Michele Williams and Sam Rockwell both deserve Emmys for their brilliant work in Fosse/Verdon. Rockwell plays the talented, self-centered, narcissistic, and self-destructive Bob Fosse. Michele Williams plays Gwen Verdon, his loving and long-suffering wife. Their decades-long relationship goes through ups and downs. Fosse sleeps with his dancers who work in productions. When Fosse struggles with filming Caberet in Europe, he begs Gwen Verdon to fly over and help him. When Gwen gets there, she finds Fosse sleeping with his translator.
We discover why Bob Fosse behaves the ways he does in a series of flashbacks to his youth. Gwen Verdon becomes obsessed with bringing Chicago to Broadway. She needs a damaged Bob Fosse to do it. The struggle of both of these characters on the TV screen is both tragic and fascinating. There’s some great dancing, great acting, and a compelling story in this limited series. But some of it is hard to watch…just like Real Life. GRADE: A
I agree. Michelle Williams’s performance has been eye-opening. She is wonderful as Verdon. As we have always been big fans of CABARET and CHICAGO and other Fosse-directed shows and movies, we’ve also been enjoying that aspect. The ALL THAT JAZZ elements – doing LENNY followed by CHICAGO, with a heart attack in between – worked too, for those who know the story. The man seems incredibly self-destructive.
Jeff, I’m awed by Michelle Williams in a difficult role. She has to sing, dance, and take care of a serial womanizer. I hope FOSSE/VERDON wins plenty of Emmys! We need more of this kind of quality on cable.
I hope Netflix picks it up. I only got to see the first episode.
Patti, if you have On Demand, FX has all the episodes available.
Jeff, we have ON DEMAND but sometimes it takes a week for recent episodes to become available.
Patti, you might be able to watch it ON DEMAND or at the FX web site where you can watch it for free.