Gwen Verdon: A Life on Stage and Screen (26 page)

The ending for the show was another source of disagreement. Verdon felt that Roxie needed to have a triumphant moment to take back power and win the day after everyone runs out on her, like “Rose’s Turn” in
Gypsy
. But Fosse wouldn’t have it because he wanted Roxie to end up wounded. Some thought this was because Fosse wanted Verdon to be wounded to keep her from walking away with the show, as he had feared she had done in the past. Others considered it a Fosse strategy to keep her fighting as Roxie fought for her own moment. Ironically he would not cater to Rivera’s demand for more dancing for her in the show because he felt this might show up Verdon.

The company moved to Philadelphia for tryouts. The first preview was a disaster. Some members of the audience were terrific but there were also walkouts. The reviews were savage. Fosse would seek solace after each performance at the Variety Club in the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, although Verdon’s absence was notable. Perhaps she felt humiliated by Fosse’s blatant references at rehearsals to sleeping with the girls in the show. Perhaps she didn’t want to be witness to his old habits of smoking and drinking that she knew would inevitably kill him. Gene Foote played Aaron in the show and said that cast members were getting notes one day and Verdon and Rivera were on the stage. Fosse said he had individual notes to give to them but they said it was okay to do so in front of the others. Fosse told them that he realized that they were both very big stars but in one number it would be very nice if they could dance together like chorus girls. And in particular, he told Verdon that she needed to shake her shoulders. She told him that he knew that she couldn’t shake her shoulders.

Verdon (left) and Chita Rivera in their stage show
 
Chicago
 
(1975–1977).

The new ending consisted of two numbers, “It” and “Loopin’ the Loop.” It began with Verdon playing the saxophone and Rivera the drums and ended with the both of them dancing triumphantly and thanking the audience. The documentary
The Music of Kander & Ebb: Razzle Dazzle
includes home movies of this number. Verdon said that she made up a tune on the sax and it was orchestrated, which she found very funny because she thought both she and Rivera were terrible on the instruments. Verdon also commented in the documentary, “[Fosse] was never interested in just entertaining the audience—he could go for the jugular vein.” However this ending wasn’t thought to work. Tony Stevens said that Verdon screamed and cried and hollered in the theater’s lobby because she had had it with Fosse. She felt that the cynical ending wouldn’t satisfy the audience. He went to Kander and Ebb and they wrote “Nowadays” as a replacement.

Ann Reinking says that the song came from Fosse, asking for a list of all the things that life had to offer for the two characters. The next day it was played for Fosse, Verdon and Rivera. Ebb said that Verdon wanted to sing it by herself although it had been devised to be sung by both women. Rivera said that her co-star demanded it, and that this was the first time she had seen Verdon stand up to Fosse. The emotion of the confrontation supposedly brought Verdon to tears and her body started to convulse. Fosse had the song played again with Verdon singing it. Rivera claimed that she couldn’t get through it because she was so upset. Fosse still disagreed and thought that she ought to sing it with Rivera. Apparently this turned into a terrible ruckus which made John Kander eventually leave so he wouldn’t have to witness it. Kander said that Rivera began crying and handed notes to Ebb saying “Give it to her!” Another source claims that Rivera joined Verdon singing the song when Verdon couldn’t get through it and Rivera told him this was how the number was going to be done. She supposedly told Fosse that she didn’t care what he thought of her or how he felt about Verdon. Verdon claimed that she knew Fosse’s decision to have the women split the number was designed to provoke backstage tension that they could transfer onstage to their characters. But despite this, she still wanted to sing it alone. His choice prevailed and the song was done as a duet. Ebb and Kander went backstage after the first night that it was performed as such. They congratulated Verdon who supposedly told them, “You see, if you only stand up to him, you’ll get exactly what you want.” This comment seemed cryptic since neither of them had stood up to Fosse, and when she had, she didn’t get what she wanted.

