Gwen Verdon: A Life on Stage and Screen (29 page)

Verdon went out to the Coast and auditioned 260 girls, from which she only chose two. Back in New York she logged five- and six-day work weeks to prepare the company, which made its debut in Los Angeles. Even after the show had opened, Verdon continued to work with the dancers, particularly since some of the cast members only had six-month contracts, so she had to line up replacements.

In a
Times
article by Tony Chiu (July 24, 1979), Verdon commented that she regarded herself as one of the best choreographic assistants around, but she had no desire to create her own show. This feeling had come after her unhappy experience at the Lido in Paris in 1949. Verdon was also watching for a Broadway comedy to perform in after she had finished her duties on
Dancin.’
She said that good scripts were rare and that another problem was people’s perception of her that might stop her from being cast in such a role. To many she was still a dancer and they didn’t consider her an actress. The article featured a photograph of Verdon with fellow dancer and dance master Christopher Chadman demonstrating a step at the King Studio. In it she wore her hair tied up and had a long black-sleeved sweater and pants.

Interviewed in the November 1979 issue of
Life
, Fosse spoke about how Nicole had lived with him when she attended Manhattan’s Dalton School after things had gotten uptight between her and Verdon. He saw that the problem was having two women in the same household, and also that his wife was more strict with their daughter than he was. Then in 1978 Nicole went away to the North Carolina School of the Arts.

On December 2, 1979, Verdon attended the Kennedy Center Honors gala at the White House in Washington, presumably to support Martha Graham, one of the five artists honored for lifetime achievement in the performing arts. She was reportedly greeted at the reception by Rosalynn Carter and Joan Mondale since President Carter and Vice-President Walter Mondale were unavailable. The event was filmed to be televised by CBS on December 29, 1979; Verdon cannot be seen in the viewed footage. On December 23 she coordinated a gala with James Lipton for the American Ballet Theatre at a theater as a benefit for their unemployment-support fund. The gala was followed by a dinner at Tavern on the Green.

On May 18, 1980, Verdon participated in a gala performance at the Shubert Theatre to mark the 10th anniversary of the Puerto Rican Dance Theatre. On July 12 she and Nicole attended the Grand Opening of Laundry in East Hampton. On August 28, Verdon presented the film of
Damn Yankees
with composer Richard Adler at the Film Makers of the Hamptons Festival devoted to “Music and the Movies” at Guild Hall’s John Drew Theatre. On October 19, she was hostess of the Celebrity Auction at the Bruno Walter Auditorium of the New York Public Library’s Lincoln Center branch to benefit same. Reporting on the event in the October 20
New York Times
, Laurie Johnston said that Verdon commented on the celebrities who had been collected to join her in the running of the auction. She told the audience, “I hope you’re impressed with this stageful of people—I was about to faint when I saw them all.” Verdon also told the audience that she expected a lot from them since they were outnumbered by the celebrities.

She mounted an abbreviated version of
The Nutcracker
at the John Drew Theatre in East Hampton to be performed on December 22 and 23, 1980. The corps de ballet was made up of students from the American School of Ballet, the American Ballet School and the Joffrey Ballet School. The show, choreographed by Kirk Peterson, marked Verdon’s debut as a producer, sharing the honor with Peter S. Diggins, Peterson and Gary Chryst. She also appeared in it, waltzing in the first act as Clara’s Mother Ginger, and in the second act wore the pink sequined ball gown that Gertrude Lawrence wore in
The King and I
. Verdon’s interest in the production came from the fact that Nicole was currently studying at the American School of Ballet and she made her professional debut in the Arabian dance in the show. Verdon said that she had done everything for the show, from casting, to begging costumes, to buying point shoes, and even raising the money for their mini-budget. She also acted as a housemother by putting up all the dancers at her place, and in the city when they rehearsed there.

The project began in October when Verdon attended a ballet performance at the John Drew. It was sold out and the audience went crazy so she asked Anthony Stimac, the managing director of the theater, if they had ever done a
Nutcracker
there. When he told her no, she said that she could do it. Verdon decided to go ahead because she thought it would be great fun. She thought that raising the money would be the biggest problem but it worked out well. The budget was obtained partly from the John Drew Children’s Workshop and friends, including Fosse whom she asked to pay for new leotards and skirts. Other help was provided by the local high school whose band lent their uniform tunics. The children’s mothers made costumes that couldn’t be borrowed.

