It's Time We Revisit 1979's "All That Jazz"

Hated it! Ugh.

Welcome to AirOTICA!

The only part of the movie I didn't like was Leland Palmer, who played Scheider's ex-wife (a thinly veiled version of Gwen Verdon).

I thought she was a terrible actress, so over the top. In the scene where she tells Scheider she thinks the Air Rotica number is the best work he's ever done, she does this phony crying thing and says, "You son of a bitch," then runs off sobbing. That scene would have been so much more effective if she downplayed it and just said, "You son of a bitch" unemotionally and straightforwardly, then just stared at him.

She was all wrong for the role. Who was she, anyway? This is the last movie she ever made. I assume she was a Broadway dancer who had had some kind of relationship with Fosse, which is how she got cast.

I saw this movie in the theater when I was in high school, and that Air Rotica number with all the guys in jockstraps entwined in each other made me really horny.

Did scheider do his own dancing? Remind me. I forget though I liked the film.

Me, too R4. I had no idea dancing could be so sexy. I remember getting hard in the theater, I was so glad it was dark...

I also think the movie is a masterpiece and a real love-letter to Broadway in late 70s.

"I think it's still a near masterpiece."

Nothing "near" about it; it is a masterpiece (MARY!). It's so funny to me when morons say things like, "The Airotica scene is so tacky and stupid and bad", as if that wasn't the point.

Anyway, Scheider wuz robbed. Also, Ben Vereen and Ann Reinking deserved supporting nominations AT LEAST.

R5 Scheider didn't really dance in the movie.

R7 I call it a "near masterpiece" only because of the presence of Leland Palmer. Every scene she's in diminishes the movie.

[quote]"The Airotica scene is so tacky and stupid and bad", as if that wasn't the point.

Was that the point of the movie too? And all this time I thought it was unintentional.

I saw it in high school and never got the whole flirting with Jessica Lange as angel of death thing until later. I loved it though.

Ann Reinking's legs were as long as a giraffe's. Her dancing was incredible.

[Spoiler] = = = I enjoyed it, but I felt it was too much of him slowly dying.

The girl who played his daughter bugged me, too, although she was a pretty good dancer for her age.

This was also her last movie. On IMDB, it says she auditioned for Brooke Shields' role in The Blue Lagoon, then left showbiz and became a born again Christian. Ugh.

I loved the exchanges between the two queens who were producing the play Scheider's character was directing:

"She's uglier than a witch's tit."

"It's 'colder' than a witch's tit."

"What are you talking about? You've never seen a woman's tit in your life."

"Smoke! Smoke! Smoke!"

I hatd this movie when it first came out and I am a Broadway Musical fanatic. A few years later, I rented it to see if my opinion had changed and....Nope. Hated it. A Very self-indulgent egotistical film. No Oscars, please.

I wanted Autumn deep inside me. His hairy chest, his tight ass in that jockstrap. Dayum.

"I call it a 'near masterpiece' only because of the presence of Leland Palmer. Every scene she's in diminishes the movie."

Strongly disagree. She's great through the whole movie.

She's perfect casting, r19.

R20 Why do you think that? Her acting was awful. It was like she was on the Broadway stage, playing to the cheap seats. She was about as nuanced as an explosive fart.

[quote] She was all wrong for the role. Who was she, anyway? This is the last movie she ever made. I assume she was a Broadway dancer who had had some kind of relationship with Fosse, which is how she got cast.

Fosse met (and probably cast) Leland Palmer in Pippin. She originated the role of Fastrada.

You sound like you've had a lot of experience with explosive farts, r21.

“Fuck him! He never casts me!”

“Honey, I did fuck him and he never casts me either.”

R23 Hi, Leland Palmer! What have you been doing for the past 42 years?

Not acting, that's for sure!

Do you think Jessica Lange fucked Bob Fosse and that's how she got the part? I do.

First saw it in theaters in ‘79. It was the first movie I had seen that treated gays as human beings.

