Gwen Verdon: A Life on Stage and Screen (39 page)

The film was released on December 17, 1999, with the tagline “Doing the right thing can be as hard as …
Walking Across Egypt
.”

In 1999, Verdon played a supporting role in
Bruno
(2000), a comedy directed by Shirley MacLaine, which was to be her last film appearance. The film was shot on location in New York and in Wilmington and Raleigh, North Carolina. The screenplay by David Ciminello centered on the titular eight-year-year old boy (Alex D. Linz) who cross-dresses as a “free spirit” and is his school’s hope in the national Catholic spelling competition. Verdon is only in one scene, in what amounts to a cameo. She is Mrs. Drago, dressed in black with long braided black hair. She owns a large dog that Bruno and his friend Shawniqua (Kiami Davael) walk and take to the park. Mrs. Drago’s attire suggests that she has a backstory that the narrative does not explore, and the fact that she is a friend of Shawniqua adds nothing to the story of any consequence.

The film was first screened on April 16, 2000, at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival with the taglines “The comedy that’s long on originality and short on pants” and “Some people are a little individual.” It didn’t receive a wide release but rather was screened on cable television on December 1, 2000.

In April 2000 Verdon received the “Living Legend” cast bronze medallion with a fabric red, white and blue ribbon by the Library of Congress during its bicentennial celebration. The award was selected by the Library’s curators and subject specialists to honor artists, writers, activists, filmmakers, physicians, entertainers, sports figures and public servants who have made significant contributions to America’s diverse cultural, scientific and social heritage. It was said that the Legends had provided examples of personal excellence that had benefited others and enriched the nation in a variety of ways. Verdon was one of the speakers in the PBS
Biography
episode on Shirley MacLaine entitled “This Time Around” broadcast on May 14, 2000.

In the summer of 2000 Verdon was interviewed by Rick McKay in his New York apartment, in what would prove to be her last interview. What she told him was included in his documentary
Broadway: The Golden Age
,
By the Legends Who Were There
(2004). It covers the period of New York Theatre from the end of World War II to the beginning of the Vietnam War. Verdon was featured in the chapter entitled “Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse.” In it she comments that the only time dancing was truly fulfilling for her was in shows that Fosse directed and choreographed. This was because Fosse believed that you have to act to dance. Verdon says that Fosse gave her the image of Lola from
Damn Yankees
as a “little flirty fat girl,” so that the actress never felt the character was sexy. He told her that life is an onion and as an actor and dancer he wanted her to keep peeling away the layers to get to the heart of the material. Footage is shown from TV’s American Musical Theatre show of Verdon singing and dancing “Whatever Lola Wants.” We also see a snippet of Verdon doing the same number in the trailer of the film version. McKay ends the chapter with a screen title which reads that they won 13 separate Tony Awards in their careers.

Verdon is also featured in other chapters of the film. In “The Journey Begins” she speaks about when she first came to New York in 1947. A blizzard had hit the city so there were no subway trains, buses or taxis running. However she could still see the theater marquees in Times Square through the snow, with the names of the big stars she had only heard of up in lights. Verdon says she stood there and just looked. She looked so long that the pigeons landed on her as if she was a statue. In “For A Song⁠…” she is one of many talking about “second acting.” This was a practice by actors of arriving at the theater at the first intermission and returning with the audience for the second act, as a way to see the show for free. In “Waiting in the Wings” there is a still of Verdon from
Can-Can
. Shirley MacLaine tells how she had planned to leave her chorus job in
The Pajama Game
in 1955 to become an understudy for Verdon. In “When the Curtain Goes Down” Verdon is shown photographed at Downey’s Restaurant in 1962 with Fosse and Robert Morse.

In his audio commentary on the DVD, McKay says she told him that the director of the film version of
Damn Yankees
refused to shoot her in close-up because he said Verdon was “much too unattractive for film.” Offended, she went back to New York Theatre and only later returned to films to play what she said was “everyone’s grandmother.” Verdon also remarked that some of McKay’s questions had never been put to her before. Her interview was the first he did for the film and Verdon was early for her appointment because she said that dancers were always early. The film’s budget could not accommodate a driver to take her home and he apologized, offering to get her a taxi. She said it wasn’t necessary. Fifty years ago she couldn’t walk down a New York street without being mobbed but now, if she was recognized at all, it was as one of the old ladies from the
Cocoon
movies. McKay felt this was a sad comment on the legacy of a woman who won four Tony Awards, was the muse and partner of Bob Fosse, and made theatrical history. McKay’s commentary also includes his vocal impersonation of Verdon speaking.

