Fosse
Page 73
[>] Fosse took his seat beside Gwen and: Dana Moore, interview with the author, February 11, 2011.
[>] “She was going through everything Charity was”: Jane Lanier, interview with the author, February 10, 2011.
[>] “Fosse just sort of sat there” and following: Dana Moore, interview with the author, February 11, 2011.
[>] Fosse slid next to Mimi Quillin: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] “I know that people think it’s strange”: Gwen Verdon interview, Dance in America, WNET archives, September 6, 1989.
[>] “Don’t go to them, make them”: Dana Moore, interview with the author, February 11, 2011.
[>] it had from the beginning: Carol Alt, interview with the author, April 1, 2011.
[>] “It’s awful!”: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] “It was like a fight was going to”: Ibid.
[>] Fosse asked Allen to run it again and following: Carol Alt, interview with the author, April 1, 2011.
[>] “God, I can’t do this”: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] “Well, I’m probably not going to”: Ibid.
[>] “It used to get a little ugly”: Janice Arkatov, “Rupert Is at Home in ‘Charity,’” Los Angeles Times, July 27, 1985.
[>] “Everyone seems a little younger”: Dan Sullivan, “Stage Review: Allen Puts Sweetness Back in ‘Charity,’” Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1985.
[>] While on Sweet Charity, dancer Tanis Michaels: Fred Mann III, interview with the author, February 22, 2011.
[>] “We didn’t know what was happening”: Donna McKechnie, interview with the author, October 14, 2010.
[>] “By the time I was thirty-nine years old”: James Horvath, interview with the author, January 14, 2011.
[>] Afraid for their own safety and feeling guilty: Name withheld, interview with the author, September 10, 2010.
[>] “Cast members would drink out of Budweiser”: Dann Dulin, “Bebe Neuwirth Moves Through Life Helping Others,” A&U, December 2011.
[>] “He would come back the next day”: Jane Lanier, interview with the author, February 10, 2011.
[>] Michaels was given three months to live, but: Ibid.
[>] “Because Bob said yes to Tanis”: Fred Mann III, interview with the author, February 22, 2011.
[>] Six months before he began casting: Gordon Harrell, interview with the author, February 23, 2011.
[>] “We used six synthesizers in the pit”: Phil Ramone, interview with the author, October 10, 2010.
[>] “Even though the unions were against it”: Ibid.
[>] He put speakers in the back: Ibid.
[>] “I want the dissolves and softness”: Kevin Kelly, “Fosse, at 58, Finds No Security in Success,” Boston Sunday Globe, February 9, 1986.
[>] “Big Deal turned people against him”: Tony Stevens, interview with the author, February 8, 2011.
[>] “At a certain point I feel”: Kevin Kelly, “Bob Fosse’s New ‘Big Deal,’” New York, April 7, 1986.
[>] as many as eight hundred others sang and danced: Ibid.
[>] “If you know a dancer that’s a little off”: Valarie Pettiford, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] The only comparable rehearsal venue still in use was: “The Minskoff Studio Closing Over Rent,” New York Times, June 15, 1989.
[>] a heart ailment reportedly forced Bennett: Jeremy Gerard, “Michael Bennett, Theater Innovator, Dies at 44,” New York Times, July 3, 1987.
[>] Beset with sciatica, Fosse rehearsed: Kelly, “Bob Fosse’s New ‘Big Deal.’”
[>] “I can hardly move”: Kelly, “Fosse, at 58, Finds No Security in Success.”
[>] “He had such a big principal cast”: Diana Laurenson, interview with the author, January 17, 2011.
[>] but never before had he titled a notebook: LOC, box 11B.
[>] “The ensemble didn’t know what”: Stephanie Pope Caffey, interview with the author, March 1, 2011.
[>] his back went out and he was carried: Ibid.
[>] “Candy,” he said: Candy Brown, interview with the author, January 7, 2011.
[>] “It’s an absolute nightmare”: Bob Fosse, May 18, 1986, interview with Kevin Boyd Grubb, LOC, audiocassette.
