Gwen Verdon: A Life on Stage and Screen (36 page)

On March 24, 1992, Verdon attended the opening night of the stage show
Jake’s Women
at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York City, with Nicole. She wore a black dress with black coat and gold necklace. On April 14 she appeared at the sixth annual Easter Bonnet Competition to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS at the Palace Theatre. This was the first of three times that she would appear at the event. She wore a dark green dress with black coat and a red AIDS ribbon.

Verdon promoting the documentary on Bob Fosse on
Great Performances: Dance in America
.

Verdon made a guest appearance on the HBO comedy series
Dream On
episode “For Peter’s Sake” (June 20, 1992). The show centered on Martin Tupper (Brian Benben), a Manhattan book editor. The gimmick for the series was that it featured clips from old films which were used as metaphors for Martin’s reactions, as well as cable television swearing. The episode was written by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and directed by Betty Thomas. It has Martin needing a book about someone dying from AIDS as the publisher’s major Christmas release, and choosing dying author Peter Brewer (David Clennon). Verdon plays Peter’s mother Kitty and appears in two scenes. Her voice is first heard on Peter’s intercom, and Kitty appears in a red suit with black scarf. Verdon plays comedy lines, like telling Peter, “Chicken is not meat, it’s chicken,” after he tells her that he doesn’t eat meat, and responding to his “I don’t have room in the fridge” with “You’ll just have to eat more.” She also supplies poignancy when asking Martin, who pretends to be Peter’s lover, to promise to take care of her son. Verdon’s second scene occurs after Peter had died and she is in his empty apartment. She wears a black blouse and pants with a gray jacket and supplies stillness in her sadness. Kitty’s character provides the counterbalance to the script’s tactless jokes about AIDS and gay men, since she is accepting of her son and his situation.

In 1992, Verdon, as the custodian of the Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon Collection, made a gift to the Library of Congress of 54, 840 items in 328 boxes and 114 containers covering material from 1960 to 1987. It included production, project and performance materials, including scripts and set designs; business and personal papers and correspondence; songbooks, printed music scores and choreographic notes; photographs, posters and scrapbooks; and audio-visual materials. On January 25, 1993, she attended the 21st Annual Theatre Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City.

Verdon made a guest appearance in the NBC crime drama
Homicide: Life on the Street
episode “A Ghost of a Chance” (February 3, 1993). The show, filmed on location in Baltimore, was set in the police homicide department of that city. The episode was written by Noel Behn and based on a story by Tom Fontana, and directed by Martin Campbell. The narrative has three police investigations, one of which is the death of Thomas Doohen (John Habberton) led by John Munch (Richard Belzer) and Stanley Bolander (Ned Beatty). Doohen’s wife Jessie (Verdon) calls the police to her home after he collapses from a heart attack and she fears he is dead. He revives but the police are called back again when he suffers a second attack and is now definitely dead. Medical examiner Carol Blythe (Wendy Hughes) determines that the death is murder because Jessie admits to dragging his unconscious body and throwing him down a flight of stairs into the house’s cellar. Bolander refuses to charge Jessie because he finds it more a case of death by neglect. Verdon only appears in two scenes as the gray-haired 80-year-old Jessie, with spectacles on a chain and a powder-blue suit. She expresses her resentment of her husband who had refused to take her to Paris for their sixtieth wedding anniversary. The fact that Verdon received an Emmy nomination as Guest Actress in a Drama Series for this performance is a surprise because it is so brief, and the writing doesn’t allow the actress to do much with the part.