Verdon commented about her daughter’s debut, saying that she had left her career choice up to her. Despite being around dancers and knowing the demands it made and the discipline it took, it is what Nicole wanted. Verdon said that when it came to dance, motherhood went out the window. When all of the kids auditioned, she watched her daughter and forgot who she was, and realized that she was really good. Verdon was already planning to do the show again the next year in East Hampton. Next time she wanted to do it with a larger company and at the high school where there was a bigger stage and more seats. Verdon had compromised for this production by only having seven of the sixty snowflakes that choreographer George Balanchine had in the New York City Ballet’s production. Next year she wanted at least ten.

On March 18, 1981, Verdon attended the opening of “Paul Revere’s Ride,” a one-hour musical version of the Boston epic poem which told of the silversmith and his involvement with a British spy. The show was a benefit done by the Performing Arts Repertory Theatre at the Martin Theatre in the Dalton School, with a book by Allen Cruikshank and John Allen, lyrics by Jill Gorham and music by Malcolm Dodds. There was a reception that Verdon attended after the show. On April 5 she was elected by a group of drama critics and editors as a new member into the Theatre Hall of Fame in “A Tribute to Broadway” at the Uris Theatre. Membership required that a person had a career spanning at least 25 years on Broadway and more than five major credits. The event was sponsored by Revlon and featured performances by Ann Reinking and the American Dance Machine.

On April 14 Verdon attended a fund-raising gala for the Paul Taylor Dance Company at the City Center. She was also part of the entertainment, being in the chorus of the song “From Sea to Shining Sea,” (Rudolph Nureyev placed a glass on her backside) and as Betsy Ross (who got her thread stuck). On May 17, the
New York Times
reported that Verdon had given her support to the novel
Mirrors
by James Lipton which was published by St. Martin’s Press. The novel was described by the author as a tribute to dancers—not to the glory of a Fonteyn or a Nureyev but to all the Broadway ‘‘gypsies’’ who share the spotlight and never possess the limelight. She was quoted as saying that “at last dancers (usually mute) have a spokesman.”

She was interviewed by Suzanne Daley at her Central Park West penthouse for the
New York Times
of May 17, 1981. Daley said Verdon’s hair was now the color of peach ice cream and that her dining room was sparsely furnished with oak antiques and little trees in big pots. On one wall were pen and ink drawings that Nicole did several years earlier; there were no signs of her Broadway past. By this time Verdon and Fosse had been separated for ten years. She told Daley that she could still dance but would no longer consider doing a Broadway musical because she couldn’t dance for as long as she used to be able to. Verdon said there was no point working on technique because that boat left the dock a long time ago. Dancers died twice: the first time when they realized they were no longer the kind of athletes they were. It was a hard realization and you could either mope around or just go on. She chose the latter, trying her hand at producing, and putting together an abbreviated version of
The Nutcracker
at the John Drew Theatre.

In the summer Verdon planned to go to China on a teaching and performing tour of six cities, accompanying Ben Stevenson, the artistic director of the Houston Ballet. She was to assist in teaching dancers at the Peking Dance Academy some of Stevenson’s ballets. She found that the Chinese were rigid dancers because they use a very old Russian technique so Verdon planned to teach theater dance to help them use emotion to act the dances. All in all she was happy. Life had been terrific to her which made her truly appreciate even a blade of grass, and an ant crawling up it. For the future Verdon most of all wanted to make the transition from musicals to comedies. She wanted to play a woman her own age—a wacky 50-year-old woman.

In June 1981 Verdon was presented with the National Film Society’s Artistry in Cinema Award for lifetime achievement in musical comedy at New York’s Sheraton-Center. One of the speakers at the ceremony was Francis Ford Coppola who would later cast Verdon in his film
The Cotton Club
(1984). He also read her a congratulatory telegram from her friend Gene Nelson.