The documentary was first screened in April 2003 at the Palm Beach International Film Festival, then October 9, 2003, at the Austin Film Festival and February 6, 2004, at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. It was given a wide release in New York on June 11, 2004, with the taglines “The largest collection in history of award-winning stars brought together in a single movie!” and “One filmmaker’s search for a Broadway that was lost, and the 100 legends that he found….” The film was lauded by Peter Travers in
Rolling Stone
.

Verdon died in her sleep in the night of October 17–18, 2000, in Woodstock, Vermont, at the home of Nicole. She was 75. It was reported in the
New York Times
obituary by Robert Berkvist that at the time of death Verdon had homes in Bronxville and Quogue. She was described by Berkvist as widely regarded as the best dancer ever to brighten the Broadway stage, and also a highly capable actress adept at enriching the characters she played with heart. The League of American Theatres and Producers had the lights of Broadway’s marquees dimmed in her memory on October 19.

A memorial was held for Verdon at the Broadhurst Theatre on February 20, 2001. It was organized by Ann Reinking and others, though a scheduling problem meant Reinking was unable to attend. More than 1,100 people did attend the hour-long tribute, including her friends and colleagues who came to speak and perform. These included Cy Coleman, Fred Ebb, Herb Gardner, John Kander, Bebe Neuwirth, Chita Rivera, Ben Vereen, Ethel Wyll, Ethel Martin, Elizabeth Parkinson, Keith Roberts, Byron Easley, Dana Moore, Mary MacLeod, Belle Calaway, and Nicole Fosse Greiner. Verdon’s granddaughter Jennifer Henaghan brought a message from Verdon’s son Jimmy.

Cy Coleman said that he always thought of Verdon as fun, family, warmth and caring. These qualities would always shine through her flawless dancing, her intelligent interpretation of a song, her immaculate timing and her exquisite sense of comedy—all this combined in the perfectly formed body of a beautiful woman. That’s what he called a big star, which he felt she was. Coleman said Verdon loved jazz waltzes, and that’s why he played and sang “You Should See Yourself.” Chita Rivera held up the top hat she wore in
Chicago
and told the audience that when she danced with Verdon it was like two dancing as one and who wouldn’t want to be identical to her? She remembered saying for the longest time: “I’m kickin’ up my heels with Gwen Verdon, and having a ball being naughty, bad and just plain unprofessional!” Rivera continued that she had never seen anything like her. She was one of a kind and always would be in a class all her own. Rivera would remember her class, her style, her voice, her magic and laugh. “The skies are brighter and my life is fuller having known Gwen. It’s impossible to think she’s not here, but she is! And I’ll always hear that laugh and that voice. My God, Gwen, how you could dance!”

Former Jack Cole dancer Ethel Martin reflected that you could be the best dancer in the world and a wonderful performer, but to be star you had to have something indefinable, something that makes the world love you. Verdon had that. Jennifer Henaghan commented that she was a better person than she was a dancer. Herb Gardner sent a written tribute which was read by the lighting designer, Jules Fisher. Cy Feuer said that he attended out of respect for her and Fosse, and also because he had cast Nicole in
A Chorus Line
. He reported that he watched the best he could, then slipped out without saying a word to anyone.

Performers at the memorial included Cy Coleman who sang “You Should See Yourself” from
Sweet Charity
, Vereen who sang “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries,” Elizabeth Parkinson, and Keith Roberts Byron Easley who danced “Cool Hand Luke,” and John Kander and Fred Ebb who sang “Nowadays” from
Chicago
with counterpoint dancing provided by Dana Moore, Mary MacLeod and
Chicago
dancers Bebe Neuwirth and Belle Calaway. There were also reminiscences by old friends and a video tribute which had voiceovers from Verdon about her career, and film clips from her television, film and stage work. There was footage of her dancing in
Can-Can
,
Damn Yankees
,
Redhead,
Sweet Charity
and
Chicago
. The entire crowd rose to give Verdon a final hand.