She next made a guest appearance in the Fox comedy television series
Key West
in the episode “Gimme Shelter” (March 9, 1993). The episode was written by Kathryn Baker and directed by Chuck Bowman. The series, filmed on location in Key West and Miami, centered on Seamus O’Neill (Fisher Stevens), a New Jersey factory worker and wannabe writer who wins the lottery and moves to Key West where his idol, Ernest Hemingway, had lived. Seamus takes a job as a reporter for
The Meteor
, a local newspaper, and meets the various eccentric locals. As Sister Grace, Verdon wears a nun’s habit, alternating between an all-black coif and veil over a white wimple and black dress, and an all-white outfit. Grace is from Atlanta and visiting the island’s parochial school. She tracks down the island’s high end prostitute, Savannah (Jennifer Tilly), a former student, at Gumbo’s bar to ask her to help the school’s sex education teacher Sister Margaret (Miryam Halvorssen) with her class. Most of Grace’s scenes are with Savannah, and Grace has to endure a long one where Savannah berates her for supposedly disapproving of her life, a matter not helped by Tilly’s shrill voice. Grace gets a redemptive backstory scene where she tells Savannah that she used to be Irma Molestski from Detroit, a wild child who sought refuge from her life in the church. Bowman violates Verdon’s speech by cutting to a shot behind her, rather than staying on her face. When Grace asks about Savannah’s life, Savannah tells her that she has a feeling that Grace already knows all about it. Grace replies, “Perhaps, but I’m very willing to listen to your version.”

In the spring of 1993 Verdon received the New Dramatists Lifetime Achievement Award at a luncheon ceremony where co-workers Richard Adler, Chita Rivera, Cy Coleman, John Kander, and Fred Ebb gathered to pay tribute.

On February 4, 1994, Verdon attended and spoke at a program at the Walter Reade Theatre by the Film Society of Lincoln Centre entitled “Capturing Choreography: Masters of Dance and Film.” The evening was curated by Joanna Ney as a tribute to Jack Cole, and his work was represented in 19 film clips. Associates spoke about him, with Verdon providing the aside that Cole used to call Betty Grable “Thumper.” On March 29, 1994, she made her second appearance at the Easter Bonnet Competition which benefited Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS at the Minskoff Theatre in New York. Verdon and Bebe Neuwirth were presenters.

Her next acting job was the supporting role of Etta Bell in the four-hour miniseries
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
(1994), broadcast on CBS on May 1, 1994. Directed by Ken Cameron with a teleplay by Joyce Eliason based on the novel by Allan Gurganus, it was filmed on location in Madison and Milledgeville, Georgia. Etta is a resident of the rest home where the 99-year-old Lucy Honicut Marsden (Anne Bancroft) resides in Falls, North Carolina, for the year leading to Lucy’s one hundredth birthday. Unlike Lucy who has white hair, Verdon retains her red hair for the character, who says that she is 72 though later admits to be older. She is also spared the terrible old age makeup that afflicts Bancroft.

Verdon appears in nine scenes and she uses a Southern accent. Etta’s interest in watching television soap operas prefigures that of Verdon’s Ruth in
Marvin’s Room
, though here it is shown to be an interest shared by most of the home’s residents. Etta is funny in her flirting with another resident, Professor Taw (E.G. Marshall); her face falls after he refuses to dance with her at the home’s Western Day. He tells her, “I would rather die,” and Lucy’s responds, “One dance with Etta and you probably would.” This is then rationalized as a compliment to Etta when Lucy tells her, “You sure can move.” Etta’s upbeat spirit is temporarily broken after she has a mini-stroke and she expresses a depressive state to Lucy who visits her in hospital. However she returns to her old self when Etta is seen wearing a big hat at the town ceremony for Lucy’s one-hundredth birthday. Cameron also supplies lots of shots of Etta reacting to Lucy’s speech, and Verdon also gets to dance twice in the narrative. The first and best opportunity is at the home in reaction to seeing the Dixie Cups, a group of dancing residents. Etta tells Lucy that they wanted her to be one of them but “I’m just plain not old enough,” and she joins the dancers after she says, “I could show them a thing or two.” Verdon’s dancing has her swirling the skirt of her purple dress but, regrettably, Cameron uses cutaways and headless shots of Etta as if to suggest her dancing is done by a double. Verdon’s square dancing on the Western Day only has her seen in a group of dancers.

The show was praised by Patricia O’Conne in
Variety
. John J. O’Connor (the
New York Times
) wrote that Verdon was delightful. The show won Emmy Awards for Cicely Tyson as Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special, and for Art Direction, Costume Design, and Hairstyling.