Fosse only directed five movies, and yet produced two masterpieces (this and Cabaret), and two very interesting films (Lenny and Star 80). Only Sweet Charity hasn’t stood the test of time. Pretty good track record.

Another fan of Leland Palmer in this film. She was great and it's a shame she didn't do anything film-wise after All That Jazz.

The opening sequence is really one of the best sequences in film. The editing, the music, the dancing. It's completely exhilarating. And it makes late '70s NYC look so exciting.

Leland...from Your Own Thing

Leland Palmer does a kind of imitation in that movie of Gwen Verdon, the real-life great Broadway dancer with the warbly voice Fosse married in real life.

It both works and it doesn't work. It works if you try to pretend the movie is the unfictionalized life of Bob Fosse and want her character to be as much like real life as possible, since it's a decent impersonation; but I'm not sure it works for the character, because Palmer plays her like such a marshmallow, and Verdon wasn't one in real life (though Fosse was her lifelong soft spot).

Who’s Leland Palmer? I wonder. If David Lynch named Laura Palmer’s dad Leland Palmer in honor of this person

[quote]Palmer plays her like such a marshmallow, and Verdon wasn't one in real life

I assume she played her the way Fosse directed her to. Here she is during the Your Own Thing recording session...

There was a LONG thread on this movie last year.

It has great moments but it’s frequently self-indulgent and boring.

Jessica has maybe 5 minutes of screen time.

Leland Palmer was a replacement for the actress Fosse really wanted, Shirley MacClaine. MacClaine was too expensive so they ended up with Palmer.

I thought Palmer was fine. My main critique is that the long, final death musical sequence goes on too long. What saves it is the brutal final cut to them zipping up the body bag. Originally, Fosse had an even BIGGER finale musical scene planned, but they ran out of money. Thank God: That abrupt, cold ending is perfect.

[quote] I assume she played her the way Fosse directed her to.

Oh [italic]please,[/italic] Miss Mary.

That absolutely does not excuse a weak performance.

Was "Shirley MacClaine" Shirley Maclaine's non-Union Scottish equivalent?

Spread a Little Sunshine

My Leland Palmer Story - I was assistant directing a children's theatre piece at downy civic light opera in the last century. The stage manager brought in a friend one rehearsal to watch. I introduced myself to her afterwards. I said, "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Leland Palmer?" She said, "I am Leland Palmer." And she was very gracious, not at all condescending. As I recall, it was at the end of the rehearsal and there were only about 5 people in the theatre. I smile every time I think of that encounter because I knew who Leland Palmer was and never thought I'd meet her in Downy, CA.

I want to like this movie more than I do. The opening sequence, AirRotica, and Everything Old is New Again, were the best parts for me. I also like Leland Palmer in this and thought she was effective in her underdeveloped role. The closing song and dance sequence that was the prelude to his death is a dud for me and kind of blindingly garish and ugly, but I guess that may have been the point.

OP I don't think it was Lange's performance as our lady of the oxygen tent that kick started her career but Tootsie.

Leland is Linda Posner at this link.

A friend of mine pointed out it's not a good film at all if you didn't know it was based on a real person who wrote and directed the film. The Joe Gideon character comes off as a megalomaniac otherwise: he's supposed to choreograph a light comic ballet for "Air-Rotica" for the good of a light comic Broadway show he didn't even write, and he instead turns it into some insanely deadly serious thing.

Yeah, remember that the investors LOVED the cheeky, snappy, first 3 minutes of the song. They'd have been super-happy with just that part, but he had to turn it into something dark and kinky.

WHO was the actor (or maybe just the dancer) who played "Autumn?" Did he ever do anything else after "All That Jazz?"

John Lithgow's character was based on Fosse's rival Michael Bennett.

[quote] Do you think Jessica Lange fucked Bob Fosse and that's how she got the part? I do.

Oh for God's sake, everybody knows that Fosse and Lange were fucking each other and of course that's how she got in the cast of "All That Jazz." Their affair was no secret. There's some photo of them out together and it looks like they're about to fuck each other on a dance floor.

r44, Leland Schwantes.

He's a hand model.

