A Tribute: Gwen Verdon
Two years after her role in "Can-Can," Verdon was elevated to total stage stardom as the devil's amorous assistant in "Damn Yankees," a musical about a baseball fan who sells his soul so he can play for his favorite team, the Washington Senators.
Most of Verdon's outstanding success came in her collaborations with her husband, director and choreographer Bob Fosse, whom she married in 1960. Besides "Damn Yankees" and "Chicago," they worked together on such musicals as an adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie," and "Sweet Charity" (1966), in which she starred as the love-struck streetwalker with a heart of gold (years before Julia Roberts' "Pretty Woman" came along).
But not all of her turns on Broadway were successes - in 1972, the actress performed in "Children, Children," a straight play that closed on its opening night. Apparently her audiences only wanted to see her in musicals.
Her last Broadway appearance was in "Chicago" in 1975 with Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach.
Fosse and Verdon inspired each other when they were together, and remained friends even after their marriage broke up. They separated in 1975 but never divorced. They had one daughter, Nicole. In 1987, Fosse collapsed and died of a heart attack just before the opening of a revival of "Sweet Charity" in Washington. Verdon was with him at the time. In the 1940s, Verdon had been married to James Henaghan, and was divorced in 1947. They had one son, Jimmy.
Verdon often helped Fosse with revivals of his shows. She worked closely with Fosse to re-create the original choreography for that revival of "Sweet Charity," starring Debbie Allen, She also helped oversee the current Broadway dance production of "Fosse," which won the 1999 Tony Award for best musical.
Verdon was quoted as once saying, "For some reason, I can always remember the dances, even from shows I did 40 years ago. I guess that's because I always did each show for about two years. So if you play the music, it just comes back to me." Verdon made only a few movies in Hollywood, but did repeat her Broadway success in the 1958 film version of "Damn Yankees." Among her other movies were "The Cotton Club" (1984), "Cocoon" (1985) and "Marvin's Room" (1996).
In the 18 months before her death, she had completed work on the film "Bruno," directed by Shirley MacLaine, and "Walking Across Egypt," directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman. Hopefully
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