[>] Maneuvering over sixty microphones: Ibid.
[>] Herb Gardner kindly encouraged Fosse to: Herb Gardner/Bob Fosse correspondence, LOC, box 8B.
[>] Neil Simon came to Boston to write: Gordon Harrell, interview with the author, February 23, 2011.
[>] “If it’s a screw-up”: Kelly, “Fosse, at 58, Finds No Security in Success.”
[>] “I’ve made a tremendous amount of changes”: Larry Katz, “Fosse’s Big Gamble,” Boston Herald, February 28, 1986.
[>] “Could you possibly choreograph”: Gerald Schoenfeld/Bob Fosse correspondence, March 19, 1986, LOC, box 8B.
[>] Fosse was too outraged to parse them: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] “I don’t think they like it”: Diana Laurenson, interview with the author, January 17, 2011.
[>] “People are telling me it’s too dark”: Don Rebic, interview with the author, February 28, 2012.
[>] “What do you think we should do”: Wayne Cilento, interview with the author, January 27, 2011.
[>] Fosse had been unwell for months: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] “Fosse makes a sudden gesture”: Kelly, “Fosse, at 58, Finds No Security in Success.”
[>] “He was in a hyperactive frenzy” and following: Dan Wilensky, interview with the author, October 2, 2010.
[>] “What if it isn’t any good?”: Chet Walker, interview with the author, December 22, 2010.
ONE YEAR
[>] “The party after was not a pleasant experience”: Alan Heim, interview with the author, July 22, 2010.
[>] “If for only 10 minutes or so”: Frank Rich, “Theater: ‘Big Deal,’ from Bob Fosse,” New York Times, April 11, 1986.
[>] “ultimate Fosse, a minestrone of everything”: Kathryn Doby, interview with the author, November 27, 2010.
[>] “I heard about a couple of reviews”: Kevin Grubb, “Fosse and His Followers,” Dance Magazine, August 1986.
[>] “He loved that show”: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.
[>] “Big Deal was ahead of its time”: Kathryn Doby, interview with the author, November 27, 2010.
[>] “What he did was compose a folk opera”: E. L. Doctorow, Bob Fosse Memorial, Palace Theater, October 30, 1987, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.
[>] to find the notice had been posted: Wayne Cilento, interview with the author, January 27, 2011.
[>] Gwen came with Nicole and handfuls and following: Grubb, “Fosse and His Followers.”
[>] “You know how show folks are”: Kevin Boyd Grubb, Razzle Dazzle: The Life and Work of Bob Fosse (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989), 263.
[>] found themselves at the front of the house, lingering: Valarie Pettiford, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] “I wanted to make you all stars”: Loretta Devine, interview with the author, November 19, 2010.
[>] Sam Cohn arranged for the writer Michael Herr and following: Michael Herr, interview with the author, April 13, 2011.
[>] Herr began his outline with and following: Michael Herr, Winchell (New York: Knopf, 1989).
[>] “I changed my mind” and following: Michael Herr, interview with the author, April 13, 2011.
[>] Phoebe could see Fosse extricating: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] He could spend afternoons sketching: Ibid.
[>] Martin Richards approached him: Martin Gottfried, All His Jazz (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 1998; first published by Bantam in 1990), 447. Citations refer to the Da Capo edition.
[>] Sam had b
een pushing it: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] he considered filming Dreamgirls: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.
[>] and thought of doing The Vampire Lestat and following: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] “It’s a strange paradox”: Tom Hinckley and Kevin Gault, “Bob Fosse,” Cable Guide, November 1984.
[>] Despite his reservations and following: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] The last time Fosse met with Herr and following: Michael Herr, interview with the author, April 13, 2011.
[>] she gave him the first of four medications and following: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] Fosse was said to be drunk at the ceremony and following: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 440.
[>] Phoebe, meanwhile, took and following: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] “The problem I find”: Sondra Lowell, “Fosse: Still Explaining His Movie,” Los Angeles Times, February 3, 1980.
[>] “It was because of his” and following: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] an octopus: LOC, “Odd” notebook, box 53B.