And then Jessica dumped him for Baryshnikov, which stirred up all of Bob's insecurities as a man and a dancer. It was brilliant karma considering how many women he fucked over.

Here he is

I wonder if he's still at the top.

I'm a hand model, mama. A finger jockey. We think differently than the face and body boys... we're a different breed.

Sandahl Bergman's tits were so immobile. I was surprised as I grew up to discover other women's weren't.

Funny enough, it looks like his son followed in his footsteps, and posted that exact quote on Twitter.

Sandahl was cast at the last minute. Fosse had another dancer cast who was attached to the role for months, but he told her right before shooting that he needed her to go topless. He'd originally assured her there would be no nudity in the part. She wouldn't do the nudity, so out she went.

Schwantes today.

Yes r55 Cheryl Clark (one of the Broadway Cassies)

She taught at my college but I didn't know who she was until after I graduated and read her bio online somewhere.

I'd have clumsily tried a dance class just to hear her stories!

R47 He was so gorgeous.

Jessica looks so beautiful when she takes her hair down when seducing the Fosse character.

R41 So Leland Palmer has become a crazy old cat lady?

I'd like to know the whole story behind Leland Palmer and why she so abruptly left show business. "All That Jazz" could've really put her on an forward trajectory.

I like the 2010 follow up - All That Jizz.

R41 Someone call the paramedics! Leland has fallen and she can't up!

Sounds to me, r60, that she wanted to lead a more meaningful life...

Roy Schneider made this movie worth watching and I say that as a fan of Fosse.

Scheider !!

Ironically, just started watching the 1957 movie “The Pajama Game.” I had no idea it was choreographed by Fosse. Not far into it, but it doesn’t look too sophisticated.

It was in its day, r67. Especially the choreography.

Steam Heat, Fosse all over.

The character played by Lithgow was based on Hal Prince. He even wore his glasses on his forehead like Prince and the flop show he's rehearsing is clearly Pacific Overtures.

Palmer is interesting. She went headlong into religion shortly after bailing on the LA production of A Chorus Line. Bennett based the career vs. relationship in ACL on him and Palmer. Unlike McKechnie, he was actually in a relationship with Palmer.

Vicki Frederick said that the movie was also used for him to rewrite his own history. The scene where the fan tells Lithgow that he's her second favorite director after Joe Gideon was Fosse's revenge for fans always telling him that they loved his show A Chorus line.

R69) Thank you, I see the genius now. Just wasn’t that far into the movie,

Also Doris Day had a very 80’s cum lesbian hair style in the movie.

Fosse made Reinking audition to pretty much play herself numerous times. I loved Deborah Geffner as ‘Victoria’ the not so great dancer Joe fucks then tortures in the rehearsal room.

Lay back, Victoria...lay back!

I took a liking to it as a child but I'm not sure why. I remember being stuck by the majesty of the closing number.

Who else did he audition for Katie?

The Geffner character was based on Jennifer Nairn Smith. Her story was she was a Balanchine dancer and couldn't pick up on the Fosse style and was made into the company victim in Pippin. She was obviously a great ballet dancer but not a great show dancer. The short vignette about the three way was based on the brief three way relationship he had with her and Reinking.

So tragic Ann Reinking died so suddenly. It doesn't say how on wikipedia. What happened. Was she sick for a while?

It was kind of beautiful in the Oscar tribute (no Against All Odds jokes please) when they used that clip of her jumping into the air in the in memorial segment.

17 year old me found it amazing when it came out and I saw it at the Broadway theater in Seattle.

Jessica Lange is great in it. Did she get much attention for it? It was her "comeback" after King Kong and not working for three years. This must have showed that she could act (though I always thought she was fine in King Kong given the role.)

🚨LANGE LOON ALERT 🚨

the Lange loon would know if she got a lot of attention for the film

Jessica was so beautiful in that role. Such a great voice to make up for the weird visuals.

The Fosse/Verdon series said that Fosse promised the daughter role in AtJ to his own daughter Nicole, only to change his mind and recast the part with a much younger actress (Nicole was a teen at the time). I wonder if that's true?

