June 23 Bob Fosse

To celebrate Bob Fosse’s birth, I watched Give a Girl a Break. The story is about 3 women, Helen Wood, Marge Champion and Debbie Reynolds who are given a chance to audition for a Broadway musical after the star backs out. Bob plays a stage hand at the theater. He is interested in Debbie. Bob & Debbie play the musical comedy relief. They are the innocent couple. Bob wears yellow argyle socks. When they dance in the park (and it is beautiful) they are very energetic and light hearted. Bob falls into a pond at the end of the dance, with grace and style.

The 3 women have their final audition. During each dancer’s performance the camera shows the man who is interested/sponsoring the dancer. They reflect pride, love and desire. During the deliberations the men imagine they are dancing with the woman. Bob and Debbie have a short dance together, that goes backwards and then forwards. It is a very unique scene. At first you can’t realize they are in reverse until you watch the confetti going up instead of down. The men can’t decide so they decide to draw a name out of a hat. Helen Wood is picked. During rehearsals Helen won’t come out of her dressing room. Her husband is going a way for a few weeks. She decides to go with him and she can’t be in the musical because she is “going to have an act of God.” I have not heard it termed that way before. It is decided to give Marge Champion the role, but she disappears. Debbie Reynolds gets the role.

In the stage musical Gower Champion is the main actor and choreographer. The film only shows one scene of the musical. The beginning when the star backs out they are in plain cloths rehearsal, when Helen backs out they are in a dress rehearsal and the end Debbie is in the actual performance. She is the only actress you see in that role, so you can’t compare who is better. The reason you know it is the same scene is the snapping fingers that all the men do. This is really smart. Instead of trying to show all the numbers sticking with one shows the evolution of the entire story.

I have to admit at first I was not sure which man is Bob Fosse. I remember him from the 1970’s & 1980’s and he looked different from the 1953 film I watched. To me later in his life he looked the quintessential New York Broadway dancer/director.