From the Publisher
"A fascinating and well-researched book...Essential." — CHOICE
"This book will be helpful to students, researchers, and educators seeking to trace the historical chronology of choreographers into director-choreographers." — Phoebe Rumsey, The Journal of American Drama and Theatre"This is the real deal. An impeccably researched, thoroughly entertaining examination of Fosse's life, legacy, and all that jazz." —James F. Wilson, City University of New York "Having worked with and been fortunate to be trained by some truly great choreographers/directors-Jerome Robbins, Michael Kidd, Peter Gennaro, Gower Champion-I could not have been luckier to learn yet another great style, Bob Fosse's. A style never explored before: sex appeal, innocence and humor in minimal movements. He himself was a great dancer, one who could dance all styles. In Sweet Charity his choreography ranged from explosive to controlled, precise, focused, tiny movements. People have a tendency to speak of the 'Fosse Style' as only small movements, but he had a wide range that fit his directorial talents. It has been rewarding to learn from Bobby through the years. He is one of a kind, and this book says it all." —Chita Rivera "A model for how to approach a biography-history of a dancemaker. Patiently, without edge or vulgarity or hype of any sort, the book focuses on Fosse's career-technical details, influences, process, and ideals intact-and it relates Fosse's life honestly yet with full relevance to the work. Furthermore, the larger context of the subtitle is honored as well, in full. It reads as if written with the collaboration of everyone in Fosse's world, including his critics, historians, and audiences. Kevin Winkler's achievement is a Big Deal, indeed." —Mindy Aloff, author of Dance Anecdotes: Stories from the Worlds of Ballet, Broadway, the Ballroom, and Modern Dance "There are many backstage tidbits sprinkled throughout the entire book, but Winkler is at his best when exploring Fosse's choreographic process through descriptions of the body in motion." — The Journal of American Drama and Theatre
Library Journal
02/01/2018
With his training in dance and 20 years as curator and archivist at the New York Public Library, Winkler is the ideal choice to write this exhaustively researched, detailed study of the dancing and directing of a master stylist whose innovations changed American theater and film. (Winkler even claims that the opening sequence in Fosse's 1979 film All That Jazz "virtually made the modern MTV music video.") The author's first contact with choreographer/director Bob Fosse (1927–87) came in 1982, when Winkler danced in the chorus of a revival of Little Me. From 1973, when Fosse won the show business Triple Crown with a Tony for Pippin, an Oscar for Cabaret, and an Emmy for Liza with a Z, he was the man with the "muscle" (Winkler's term) in all his productions. Fosse demanded more and more control of his projects, and as he aged, they sometimes went sour: his final movie, Star 80 and musical Big Deal were critical and box office flops. VERDICT One of the many virtues of this attractive and exciting book is that it makes dance accessible to readers who love theater but aren't dancers themselves.—David Keymer, Cleveland
Kirkus Reviews
2017-12-05
A former professional dancer and New York Public Library archivist and curator enlists the services of both experiences to describe and analyze the career of Bob Fosse (1927-1987), the legendary dancer, choreographer, and director.Winkler (Their Championship Seasons: Acquiring, Processing, and Using Performing Arts Archives, 2001), now a blogger for the Huffington Post, has a focused agenda. He takes us through Fosse's career (stage, TV, and film) show by show, dance number by dance number, and explains the birth of the project, Fosse's involvement, the roles of key others (producers, performers, technical crew), the critical and public reception, and the consequent effects on Fosse and the cultural world he inhabited and—for a time—dominated. Although the author periodically refers to Fosse's personal life (his marriages and myriad affairs—he was far from a loyal spouse), this information is principally contextual, but due to the recent flurry of charges of sexual impropriety by alpha males, this context will be timely. Indeed, sexuality was part of Fosse's "thing," and Winkler includes a brief scene of him chasing Mariel Hemingway around a room trying to convince her that sex with his current leading lady was de rigueur. (She escaped.) The author reminds us of Fosse's numerous awards, including an astonishing eight Tony Awards for choreography as well as one for direction. Lovers of dance—and members of the dance cognoscenti—will especially enjoy Winkler's detailed approach; general readers, probably less so. The text is not especially reader-friendly—lengthy paragraphs, few textual breaks and divisions—and Winkler is hardly disinterested. He is a Fosse fan and sees even in his less-than-successful efforts the glow of genius, a glow that the author's determined prose and careful explication convince us is indeed there.Thorough research combines with deep affection and admiration to create a clear analysis and tribute.
