Tag Archives: Sam Rockwell

FOSSE, VERDON, AND ALL THAT JAZZ

In anticipation of the upcoming limited series FOSSE/VERDON—the story of the personal and professional collaboration between director-choreographer Bob Fosse (1927–1987) and dancer-actor Gwen Verdon (1925–2000)—LACMA presents a screening of Fosse’s extraordinary “semi-autobiographical” film ALL THAT JAZZ (1979), featuring a tour de force performance by the late Roy Scheider.

Three nights later, the museum hosts a big-screen presentation of “Life is a Cabaret,” chapter one of FOSSE/VERDON, which stars Sam Rockwell as Fosse and Michelle Williams as Verdon. The series will air on FX from April 9.

Fosse was one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century dance, and the footprints—and indelible attitude—of his choreography in Cabaret, Chicago, Damn Yankees, The Pajama Game, and Sweet Charity are still apparent in works being created today.

ALL THAT JAZZ

Monday, April 1, at 7:30 pm.

FOSSE/VERDON

Thursday, April 4, at 7:30 pm.

Bing Theater, LACMA

5955 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.

From top: Michelle Williams as Gwen Verdon and Sam Rockwell as Bob Fosse in Fosse/Verdon(2019); Roy Scheider in All That Jazz; Fosse backstage at New York’s City Center during the 1963 production of Pal Joey; Tab Hunter and Verdon in Damn Yankees (1958), courtesy New York Library for the Performing Arts; Liza Minnelli and Fosse on set, Cabaret (1972); Rockwell and Williams in Fosse/Verdon.

DAY AT ZENITH

Is THE PAJAMA GAME (1957) the “first left-wing operetta,” as Jean-Luc Godard once famously called it? What’s not in doubt is that Doris Day is at her peak in this, the last of her great musicals for Warner Bros.

The film was directed by Stanley Donen and George Abbott, and co-starred Broadway powerhouse John Raitt as a factory superintendent to Day’s union team leader.

Bob Fosse choreographed the musical numbers—“Steam Heat” is an early triumph for this master of dance—and this weekend the UCLA Film and Television Archive will present a 35mm print screening of the film as part of their series Fosse, Fosse, Fosse! A Retrospective.

(DAMN YANKEES—directed by the same two filmmakers and starring Tab Hunter and Fosse’s wife Gwen Verdon—fills out the double-bill. Fosse and Verdon will be played by Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams in an upcoming FX series.)

 

THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES, Saturday, August 18, at 7:30 pm.

BILLY WILDER THEATER, Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, Los Angeles.

cinema.ucla.edu/pajama-game-damn-yankees

cinema.ucla.edu/fosse-a-retrospective

See: artforum.com/melissa-anderson-on-the-pajama-game

Above: Doris Day and John Raitt. Publicity photo for The Pajama Game.

Below: Day (center) in The Pajama Game. Image credit for both: Warner Bros.