physically aggressive dance moves and dazzling visual style, Bob Fosse’s approach to theater revolutionized how we experience music and dance, while his mixture of cynicism and sentiment remains timely decades after his death. Join one of Fosse’s most gifted collaborators, Ann Reinking, as she and a wild, gyrating cast take you through such memorable standards as “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries,” “Steam Heat,” “Mein Herr,” and the unforgettable “Big Spender.” So pull up a seat, put on your dancin’ shoes, and get ready for a tune-studded show guaranteed to deliver plenty of “Razzle Dazzle!” Songs: Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, Bye Bye Blackbird, From the Edge, Percussion 4, Big Spender, Crunchy Granola Suite, From This Moment On, Transition/Dance Elements, I Wanna Be a Dancin’ Man, Shoeless Joe Ballet, Dancing in the Dark, Steam Heat, I Gotcha, Rich Man’s Frug, Silly Thoughts, Cool Hand Luke, Nowadays, The Hot Honey Rag, Glory, Manson Trio, Mein Herr, Take Off with Us/Three Pas de Deux, Razzle Dazzle, Who’s Sorry Now, There’ll Be Some Changes Made, Mr. Bojangles, Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries (reprise), Sing Sing Sing. 118 minutes. The 1999 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Fosse celebrates the work of director-choreographer Bob Fosse, one of Broadway’s and film’s truly innovative and distinctive talents. While Fosse’s protégé Ann Reinking (also the co-choreographer) and frequent collaborator Ben Vereen are the headliners, the dance revue was conceived as an ensemble piece, so the 32-member cast gets plenty of chances to shine. The nearly two-hour performance features re-creations of dazzling numbers from such milestones as Cabaret (“Mein Herr”), Chicago (“Nowadays”), Sweet Charity (“Big Spender”), The Pajama Game (“Steam Heat”), Dancin’ (“I Wanna Be a Dancin’ Man”), and All That Jazz (“There’ll Be Some Changes Made,” among others, but not the stunning “On Broadway” sequence). Reinking, Vereen, and another Fosse collaborator, cast member Dana Moore, also share their memories in interview segments. Filmed in live performance, Fosse stands as a memorial to one man’s striking vision, an essential record of many classic routines, and simply a whole lot of fun to watch. –David Horiuchi
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May 4, 2010
#1
“Fosse,” one of Broadway’s biggest sensations of the late 1990s, is a mixed blessing when captured on film.
Having never seen the show on stage (given the choice, I opted for the ‘other’ Fosse show, “Chicago,”) I wasn’t too sure what I was in store for. The evening kicked off with Ben Vereen, one of Broadway’s more lackluster stars, standing behind a skrim singing “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries.” Thankfully, his voice is not as painfully strained as it is in the “Pippin” DVD, but it’s still obviously not the most fitting duo.
Following the almost down-beat opening number is a quirky and fast-paced dance, in which Ann Reinking is introduced. One of the main reasons “Fosse” interested me was because Ms. Reinking would be appearing. Sadly, her top-billing is misleading. Other than her poignant and insightful interviews used as “Intermissions,” she is grossly underused. Appearing at the end of the second number, then again in [the sensationally done] “Big Spender,” she disappears until curtain call. I can’t decide if the show itself suffered from the ironically present-yet-absent status of Bob Fosse’s protogé, but my interest sure did. She easily could have stepped into “Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag” from Chicago, or “Sing, Sing, Sing” – both of which, the second to a grander degree, contributed to her star power.
Even more disappointing is the over-use of the over-rated Ben Vereen. Comparing his vocal power on the original recording of “Pippin” (his ‘star-making’ show) to this simply goes to show he’s passed his prime. His dancing leaves something to be desired as well.
Next on the list of debatable points is the costuming. Obviously taking its cues from “Chicago” in this department, there is an abundence of cynical (if not sin-ical) little back dresses and tight black shirts. This sort of costuming doesn’t do its best to capture Fosse’s original style, for the most part. Looking back of ’75′s original “Chicago,” it’s easy to see that the costuming was gaudy, if not over the top. The only numbers that satisfied me in costuming were “Big Spender” and “Shoeless Joe From Hanibal, Mo.”
Thankfully, the saving grace of the show is exactly what it celebrates: Dancing. From the first rhythmic step taken on the stage in “Fosse’s World” to the exhilerating finale of “Sing, Sing, Sing!” there is little doubt that Fosse was indeed one of Broadway’s most gifted choerographers. The chic style of these dances, so wonderfully recreated by the aforementioned Ann Reinking, save this show from being a complete and utter waste. However, the only downfall is that these dances, collected from works spread out over an entire career, can at times feel repetitious if not identical.
In conclusion, this show has its heart in the right place, but the lack of Ann Reinking, abundance of Ben Vereen, underuse of costuming and perhaps overuse of big show stopping numbers keeps the arrow from hitting the mark.
May 4, 2010
#2
When I first started watching Fosse, they start out with “Liza With a Z”, and I was thinking to myself, “Oh, my gosh, what have I got myself into?” See, I wasn’t too impressed with it, and I was sort of shocked at how my expectations of this DVD were so different from what it really was. Then a little later I was thinking, “At least the dude likes pretty women in skimpy tops, so the dude can’t be all bad.” Then I realized all the guys had skimpy tops on, too; so I was thinking that the Fosse guy was a little androgynous, or maybe, you know, bisexual. And I was thinking, “Why do they have to sing such an old-fashioned song, like Bye Bye Blackbird? Whatever happened to originality?” At the end of the Liza thing people in the audience clapped. I wouldn’t have clapped for it.
