Fosse, Fosse, Fosse! ... And Marriage

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Bob Fosse directed Broadway shows and movies that reverberated in American culture: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Pippin, Caberet, Chicago, Lenny, All That Jazz, and lots more (most of his shows were, perhaps not surprisingly, about showbiz itself). He was a brilliant choreographer, got great performances from actors, and had an amazing visual sensibility. He was also a tyrant, a philanderer, and he died of a heart attack in 1988 after a lifetime of living on the edge.

Fosse lives again in the upcoming "warts-and-all" miniseries Fosse/Verdon premiering on TV next week. It covers his decades long career and his stormy marriage to Broadway star Gwen Verdon, a titanic talent in her own right.

It's interesting to see that this series is premiering at the same time as New York magazine has a huge special issue, an "investigation", about modern day marriage -- and if it really works. In a time and country of fierce independence and dating apps and the re-definition of gender relations and identities -- even amongst royals! -- is this ancient institution still relevant today? 

There seems to be a general consensus that, today, a marriage needs to be a mutual beneficial partnership. But how do we define such a thing, how do we know what it is, and why does it so often fail?

The Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon marriage was a partnership in life and art -- and, although they separated after 11 years, they never divorced and kept working together. Their marriage was not based around fidelity or even living together -- it was based around the amazing careers and work they produced. They understood what their marriage was really about -- business.  

You see, marriage is business. It always has been. Love used not to be the primary reason for getting married -- it was about two families aligning themselves for economic or political reasons. It was also about having children, keeping the family going into the future. That's why so many married men and women used to have spouses and lovers -- there was the person you went into business and built a life with, and then there was the person you actually loved. They could be mutually exclusive -- until modern "enlightened" sensibilities insisted they be one and the same. That's why so many marriages fail today 

That said, I'm married and I love my wife. She's a great partner in every sense of the word! Best of all, we understand marriage in all its complex facets. Every marriage is unique and should be built and understood on its own terms, not held up against some kind of "ideal" or "rules." 

That's something that Fosse and Verdon did, and something that every married couple should do, in my opinion, for themselves.

P.S. If there's one Bob Fosse movie you should see, it's All That Jazz, his highly autobiographical story of surviving a heart attack. The ending of it is one of the most brilliant, disturbing, sick and twisted, macabre, and purely artistic things I've ever seen.