Nicole was a producer on that show so it probably was true.

No wonder she had drug and alcohol problems. Fosse was such a nightmare to women, even his own daughter.

Nicole is in the film version of A Chorus Line as Kristine. I always found that sort of surprising since Michael Bennett was Fosse's rival that year Chicago and ACL premiered. I think they were complimentary of each other's work though.

Such a loss. Both in a year. Broadway never recovered.

I just realized the line from The Pajama Game, (right before Steam Heat) "where'd ya get the hats?" is used just as thus number begins.

Lange's role was small, and I don't remember her getting a lot of attention in reviews or publicity. But she and Nicholson were really hyped two years later for "The Postman Always Rings Twice", and then she had her Golden Year in 1982 with "Frances" and "Tootsie".

[quote]John Lithgow's character was based on Fosse's rival Michael Bennett.

No, it was based on Harold Prince.

"All That Jazz" is Fosse's "8½". He worshipped Fellini.

Reinking s sudden passing was pretty shocking. I heard she suffered from heart disease and died in her sleep. Such a loss.

[quote]Only Sweet Charity hasn’t stood the test of time.

Actually "Sweet Charity" gets a lot more respect today. It was a changing time, "Hello Dolly" stole the musical audience and a G rated musical about a Times square hooker with a heart of gold vs an X rated movie about a male hustler wins the Oscar and opens the door to the sexual revolution. There are some really great moments,.

Leland Palmer & Leland Schwantes, what are the chances and who thought Schwantes was straight?

R80 Lange actually got rave reviews for the role, and it saved her career. I remember the critics praising her performance and some stating how surprised they were that she could really act.

I found Roy quite sexy in ATJ.

Nicole makes a quick appearance in the movie. She’s the dancer stretching by the coke machine that gets yelled at.

Was the soundtrack ever put on cd? I have an old vinyl lp that I listen to, but can’t find the music either on cd or streaming.

I got the music off of iTunes.

What would have happened had Meryl got King Kong?

Kong would not have fallen in her lover with her.

[quote] I got the music off of iTunes.

I search for “all that jazz” and I only get a bunch of recordings and covers of Chicago

R95 'Angelique, played prettily and vacuously by Jessica Lange'-NY Times

Vicki Frederick is the best part of A Chorus Line. Though Audrey Landers is a close second.

But what a missed opportunity for a great musical. It was like Attenborough didn't even try to understand it.

And Cassie was so underwhelming. What I did for Love is one of the worst filmed musical numbers in movie history. And Allyson Reed seems like a good actress, but she was miscast.

[quote] search for “all that jazz” and I only get a bunch of recordings and covers of Chicago

Oh damn. I’ll do a hunt to see if I can figure out where I got it from.

[quote]And Allyson Reed seems like a good actress

She got matronly and has turned into a fine character actress.

In one of show biz's biggest "what if's", Fosse said he would have gladly directed A Chorus Line the movie if he'd been asked. But he was considered box office poison after Star 80 and wasn't considered. That makes total sense because ACL totally eclipsed Chicago in 1975 and if he were to do a hit movie out of it, he would take ownership of it, similar to Cabaret.

[quote] Ironically, just started watching the 1957 movie “The Pajama Game.” I had no idea it was choreographed by Fosse.

"Steam Heat," midway through the movie, is pretty much the only thing in the film that looks like peak Fosse and that displays his originality. The other choreographed numbers are either retro vaudevillian pieces (like the sweet brief soft-shoe bit Eddie Foy, Jr. and Reta Shaw perform in "I'll Never Be Jealous Again") or big studio pieces that look pretty much like everything else of the era in film (like "Once a Year Day").

He was the kind of choreographer insofar as when he really did his thing, the movie or show became entirely HIS thing and no one else's. That's why he's so memorable. But it's almost impossible to imagine him choreographing for a first-rate music & lyrics team--it helped that he worked with composers and lyricists who were superb (Adler & Ross, Cy Coleman, Kander & Ebb) but not really of the highest water (like Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, Sondheim), all of whom he would have been a distraction working with. The only one I can see him doing a good job with among the latter group would have been Leonard Bernstein--it would have been really interesting to see what he would have done with "West Side Story."

