All That Jazz: The Filmography of Bob Fosse
By: Brandon Sparks
Tags: Movies, Theatre, Film, Directing, Musicals

When looking at the history of American Musical Theatre, Bob Fosse is one of the most influential figures. Fosse pushed the boundaries of dance as a storytelling tool. He gained success on Broadway right when the theatre landscape was changing. While choreographers Jerome Robbins of West Side Story and Agnes de Mille of Oklahoma! created groundbreaking dance numbers influenced by ballet, Fosse’s choreography was rougher around the edges. Fosse was interested in the grit and grime of the burlesque halls, and his choreography represented that. During the 1950s and 1960s, as Fosse rose through the ranks, he wanted to mix the techniques of high art and low art.

Even though he is a massive figure within the Broadway pantheon, Fosse’s film career has gone mainly unnoticed over the years. While his contemporaries like Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg John Cassavetes, Peter Bogdanovich, and Stanley Kubrick have been discussed and analyzed for years, Fosse rarely is mentioned with them. Since he died in 1987, Fosse’s theatre work and influence have greatly overshadowed his masterful work as a filmmaker.

A young Bob Fosse

Bob Fosse was born in 1927, and the fifth of six children within the Fosse family in Chicago, Illinois. According to Sam Wasson’s biography, Fosse, Fosse’s father was a failed third-rate vaudevillian turned Hershey’s traveling salesman. His mother stayed at home and ran the household. Fosse was a product of the Great Depression, growing up during one of America’s lowest points. He started attending dance classes with his sister at a young age, and he progressed quickly.

By the age of eleven, Fosse’s dance teacher managed a dance duo that included Bob Fosse and one of his other male classmates. They were called The Riff Brothers. Fosse spent his adolescence performing at dark and dingy burlesque halls, some occasionally managed by local gangsters. During the Depression, burlesque halls were not the lavish shows they once were, they were more like strip clubs. The characters that inhabited these locales would be present throughout the majority of Fosse’s directorial career, both on stage and in film.

Bob Fosse’s dream was to become Fred Astaire. Early on in his career, he had a brief stint as an MGM-contract player, but after only a few lackluster appearances, Fosse left Hollywood for New York City. With help from his second wife, popular Broadway star, Joan McCracken, Fosse landed his first job as a Broadway choreographer in The Pajama Game. He would receive a Tony Award for his choreography, the first of his record eight wins for Best Choreography.

From Left to Right: Dustin Hoffman, Bob Fosse, and Liza Minnelli (Courtesy of Everett Collection)

Within a decade, Fosse would transition from Broadway choreographer to Broadway director, directing such musicals as Redhead, Little Me, and Sweet Charity, which starred his third wife and trusted collaborator, Gwen Verdon. Fosse and Verdon married in 1960, and she would be considered by many as his creative equal. The recent critically-acclaimed FX television series, Fosse/Verdon, starring Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams, showcases the important and tumultuous relationship between Fosse and Verdon.

After the success of Sweet Charity on Broadway, Universal Pictures bought the rights to the musical, allowing them to make a film adaptation. They cast Shirley MacLaine in the title role, who was one of the most popular actresses at the time because of films like The Apartment and Irma La Douce. MacLaine wanted Fosse to direct the film version of Sweet Charity because she originally worked with him on The Pajama Game on Broadway as the lead actress’s understudy before she gained success as a film actress. She was discovered by producer Hal B. Wallis (Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon) when MacLaine took the stage one night for the injured lead actress of The Pajama Game. Universal Pictures agreed to MacLaine’s demand, allowing Fosse to make his directorial debut with a lavish, big-budget Hollywood musical.

Sweet Charity (1969)