Anther out-of-town problem was the number “My Own Best Friend,” a take-off of the over-dramatic Edith Piaf ballad. In the middle of it Verdon and Rivera sat back to back and had long monologues about their lives. After watching the show one day in the first week of previews, the two women were seen sliding across the stage. Apparently they had written their monologues in the glow-tape on the floor and they were both moving to read them. The next day, the monologues were cut. Verdon would comment that the show was Fosse’s mix of theater and politics, and his reaction to Watergate. The corruption in his home town in the 1920s was reflected in the show’s series of vaudeville acts. Verdon also said that Fosse brought sensuality to the stage—not just being sexy, but real eroticism.

On April 27, 1975, the
New York Times
reported that
Chicago
’s preview period had been extended by two weeks and opening night was now to be June 3. After 24 previews from May 12 the show opened on Broadway on the third and ran until August 27, 1977. Verdon appeared at the opening party at the Rainbow Room wearing a low-cut sequined spaghetti-strap dress and feather boa, with Nicole.

The show received a mixed review by Clive Barnes in the
New York Times
. But he praised Verdon’s superlative knock-’em-in-the-aisles performance that glittered like gold dust, saying that she danced her heart out and that her voice was all candy innocence–but also naughtily suggestive of untold viciousness. A Walter Kerr article in the
New York Times
on June 8, 1975, featured an Al Hirschfeld caricature of Verdon. Harris Green’s
New York Times
article of July 20, 1975, “Is the Broadway Musical Changing Its Tune?” included the comment that Verdon was not what she once was but she was still something at half-speed.

The original cast recording was made between June 17 and 22, 1975. It was reviewed in the
New York Times
by John S. Wilson (August 31, 1975). As he had done with
Pippin
to bolster box office, Fosse again made a one-minute television commercial for
Chicago
, although oddly it did not feature Verdon or Rivera. Rather it showed chorus girls in flimsy costumes dancing slowly and writhing on the floor singing “All That Jazz.”

During the run, Verdon missed performances. She was replaced by her understudy Lenora Nemetz on July 28 and from July 30 to August 7; by Liza Minnelli from August 8 to September 13; and by Ann Reinking on February 7, 1977. Minnelli stepped in while Verdon recovered from a minor throat ailment, said to have occurred after she sucked down confetti thrown at her in the “My Own Best Friend” number. She was expected to return on September 15, 1975. Minnelli had seen the show in Philadelphia, when she had gone with Goldie Hawn as they were interested in doing the movie version together. She supposedly suggested herself to replace Verdon when she was told by Fred Ebb of the crisis. Verdon may have felt a twinge of resentment, despite the fact that she liked Minnelli, but that would have been overridden by the profit the star’s presence in the show would mean for Verdon’s investment. Her appearance was kept low-key with the producers posting a chaste billboard outside the theater and a
sotto voce
announcement before the show. No mention of her was made in the Playbill. But Minnelli’s dates were quickly sold out. The losses that had been made with Nemetz were now more than made up for. Minnelli was said to be doing the show as a favor to her friends Fosse, Kander and Ebb, and presumably she also saw it as a grand rehearsal for the movie. Fosse was said to be concerned over Verdon’s reaction to the reception Minnelli got in the show (audiences were on their feet as if they were at a rock concert). Security guards were stationed on the street at the lip of the stage to keep them back. A press embargo was imposed so that no new reviews would be written but it was lifted after Clive Barnes threatened a
New York Times
boycott of the future shows of Fryer and Cresson.

Barnes wrote in the
Times
(August 15, 1975) that any comparison between the stars was silly. He likened it to comparing a white wine with a red wine, since Verdon was a dancer who sang and Minnelli a singer who danced. Barnes said that both were separately and distinctively adorable. The article increased box office sales and Minnelli was presented with the key to the city by New York Mayor Abe Beame on the stage. The increased sales continued after Minnelli left and Verdon returned, so the former’s appearance had worked well for the show. The latter also proved that Verdon still had popular appeal, even if it was not as fervent as that of Minnelli.