[quote]it helped that he worked with composers and lyricists who were superb (Adler & Ross, Cy Coleman, Kander & Ebb) but not really of the highest water (like Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, Sondheim), all of whom he would have been a distraction working with

C'mon with the exception of the dance in "The King & I" none of their shows has any note worthy choreography. Fosse would have had nothing to work with. "The Pajama Game" was very early, if not his first Broadway work, he was a hired hand and showed he could conform and stand out.

Uh...r109...do the words *dream ballet* mean anything to you?

How mild?

Sondheim took a shot at Fosse when he said that he saw the final 20 minutes of Follies and made a career of it. His last shows were all musical numbers stitched together (Dancin didn't even pretend to be a book musical) and Big Deal showed his ego out of control where he tried to build a book show around songs from a certain era.

Fosse was definitely a great talent but also a very limited one as a choreographer. You'll see the same steps and moves in all his numbers, which is why "Fosse' became so numbingly boring because all the numbers began looking the same. Nothing was tailored to the moment or character. He knew how to reach into his bag of tricks to get a reaction from the audiences but he grew lazy and perhaps wasn't capable of doing something really new or relevant to the scene.

Bob Fosse, Larry Gelbart depict "The American Western" through dance - 1959

[quote] Fosse was definitely a great talent but also a very limited one as a choreographer. You'll see the same steps and moves in all his numbers, which is why "Fosse' became so numbingly boring because all the numbers began looking the same. Nothing was tailored to the moment or character. He knew how to reach into his bag of tricks to get a reaction from the audiences but he grew lazy and perhaps wasn't capable of doing something really new or relevant to the scene.

Fosse would agree with this assessment.

Compare FOSSE to Jerome Robbins' Broadway.

R46 Fosse and Lange’s affair was over by the time he wrote the part for her in “All That Jazz.” She was Baryshnikov by that point. She’s told the story of how Fosse tried wooing her back by dancing for her. She said it was one of the sweetest things he did. They remained friends until his death.

Incidentally, Fosse took Lange to Key West and took her to visit Tennessee Williams, who was smitten with her and greatly admired her as an actress when she had only done King Kong. He saw that she had “it.”

*was with Baryshnikov

Here they are Key West.

🚨 LANGE LOON ALERT 🚨

[wuote]He saw that she had “it.”

And she does.

Ann Reinking would have been great as Cassie in the film version I wonder if she was considered for it. I hated that they gave Sheila a daughter and wasn’t Bebe just released from the loony bin? Ugh

Ann was a finalist along with Leslie Ann Warren.

I've never seen All That Jazz, is it better than A Chorus Line?

R123 Much, much better!

Leslie Ann!!!

Broadway Barbara!!!

The opening sequence with George Benson’s “On Broadway” playing in the background was damn near perfect cinema. Without a lot of dialogue there is comedy, tragedy and amazing dancing. It’s a perfect kickoff to the storyline.

Wait- Leland Schwantes is straight? Like, married to a woman straight, or fathered a kid 40 years ago “straight”?

r112: Fosse stole everything from Jack Cole, most notably Verdon.

Though your criticism of Fosses limited choreographic vocabulary applies to Cole as well.

That Air Rotica number was the one I remember the most but I haven't seen this movie in ages. Wasn't Ann Reinking in this?

[quote] Wasn't Ann Reinking in this?

No, it was Ricardo Monalban, Rose.

130 posts into this thread, where Ann Reinking's name has been mentioned over ten times, and now you ask if she's in it?

Was said in other thread about ATJ some time ago, and am doing so again; opening cattle call scene fucking nails it!

You arrive to a place full of scores of dancers from all sorts. Everything from seasoned pros with years of work under their belts, to little prima donnas from Miss Mary's Dance Academy of Hoboken, NJ.

Then it's show time! Choreographer gives directions for a routine, and you follow and dance best way you know how. Gradually a few score or more dwindles down to dozens.....

