Fosse/Verdon Review

This review is from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all the movies and limited series I see.

Wow, what a ride. This show has been recommended to me for a while now, and I should have watched it much sooner simply because of the slightly terrifyingly perfect timing. When this show started airing, our school's production of "Chicago" was about to open. I played an ensemble member, Chief Fogarty, and the judge during the courtroom scene. I participated in a lot of dance numbers and had the honor of announcing Velma and Roxie before they performed "Nowadays." I'm not a huge dancer, so being involved in such nuanced choreography was initially very annoying for me. By the end, however, I grew to really love the show and appreciated Fosse's choreography a lot more by the end of it. I'm probably never going to be involved in another Fosse production again, but I'm really glad I got the experience.

Seeing this show really gave me a great perspective not only into his life and opinions as an artist, but into his wife, Gwen Verdon's, as well. When it came to my parents and I, we had all heard of Fosse but not of Verdon. This show shines a big bright spotlight on both of them and gives both of their personalities and inner turmoils a chance to take the stage... sometimes even literally. Yeah, you can't exactly have a show about two of the biggest Broadway stars in history without incorporating some of their song and dance numbers, and the choreography and vocal performances in this show are fantastic. Not only do they show recreations of the actual numbers, they also make them real, theatrical facets of Fosse's subconscious. In episode 4, a big musical number in Fosse's head occurs. In episode 6, Fosse hosts a stand-up comedy show "Lenny" style throughout the episode in order to vent about his abuse. This show finds creative ways to utilize Fosse's famous numbers and play around with their interpretations while also making them integral to the story and non unnecessarily shoehorned in, and I adored that.

Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell... wow. These are, hands down, the best performances I've seen from 2019. These two embody Fosse and Verdon so well, work wonders off of each other, and completely disappear into their roles. I thought that Rockwell was going to be the definitive standout and Williams was going to be fantastic, but not QUITE as good as Rockwell. I was completely wrong. They were equal standouts in this show, which is kind of funny considering that the most essential dramatic element in this show is Fosse and Verdon internally competing with each other as they both attempt to continue growing their careers. Fosse doesn't want Verdon to overshadow him and Verdon realizes she's the reason he's still as big as he is. That conflict is the centerpiece of this show and it's what keeps the show so engaging throughout its 8-episode duration.

I've been in theater since middle school. I've done quite a few plays and musicals at my school and I was lucky enough to be cast in a readthrough of a new Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen show called Dreamland at the International Thespian Festival this past summer. I'm not very experienced when it comes to theater -- I've barely done any theater outside of my own school -- but the constant sense of competition that Fosse and Verdon felt throughout the course of this show struck a chord with me. There's always this internal sense of wanting to prove yourself, wanting to improve yourself, maybe even wanting to show off something you can't do as well as you think you can. I've especially felt that in the past year or two with my experience in theater. Sometimes, the lines between showing what you can do and just trying to boost your ego can be blurred when you're so passionate about being on stage, singing or acting or dancing your heart out and getting addicted to it. I felt that very drama unfold in Fosse/Verdon, that sense of uncertainty about whether your ego is overshadowing the art you create. That's the most riveting psychological aspect of this show to me, anyway, because it just felt so accurate.

Fosse/Verdon is hands down the best thing I've seen from 2019 so far. Fantastic lead performances (and performances in general), terrific writing, amazing direction and choreography and vocals, compelling editing, an intense exploration of two incredibly complicated Broadway stars, and a great look into the incredible career of those two stars. The only real complaint I have about this show is so minor it doesn't even count against it. I mentioned in my review of The Irishman that I would talk about instances where editors will jumpcut between scenes that happen about a second or two apart from each other without moving the camera, the characters, or any of the elements of the shot anywhere to make the jumpcut feel necessary in a future review. This show has two or three instances of those jumpcuts, where it will just randomly start cutting a second or two out of what we're watching and the camera and characters barely move. There's no reason for those cuts to occur, they just happen to try to speed up the pacing or something. Now, admittedly, the cuts here are smoother than in something like Ordeal by Innocence, but I still don't understand the point of that kind of edit. Other than that, this show is phenomenal in every single way. Please watch it on Hulu if you can and check out two incredibly interesting lives shown through two incredible performances. You won't be disappointed.

Letter Grade: A+