On May 12, 1994, Verdon attended a Tribute to Bob Fosse at the Film Forum in New York City. She was photographed wearing a black gown with a white collar and black choker, with a sparkling bodice and a jewel at her cleavage, and a red AIDS ribbon. On May 19, she attended the 45th Annual New Dramatists Lifetime Achievement Award Salute to Neil Simon at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York. She wore a black short skirt and jacket with white blouse and black tie. Verdon was photographed at the event with Carol Channing, as well as with Simon and Bebe Neuwirth and Lucie Arnaz. The show was broadcast on NBC on the same night.

On June 12 Verdon was a presenter at the 1994 Tony Awards which were held at the Gershwin Theatre and broadcast live on television on CBS. She appeared with Jean Stapleton and the 106-year-old George Abbott on stage at the end of the salute to musical revivals sequence that opened the show and climaxed with “Heart” from
Damn Yankees
. The three sat in a bleacher box set that was moved to the front of the stage and Verdon helped Stapleton get Abbott on his feet to receive the audience’s standing ovation. She was dressed in the same outfit she had worn at the Fosse Tribute, at the Film Forum. Verdon also raised Abbott’s right hand to wave back at the crowd and she tried to stop the applause by pointing to her watch to indicate that they had to keep moving with the show. She spoke about how the three of them were together for
Damn Yankees
, praised Abbott’s contribution and also said that he was still involved in the theater and announced his forthcoming next birthday. Verdon then spoke into his ear to ask if they should get on with the show, to which Abbott replied that it was a good idea. With this he sat back down and Verdon, Stapleton and the audiences all applauded him. Stapleton read the names of the nominees of the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical and Verdon announced the winner as
Carousel
.

She made the first of two guest appearances on the NBC comedy drama series
The Cosby Mysteries
in the episode “Our Lady of Cement,” which was broadcast on September 28, 1994. The series was filmed in New York and centered on Guy Hanks (Bill Cosby), a retired New York City Police Department forensic scientist, who occasionally helped his friend Detective Adam Sully (James Naughton) on cases. The episode was written by Alphonse Ruggiero, Jr., based on a story by Robert Van Scoyk, and directed by Philip J. Sgriccia. The narrative has Guy revisit his first case when the body of Mrs. Olivia Bellini is found entombed in cement in a renovated building. Russell Bonner (actor unknown) was imprisoned for the murder in 1973 and the discovery of the body makes the conviction questionable. Verdon’s appearance amounts to a cameo, since her character has no impact on the plot. She plays Yolanda, a restaurant owner, and is in two scenes wearing what appears to be the same outfit, a beige print blouse and skirt with a red scarf. In the first scene Verdon has no lines and simply passed a plate of food to Guy. In the second, she only has a few lines, where as the older woman to Sully’s younger man, she flirts. After Sully sees her and says her name, she asks what she can do for him, with raised eyebrows. He replies, “I bet you know,” and she adds, “You got me.”

Verdon returned for her second
Cosby Mysteries
in “Self Defense,” broadcast October 5, 1994. Written by Edward Tivnan and directed by E.W. Swackhammer, its narrative has Hanks (Cosby) investigate the shooting by Sully (James Naughton) of police officer Tom Casey (Larry Attile) during an arrest. Verdon cameo-ed as Yolanda and again her appearance had nothing to do with the plot. This time she only has one scene, where she wears a purple suit and big red-patterned scarf. She gets some mildly amusing dialogue. Guy tells Yolanda that he dreamed that they ran away together, and she replies, “I can’t run. I’ve got a heart condition.” When Sully tells her he dreamed that they walked away together, Yolanda says, “Oh, babycakes. Walking is such a bore. “

In his Metropolitan Diary column in the
New York Times
on May 31, 2004, Joe Rodgers reported an entry by Pietro Allar of a sighting of Verdon in 1994. He told of how he came across a group of teenagers break-dancing in the theater district. Allar was in a rush but was unable to push his way through the huddle of observing out-of-towners. He became increasingly irritated until he happened to glance over, and saw Verdon at the front of the crowd watching the dancers. She had a bright-eyed look of delight and pride on her face. No one else seemed to realize that they were all in the presence of the famous theatrical dancer, who was clearly excited by the raw urban routine being performed before her.