During the run there had been talk of Verdon and Rivera role-switching, in true repertory tradition, but that never materialized. After returning to the show and playing it for two years, Verdon wanted to do other things. She was replaced by Reinking after Verdon trained her in the part. This act was typical of her generosity, but perhaps more so, because she knew that Reinking was also her replacement as Fosse’s love interest. Verdon would later say that the replacement had extraordinary symmetry because pieces simply fell into place. She also said that she had no desire to go down in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest dancing star, and laughed with mischievous glee when she added, “Chita’s going to do that!” The critical belief was that Reinking at 26 was too young for the part which had been vacated by the 51-year-old. However her greater physical ability did allow Fosse to make adjustments in the show to tailor it for his new leading lady.

As with
Sweet Charity
, the movie version of
Chicago
also eluded Verdon. Fosse was interested in doing it but never came up with a hook for transferring it from stage to screen. Then he said he wasn’t interested because he didn’t want to make another movie musical. Also, Fosse had resolved after
Sweet Charity
never to do onscreen what he had already done on stage. He likened it to trying to go back to an old girlfriend. Producer Marty Richards continued to urge him to make the film; Fosse finally relented and planned to attend the first production meeting on September 24, 1987. He died on September 23 and Richards shelved the idea. Over the years various actors and directors were rumored to be interested or attached to the project, and in 2002 it was finally made by director Rob Marshall with Renee Zellweger as Roxie. Chita Rivera was given a token cameo in the film, but not Verdon, who died in 2000.

The June 5, 1975, performance of
Chicago
was a binary benefit for the American Music and Dramatic Academy which taught dancers to act and actors to dance. The second part of the benefit had a scholarship inaugurated in Verdon’s name at a supper party at Sardi’s.

She was interviewed by Clarke Taylor for
People
magazine article published on June 23, 1975. Verdon commented on her prostitute roles coloring her world view of love, and her championing of causes which had seen her support candidates Adlai Stevenson, Gene McCarthy and George McGovern. Her other life included teaching dance to instructors and therapists who worked with brain-damaged kids. She also served on the board of directors of New York’s Postgraduate Center for Mental Health.

Verdon continued her practical passion for organic gardening, food-buying cooperatives and domestic crafts. She had decided that Nicole would learn that you didn’t have to get mayonnaise off the supermarket shelf—you could make it! And Verdon wanted her to know that there was a time when people did things like make soap, lace and so forth. Her personal life now consisted of her son Jimmy, who was an actor and trucking operator, her daughter Nicole, and Jerry Lanning. The article had photographs of Verdon in
Chicago
, at the first night party with Fosse, Nicole and Lanning, and on the terrace of her Central Park West penthouse. It was reported that it was once owned by press lord William Randolph Hearst and set up for his starlet mistress, Marion Davies. Verdon now lived in it with an aviary of twenty birds, six cats, and her organic garden. In this latter photograph she stood in front of an iron gate, leaning against a brick wall and wearing a white sweater and pants with a dark belt and a dark scarf.

On July 22, 1975, Verdon, Rivera and Orbach were guests on NBC’s news and talk series
The Today Show
. After being out because of illness, Verdon return to
Chicago
on September 15 but after working three nights, the show was halted because of a musicians’ strike. She was on call in case the strike was settled in time for the performance. Verdon said that it was like being adrift because she got so psyched up to do the show that she didn’t dare let down. She always thought backstage was like a prison yard with everyone pacing around. Verdon had received a telephone call from a stranger calling from Rome asking if the show would play the next Saturday matinee and she had to advise the caller that she didn’t know. When the caller said that they would come the following Saturday, Verdon told them to come on backstage and say hello. If the strike was to continue, Verdon suggested that the show go back to Philadelphia. They could run a bus service or make a deal with Amtrak to have dinner on the train and then bus people to the theater for a nine o’clock curtain. She was concerned about the effects of an extended strike. Verdon wished that New York City could accept the fact that it was an attraction, like topless dancers and gambling were in Las Vegas. She felt that tourists came to the city to see the Empire State Building, crime in the streets, and the Broadway Theater.