You always had guys like one in @2:51 in clip who didn't know what the fuck they were doing (likely one of those Miss. Mary's Dance school alumni or students), and they're soon weeded out.

Roy Scheider had a tight compact little body in film that would have passed for an older dancer. He also had a way about him during the cattle call that you couldn't figure out if he was gay or not, which throws a few of the male dancers off balance.

"And it makes late '70s NYC look so exciting"

It was dear, and how!

I love this movie. Loved it when it first came out....and Autumn made me gay!

Roy Scheider was perfection. Thank God Richard Dreyfuss dropped out.

R135 I can't even picture Dreyfuss in that role.

Dreyfuss would have been too manic.

Richard Dreyfuss could never pass for a dancer much less even choreographer, his body and movements were all wrong.

Dreyfuss was a hot property back then and was attached to or mentioned for a lot of projects. I never understood his appeal.

R14

Erzsebet Foldi was not unlike many young girl dancers then and now attending top schools. In this case Ms. Foldi was studying at School of American Ballet.

For professional ballet most girls and boys start very young, grade school age. By time they reach middle to high school age those with talent and otherwise able to make a go of it are near professional status. Before you had all these colleges offering dance programs that gave four year degrees, most dancers from top schools simply sought and joined various professional companies in the corps de ballet.

OTOH jazz, tap and other dancers would have branched out into getting gigs in musicals or wherever else they could find work. None of this touches those who aspire to be triple threats, which is a whole other ball of wax.

Leland Palmer (now Linda Posner) is still around, and has remained active in performing arts circles.

Dreyfuss had just won the Academy award for The Goodbye Girl which is what the studio presumably liked about him. But he didn't get along with Fosse maybe because the director thought the actor was forced upon him. It makes you think of the comment Joe Gideon makes to that girl dancer - I can't make you a great dance but I can make you a better one.

R129, Cole never had the popularity that Fosse had and certainly never the name recognition. Fosse proved in Sweet Charity that he could choreograph for a scene and a character. By the time he got to Chicago, everything was the same. In Big Deal, Beat me Daddy is an exciting number but tells you nothing about the song, the characters or scene. It's interchangeable with Sing, Sing, Sing from Dancin'. Contrast that to Rich Man's Frug or Big Spender and it's obvious that Fosse lost the gift. Was it drugs, age or was he just lazy?

Richard Dreyfus as a dancer? That's really absurd. He was short and had a stocky, unathletic body. He looked like a turnip. No dancer/choreographer he.

And R129 Michael stole everything from Bob.

Original "Hey Big Spender" from Sweet Charity has yet to be topped.

Don't forget "Liza with A "Z" " and Bob Fosse

Rich-man’s Frug is mesmerizing.

Had no idea Michael Tolan was in "All That Jazz" and that he had such a long and varied career. Only know him mostly from reruns of 1970's crime dramas such as Mannix and Cannon.

When Sweet Charity was being adapted from Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria in 1965, book writer Neil Simon couldn’t figure out a way to transfer the church scene from the movie.

He actually had a question mark as a placeholder in his unfinished libretto. Fosse and Cy Coleman got together and invented The Rhythm of Life that opened the 2nd act. Simon was quoted saying they were able to create a brilliant scene that he couldn’t even get a handle on. I think Fosse was very proud of it, and if you look at the scene from the movie, you can see the homage that Bye Bye World from All That Jazz is to the Charity scene. It’s also fitting that this over the top autobiography incorporates elements of his real life work in an adapted fashion.

Fosse slightly changed some small elements of Big Spender for the Donna McKechnie tour and it's much better than the one Reinking restaged for Fosse.

Beat Me Daddy from Big Deal. A great number for a revue but not for a Broadway musical.

Caught Paula Kelly ( black singer/dancer in gold dress, clip R146) on an episode of Cannon earlier this week.

Ms. Kelly was a great actress, singer and dancer. She had a great career but largely did television as other work wasn't always easy for African American actors, dancers, performers to land.