The choreography in Liza seemed more the work of someone suffering from a psychosis, rather than the work of a dance genius. And I was thinking, “The dancing in this DVD is as bad as, or worse than, ‘Step Up 2 The Streets’.”
Then the thing about Sweet Charity started, and I was like, “Well, let’s hope this is better,” but it was just an amateurish Pussycat Dolls-type routine.
Than “Dancin’” started, and I was surprised that the guy could still get a job on Broadway after the fiascoes & disaster of the first two shows. He still had his signature move of pretty girls in skimpy tops, but at least by this time the guys have their shirts on. Then after a while the DVD does another number from Dancin’. The guys are fully dressed; but, unfortunately, so are the girls. That Fosse guy sure liked girls and the guys to dress alike, and I was thinking, “Can’t he ever think of a dance number with less than two dozen people on stage?”
I was shocked and appalled when at one point the “dance” consisted of people playing patty-cake with themselves. Do people in New York really pay to watch this stuff? Maybe I should write choreography of people playing patty-cake with themselves, and I’ll win a Tony….
Act Two starts with dancing to Damn Yankees, but the dancing looks awfully old-fashioned or run-of-the-mill.
The Fosse guy certainly wasn’t much of an innovator. Probably nobody would accuse him of being before his time.
And then we get the song “Dancing in the Dark”. Isn’t that (like Bye Bye Blackbird) an old-fashioned song?
Eventually we come to a bit of dancing to The Pajama Game, and it’s appalling that people– the men and the women– are doing a Jimmy Durante imitation.
This DVD perhaps goes on and on with somewhat curious and mystifying blandness and mediocrity. There’s a dance number that was purportedly on the Bob Hope Special, but, frankly, I didn’t think it was a very good dance routine.
At one point in this DVD a woman dances, and she tries to flop her hair around. That ordinarily could be very sexy, but in order for that to be effective, it helps to have long hair but the woman’s hair is too short and too curly. It was amateurish & incompetent that the woman and the choreographer didn’t know that.
Apparently there was a road show version of this Fosse show in L.A. a few years back, and at the time I wanted to go see it, but now I feel less guilty that I never saw it.
I love watching dance movies and dance shows, like Flashdance, Dirty Dancing, Dancing With the Stars, and others, but perhaps I only like a narrow bandwidth of dancing. Perhaps some people will like this dance DVD, but it wasn’t me.
May 4, 2010
#3
I’m reviewing FOSSE from a position of relative ignorance about the man and his achievements. Hey, it’s never stopped me before.
FOSSE records a live-audience performance of the musical, which is a compendium of selections from various other Broadway productions which Bob Fosse choreographed: “Big Deal”, “Liza with A Z”, “Dancin’”, “Sweet Charity”, “Kiss Me, Kate”, “Damn Yankees”, “Pajama Game”, “Chicago”, “Pippin”, “Cabaret”, and “All That Jazz”. I’ve never seen any of them performed live on stage, but only the screen versions of DAMN YANKEES (1958) AND CHICAGO (2002). Obviously, I need to get out more.
The musical “Fosse” was, by the way, not choreographed by the great man himself. He’s dead. Rather, the dance numbers were re-choreographed by Ann Reinking, Fosse’s protege and girlfriend, with the participation of an aging Ben Vereen, one of Fosse’s favorite performers. Between acts, the two are interviewed about Bob’s style and work ethic.
The only production I’ve ever seen in which Bob Fosse had a hand was the excellent 1979 film ALL THAT JAZZ, an autobiographical piece which he directed. From it, and the Reinking and Vereen recollections, I gather that Fosse was a hard-driving perfectionist, and infer that the musical “Fosse” would not have come up to his exacting standards. In many instances, the dance numbers seemed, to my inexpert eye, sloppily done. Vereen’s presence in several of them, while appealing to the nostalgia of the audience, did him no particular credit. But, that’s show biz, folks.
Two songs from “Chicago” were included in the FOSSE program: “Razzle Dazzle” and “Hot Honey Rag”. As performed in “Fosse”, both were disappointingly anemic versions of their exuberant equivalents in the blockbuster, Oscar-winning film CHICAGO. This perhaps suggests that a new film version of “Damn Yankees” being produced by Miramax, which released CHICAGO, will be well-worth seeing even if the cost of movie tickets doubles.
I’m being wishy-washy and awarding three stars to FOSSE. I suspect it’s but a pale reflection of Fosse’s original choreography, but I may be wrong. I guess you had to be there.
May 4, 2010
#4
If you enjoy dancing — classic or non — this is a must-see DVD. Bob Fosse changed American choreography and this collection of his famous dances is charming and respresents the Fosse style. It is exceptionally well-filmed considering a live stage producion is being filmed. Sound quality is good.
If you like to dance — or watch dancing — you must see this.
May 4, 2010
#5
It is almost as good on dvd as it is live! I am so glad this show is available… it is so inspiring.