[>] Fosse and Ungerer talked about getting married and following: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] Rumor said she never: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 452.
[>] Fosse sent her money and following: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] Gwen did too: Bernard Drew, “Life as a Long Rehearsal,” American Film, November 1979.
[>] Fosse and Cis Rundle spent one afternoon: Cis Rundle, interview with the author, July 21, 2011.
[>] blocks Noel Behn called Fosse Country: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 370.
[>] “I see a hooker on a corner”: Pete Hamill, “Fosse,” Piecework (Boston: Little, Brown, 1996), 344.
[>] Strolling up Fifth Avenue, he won: Cis Rundle, interview with the author, July 21, 2011.
[>] “The seas parted for him”: Ibid.
[>] “I think he would say he was”: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.
[>] “Wait. I can’t go in”: Cis Rundle, interview with the author, July 21, 2011.
[>] Fosse had given up 850 Seventh: Phoebe Ungerer, interview with the author, December 13, 2012.
[>] Reinking called it the Swan Lake of Broadway and following: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.
[>] “How you doing?”: Don Rebic, interview with the author, February 28, 2011.
[>] he couldn’t resist shooting at two hundred: Richard Brick, interview with the author, May 3, 2012.
[>] Heim was busy on another project when and following: Rick Shaine, interview with the author, July 11, 2012.
[>] “When Bob comes in”: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] “After Star 80”: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 444.
[>] Fosse and Verdon were dressing the same now: Dana Moore, interview with the author, February 11, 2011.
[>] pick up the garbage: Cynthia Onrubia, interview with the author, October 10, 2012.
[>] “Their relationship during Charity”: Lisa Embs, interview with the author, April 26, 2011.
[>] “in the middle of it”: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] “You should have seen Gwen”: Dana Moore, interview with the author, February 11, 2011.
[>] “Before I die, I just want”: Robert Greskovic, “Gala Touch to Capezio Awards,” Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1987.
[>] the night of the Tonys: Jeremy Gerard, “Quiet Transitions Mark Tonys’ Brisk Evolution,” New York Times, June 1, 1987.
[>] “His feeling was people just swoop in”: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] “He seemed to be taking great”: Janice Lynde, interview with the author, May 4, 2011.
[>] “I guess he didn’t want to miss it”: James Lipton, Inside Inside (New York: Dutton, 2007), 151.
[>] “By the time we were working”: Donna McKechnie, interview with the author, October 14, 2010.
[>] “But I feel I really haven’t fulfilled”: Kevin Kelly, “Fosse, at 58, Finds No Security in Success,” Boston Sunday Globe, February 9, 1986.
[>] “He wanted to do a full ballet”: Ann Reinking, interview with the author, November 15, 2010.
[>] “Oh, don’t mind me” and following: Donna McKechnie, interview with the author, October 14, 2010.
[>] Charity’s presales disconcertingly low: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] “People had given up their homes”: Chet Walker, interview with the author, December 22, 2010.
[>] “It was like the dancers versus”: Name withheld, interview with the author, September 10, 2010.
[>] “Whatever’s going on out there”: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] “He wanted us to know he was on it”: Ibid.
[>] Donna McKechnie flipped on the radio and following: Donna McKechnie, interview with the author, October 14, 2010.
[>] “the most influential theater director”: Jeremy Gerard, “Michael Bennett, Theater Innovator, Dies at 44,” New York Times, July 3, 1987.
[>] Hal Prince hosted his memorial at Sardi’s and following: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 446.
[>] “For the New York theater”: Frank Rich, “Broadway: The Empire Strikes Back,” New York Times, March 29, 1987.
[>] Fosse hacked through the entire meeting: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] He asked Walker about the morale: Chet Walker, interview with the author, December 22, 2010.
[>] There was concern they were: Ibid.
[>] Fosse administered general notes around noon: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] Fosse and McKechnie rehearsed the bite Charity gives Charlie’s arm: Ibid.
[>] “Talk about emotion during the entire number”: Fosse rehearsal notes for September 23, 1987, courtesy of Mimi Quillin.