Paula Kelly also had regular recurring role on television series "Night Court" as public defender Liz Williams.

Did anyone see on YouTube an analysis of All That Jazz by a therapist who has been an assistant music editor on the film? I watched it once, but it seems to have been taken down. He talks about the differences between Gideon and the actual Fosse. Gideon is a dark self-portrait, though Fosse also uses Gideon to explain himself. The therapist says Gideon's narcissism keeps him from being able to connect--you really see it in the "Everything Old is New Again" where he tries to enjoy the charming number being done by his girlfriend and daughter, but his eyes just remain sad. He points out that the Angelique/Death character is always undermining Gideon's self-esteem and it's his literally broken heart that destroys him.

I think Roy Scheider's performance is brilliant. He was nominated, but lost out to Dustin Hoffman in Kramer v. Kramer. Scheider's is the more memorable performance, but despite the nominations, All That Jazz was kind of sidelined that year.

Other random note that I once came across--Angelique's hat looks like the one worn by former Fosse wife Joan McCracken in her last stage appearance. She died early from diabetes complications after Fosse had left her for Verdon and Fosse always felt guilty about it. McCracken pretty much made his career as a choreographer. She was older and knew everyone. If you see Jessica Lange's character as a sub in for the dead McCracken, you have a portrait of a man surrounded by the women who loved him most (McCracken, Verdon, Reinking and his daughter), but who is never whole enough to love himself or them. I think it's a fascinating (and, yes, indulgent) portrait of an artist. Both harsher and more discerning than something like Verdon/Fosse. And with better dancing.

bump (to get me to read this!)

Kely's career also hit the skids when she posed for Playboy and showed, gasp, pubic hair. It was thought to be their first pictorial showing bush.

Adding a bit more on McCracken--like Verdon, she was extremely good at dancing in character. She had a pretty, grown-up face, but a short, kind of kid-like body, which pretty much meant she was limited to comic and soubrette dancing roles, though she, herself, was quite sophisticated. Anyway, her last stage role was in The Infernal Machine, Cocteau's version of Oedipus Rex, where she played the Sphinx and the Goddess of Vengeance. In the play, the Sphinx talks about being a bringer of death, so I think the similarities between the Jessica Lange character and McCracken aren't accidental.

As for Fosse's originality, I think he and everyone else was influenced by Jack Cole's work, but I don't think Fosse stole from Cole. Their work is pretty distinct, with Fosse keeping the isolations, but dropping the orientalism of Cole's work, and bringing in the bump-and-grind from the burlesque houses where he tapped as a kid. There's always that tension between the sordid of show biz reality and the ideals of the big American musical in Fosse's work. It doesn't always work, but when it's good, it's brilliant--Whatever Lola Wants is Verdon doing a comic striptease, playing a vamp like a cartoon character, failing to seduce Joe Hardy, while completely charming the audience. You don't get that kind of character establishment in Cole.

Meanwhile, Michael Jackson and Beyonce have done step-by-step rip-offs of Fosse. Jackson doing a verson of Fosse's snake dance from The Little Prince and Beyonce using a number Verdon did on TV for Single Ladies. It's not even subtle. Fosse's combination of skill with raunch has dominated theatrical dance for years now.

I doubt brain dead Beyonce said “Let’s do a Fosse homage!”

Her gay choreographer did.

It was the video mash-up of the Fosse/Verdon number "Mexican Breakfast" versus "Walk It Out" by UNK that inspired Beyoncé.

Yes Beyonce didn't even know who Gwen Verdon was as an individual, referring to her as Fosse's wife.

Verdon was an amazing dancer. Not at all an accident that Fosse did his best work with her. One of the best ever at expressing a character through dance.

Gwen Verdon may not have had typical 1950's bombshell looks, but she nailed "Lola" in Damn Yankees, and rocked in that combination leotard and bustier.

Ms. Verdon had Fosse style down pat, other more attractive and or stacked actresses may have fit role of a sexpot, but could they do Fosse's moves?