Also in June, Verdon hosted the Showtime television special
The American Dance Machine: A Celebration of Broadway Dance
. Directed by Philip Gay, the show was a stage performance recorded at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It was performed by the American Dance Machine company and guest artists as part of their initiative to put rescued Broadway dance numbers in front of an audience. Wearing red silk pajamas and briefly a white shawl and black hat and clogs, Verdon introduced the dances and songs presented. She also did some brief dance moves as part of her introductions. These included a ballroom dance with Lee Roy Reams, who said that he never got to dance with her in
Sweet Charity
on stage. Reams said she choreographed this dance for them in the style of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers number ‘‘The Continental.” Verdon also led the marching dances for their bows at the end of the show. While her eye-line sometimes made it apparent that she was reading the introductions, Verdon also inserted some humor into her duties.

On August 7, 1981, Verdon and Christopher Chadman produced an all-star evening of cabaret dance entitled “The Great White Way Cabaret.” On August 8 the team also produced, directed and choreographed “An Affectionate Look at 50 Years of American Musical Theatre.” Both events were part of the weeklong festival celebration of the 50th anniversary of East Hampton’s Guild Hall acknowledging ‘‘50 Years of American Dance’.’

Verdon made a guest appearance in the two-part episode of the CBS comedy and war drama
M*A*S*H
, “That’s Show Biz” (October 26, 1981). It was written by David Pollock and Elias Davis and directed by Charles S. Dubin. The series was a follow-up to the film
MASH
(1970) directed by Robert Altman, about the staff of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the Korean War. In the episode, Verdon played Brandy Doyle, an ex-stripper who was part of an U.S.O. tour troupe that visited the unit when one of their singers, Marina (Gail Edwards) needed an appendectomy. Because of road restrictions, they are forced to stay for a few days in the camp, and the troupe gets to do a show in the hospital’s post-operative ward. Brandy sings and dances to “Cuddle Up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine” and also appears as a nurse in the comedy sketch of Freddie (Danny Dayton).

Brandy has two subplots: She has to make Margaret (Loretta Swit) less nervous about sharing her tent with her, and she has a romantic interest in Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan). The first subplot is resolved after Brandy confesses that she is just as lonely as Margaret, being a divorced woman—although Brandy has had five husbands. This plot point also has her show that she wears a hairpiece to demonstrate that her appearance is constructed. The second subplot has her accept Potter’s invitation to share a bottle of Scotch in his tent, since he knows her from her days as a stripper. This pays off the point that Brandy feels that the soldiers she entertains only see her as an aging burlesque performer who parodies her sex appeal. The idea that she wants to seduce Potter or that he might violate his marriage vows to sleep with her is resolved when he falls unconscious from drinking, whereas Brandy holds her liquor.

Verdon amusingly sashays and vamps as Brandy, and the subplots allow her to demonstrate Brandy’s bravado and vulnerability. One’s disappointment in not seeing her dance is rationalized by her playing a stripper and not a dancer. Dubin’s direction of the troupe’s musical numbers presents them in the reality of the improvised performance space. Our view of the entertainers is hindered by the framing of those observing them. Dubin also employs cutaway reaction shots. Verdon gets a funny line after Brandy gives patients dirty cookies. When a soldier starts to read one, she says, “Please, fellas. There are women present. Speak up so we can hear ya!” For the “Cuddle Up” number, Verdon wears a silver shimmery long dress with a leg split and garter, feather boa, and long pink gloves with jewelry. To visit Potter, Brandy wears red silk lounging pajamas which recall Verdon’s costume from the
American Dance Machine
television special, and at one point she does a stretch-kick as she lies on his bunk. The morning after Brandy has stayed in Margaret’s tent, as she approaches the truck to leave the camp, she shows her a hip thrust dance move which Margaret copies. Brandy also kisses Potter goodbye on the mouth twice; he doesn’t object, which suggests that there is a mutual attraction. The star said that she loved doing the episode. She played a lady “who was over the hill who had a crush on a man who was also over the hill but love is love so it doesn’t matter how old you are.” Verdon didn’t have to play old as a character part with lots of added wrinkles because she admitted that her age was obvious and she already had the wrinkles.