[>] “How much time is left?”: Gottfried, All His Jazz, 4.
[>] At around three o’clock, Fosse led: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] which he had intended to run the day earlier: Ibid.
[>] “Dance like you’re on your way”: Mamie Duncan-Gibbs, interview with the author, February 18, 2011.
[>] he made serious, sustained eye contact: Ibid.
[>] “The energy in the room was so”: Ibid.
[>] “He rehearsed us so hard that day”: Donna McKechnie, interview with the author, October 14, 2010.
[>] “just do the show, no more, no less”: Chet Walker, interview with the author, December 22, 2010.
[>] told them he had done everything: Stephanie Pope Caffey, interview with the author, March 1, 2011.
[>] “He said it more like a father”: Donna McKechnie, interview with the author, October 14, 2010.
[>] If he could, he said, he would: Stephanie Pope Caffey, interview with the author, March 1, 2011.
[>] “Your business is to do the best”: Donna McKechnie, interview with the author, October 14, 2010.
[>] Fosse seemed to crumple: Ibid.
[>] “When you get up in the morning”: Ibid.
[>] “Save your money”: Chet Walker, interview with the author, December 22, 2010.
[>] “I’m so sorry this isn’t going well”: Wayne Green, interview with the author, April 25, 2011.
[>] he spoke for twenty minutes: Lisa Embs, interview with the author, April 25, 2011.
[>] “As Bob was talking to us that day”: Ibid.
[>] “I would do anything to make”: Wayne Green, interview with the author, April 25, 2011.
ONE HOUR AND FIFTY-THREE MINUTES
[>] Around five thirty, Fosse ended h
is speech: Fred Mann III, interview with the author, February 22, 2011.
[>] Fosse devoted the next hour exclusively to: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] Onstage, Chet Walker stood in for: Chet Walker, interview with the author, December 22, 2010.
[>] on the floor, glued to the podium: Wayne Green, interview with the author, April 25, 2011.
[>] “Don’t rush this section”: Ibid.
[>] Charity had left Herman in a hospital: Allen Herman, interview with the author, March 3, 2011.
[>] Larry “Spoosh” Spivack, took over: Larry Spivack, interview with the author, March 4, 2011.
[>] “I don’t like that cowbell”: Wayne Green, interview with the author, April 25, 2011.
[>] it was the cowbell they used in Philadelphia: Allen Herman, interview with the author, March 3, 2011.
[>] “Fix it! Fix it!”: Larry Spivack, interview with the author, March 4, 2011.
[>] “Later I asked [Spoosh] to show me”: Allen Herman, interview with the author, March 3, 2011.
[>] “Fosse was angry”: Larry Spivack, interview with the author, March 4, 2011.
[>] “Ladies and gentlemen”: Ibid.
[>] Fosse picked his hat up off: Mimi Quillin, interview with the author, February 2, 2011.
[>] They went out through the front: Harry Teeter, interview with the author, June 23, 2011.
[>] “Show’s going good”: Ibid.
[>] “Have a good show!”: Mamie Duncan-Gibbs, interview with the author, February 18, 2011.
[>] they strolled toward the Willard Hotel, where: Phoebe Ungerer, December 13, 2012.
[>] “Theater thataway”: Steve Blum, interview with the author, June 23, 2011.
[>] A cluster of people at the window stood up: Jim Hewes, interview with the author, June 23, 2011.
[>] “Hey!” someone said: Ibid.
[>] It took twenty minutes for the paramedics: Ibid.
[>] “She was running around”: Patricia Baughman, interview with the author, June 23, 2011.
[>] Thinking Fosse’s heart attack was a seizure: Martin Gottfried, All His Jazz (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 1998; first published by Bantam in 1990), 5. Citations refer to the Da Capo edition.
[>] arrived at the emergency room at 6:48: Charles W. Hall and Douglas Stevenson, “Bob Fosse Dies After Collapsing on D.C. Street: Choreographer and Director Bob Fosse Dies Here,” Washington Post, September 24, 1987.