Damn Yankees - Outtakes from TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL

R160 Yeah, Beyonce couldn't even spell "Fosse." Her choreography was inspired by Fosse/Verdon. Beyonce just followed his direction.

While we’re on Fosse rip-offs, here’s Paula Abdul’s Cold Hearted Snake

R166 I think that was more an homage to All That Jazz than a ripoff, though.

If it’s an homage, it’s a poor one. “Airotica” is full of things to say about human sexuality, artistic block, and the games theater people play.

“Cold Hearted Snake” is just sleazy.

Verdon, like Reinking after her, was a physical dictionary of Fosse's style. Verdon also had a banging bod but unfortunately, her face didn't translate well on camera. It's why she lost parts to Shirley MacLaine, her more photogenic double.

Yes but MacLaine was not as good a dancer.

Here's Gwen Verdon on The Ed Sullivan show.

Fosse's opening audition scene in All That Jazz is a brilliant but shameless, shameless ripoff of I Hope I Get It. the opening number from ACL.

I wish he'd been allowed to direct the film version of ACL. He said publicly he'd like to do it.

And poor Michael Bennet, who created the show, wanted it badly but was never seriously considered.

Instead we got the inept Richard Attenborough and that awful film.

Rip off? More like a "fuck you" from Fosse to Bennett. "Look, Michael, I did your entire show in under six minutes."

131, Go suck a turd

Though it's overly long I prefer Sweet Charity (1969) to both All That Jazz and A Chorus Line

Richard Dreyfuss was offered the Joe Gideon role and turned it down. It would’ve been a disaster.

“All That Jazz” is one of the finest films of the 1970s. Bob Fosse was a genius.

[quote]Richard Dreyfuss was offered the Joe Gideon role and turned it down. It would’ve been a disaster.

No, he took the part and was so bad Fosse fired him during rehearsals.

Dreyfuss says he withdrew from the film. partly because he had a huge drug problem at the time but also because he disliked Fosse.

I don't remember Scheider dancing, R5. When was that?

He doesn't do huge amounts of it, but he's doing knee slides in Bye-Bye Life

I just watched the film for the first time & it's still a masterpiece.

Everything was top notch. I can't believe they gave Dustin H. the award over Roy S.

I'd like to see a pay per view cable network like HBO do a series with Matthew Morrison in the lead role of Gideon.

It would be interesting to see more of the back stories of all the characters presented in the film.

I didn't have a problem with any of the performances of the actors.

All of the nudity must make it hard to air on a commercial network. Has this ever shown on ABC, CBS, etc?

Roy's only bio daughter died at around age 43. Does anyone know anything about that?

Roy died in Little Rock Arkansas. Why the Hell was he going there for treatment?

R3, you need to remember that a performance you detest on screen is frequently exactly what the director wanted to actor to do, not what the actor wanted to do or how they saw their character behaving.

Dreyfuss as Joe Gideon? What a disaster he would have been! Sure, he was intense and neurotic enough for the role, but he could never pass as a dancer, doughy slouchy little thing that he is. And being a doughy little thing, he also wasn't sexy enough for the role.'

Scheider was lean, wiry, and elegant enough to pass as a dancer, he was photogenic and charismatic to be believable as someone who was a star in his field, and yeah. Sexy enough for the part.

I am a huge fan of the movie. I saw it five times on the big screen the week it had opened (I was young, 13, but they let me in and I knew that I was gay, gay, gay). I am still mesmerized by Roy Scheider's performance. He is heartbreaking. The final number is a classic that, unfortunately, does not get the recognition it deserves. And the three songs by lover, wife, daughter are musical perfection.

[quote] And poor Michael Bennet, who created the show, wanted it badly but was never seriously considered.

Bennett never wanted to do the film version of ACL. He went to Hollywood to direct after ACL was a huge hit on Broadway, stayed 6 weeks or so after he was set up by a studio with a development deal and cushy offices, and then ran screaming back to Broadway. He hated Hollywood.

Has Roy S. ever given an interview to the gay press like the Advocate, Out, etc.?

R188 Not since he's been dead for the last 14 years.