Most who attended the memorial were invited but the event was also open to the public. Some 500 seats were filled by people who had begun lining up along 44th Street three hours before the ceremonies began. The audience had its share of grayhairs, but many others were children, or were not even born, when Verdon last appeared on Broadway in 1975 in
Chicago
. Yet she touched their spirit, some of them said, reaffirming the ageless truth that young people were often molded by forces far removed from their lives. It was no coincidence that the memorial took place at the Broadhurst Theatre. This was where
Fosse
was playing, and next door was the Shubert Theatre where the revival of
Chicago
played. Cynics might comment that this provided for hype, but Broadway and the theater could always be self-referential and self-promoting. Perhaps no one would have appreciated the fact more than Verdon herself.

In the years that followed Verdon’s death, several of her co-workers also passed on and their
New York Times
obituaries made mention of her relationship to them. These included Ray Walston, Albert Hague, Cy Coleman, Cy Feuer, Sidney Sheldon, Gretchen Wyler, David Shaw, Michael Kidd, Richard Adler, and Martin Richards. Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” music video (2008) returned Verdon’s name briefly to popular culture, as did the release of the 2002 film
Chicago
, the revival of the stage shows
Chicago
,
Can-Can
,
Sweet Charity, Damn Yankees
,
New Girl in Town
, and the Jack Cole Project
Heat Wave
.

On November 20, 2013, Sam Wasson’s biography of Fosse was published by Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Wasson chose his subject too late to talk to Verdon but he quotes one friend of hers who describes Verdon’s way of dancing and cooking. When she made clam sauce for spaghetti, she did it “interrupting stirs with pliés.” Verdon kept spices high in a cupboard, doing arabesques as she reached for them. Wasson also provides an artful description of Verdon as “a luscious lollipop person with a voice she said sounded like a 78 r.p.m. record with a wobble in it.”-

Verdon’s second retirement from performing did not stop her from working in other capacities. She is said to have acted as Fosse’s assistant on the musical version of the Preston Sturges’ 1944 war comedy film
Hail the Conquering Hero
, renamed
The Conquering Hero
. However Margery Beddow in her book on Fosse claims that his assistants were she and Robert Tucker. Beddow is credited in the Broadway cast as a dancer but Tucker is not.

The star was in attendance at rehearsals at the New Amsterdam Theatre in October 1960 when Fosse had a seizure. He fell to the floor from the table where he had been sitting and struck his head. His arm and leg thrashing, eyeballs rolling and mouth frothing indicated an epileptic seizure. Verdon was in a side chair and went to Fosse, turning him on his side so that he would not choke on his froth and covered him with her sweater. Her calmness suggested that this was not the first time that she had been witness to such an attack. Fosse had for many years taken the seizure medication Dilantin which generally worked, although a lack of sleep and emotional stress could make it ineffective. He had attributed the epilepsy to a head injury from falling from a horse when his foot got caught in the stirrup and he was dragged a distance. (There was no witness to the horse incident so it was believed that the real reason was that the condition was genetic.) A source says that when Verdon came to his aid, she cried out, “Call BUtterfield 8–1234” which was the telephone number for Fosse’s psychiatrist. She placed her knee under his head to stop Fosse banging it on the stage, and shooed the crowd away. Fosse’s doctor injected him with a sedative. Verdon instructed the show’s stage manager, Philburn Friedman, what to do if there was another seizure and she was not around.

The next day she was at Fosse’s apartment on Central Park West when the show’s book writer Larry Gelbart came for a script conference. Fosse blamed Gelbart for setting off the seizure. Later Fosse would say that he felt the seizure came from his Seconal withdrawal, particularly since he stopped taking it cold turkey. This was something he couldn’t admit at the time, since his epilepsy and his drug addiction were secrets held by him and Verdon. They believed that if they were made public, it would cost Fosse work.

When the show had tryouts in New Haven in November, Verdon ran many of the dance rehearsals as Fosse directed. She was particularly annoyed by dancers who “marked” (i.e., walked) through a number that had been choreographed and not perform full out. Verdon asked why they marked for her when they wouldn’t have for Fosse, and she was told it was because she was not the show’s choreographer. The company moved to the National Theatre in Washington in November 1960, and another argument between the producer, Gelbart and Fosse over cut lines had Verdon drag the director offstage because she was scared that he would have another seizure. Fosse was so unhappy that he told her that he didn’t want to go to rehearsal and he clutched a Mexican statue of Jesus screaming, “Why don’t you help me?” Verdon led him to rehearsals, sometimes forcibly.