BOB FOSSE WAS BRILLIANT

I try not to talk about it too much these days, but I have something of a bias against musicals. In short, I've always thought they're stupid. Really fucking stupid. I mean, you know, they are. On stage and in film, musicals typically have fluff plots and and one dimensional characters. They're usually about ideas that bore me or, worse, make me laugh at their absurdity. S-t-u-p-i-d. None of this even gets into how I was annoyed for years by young star-struck would-be actors enamored with the form. I'll be happy if I never hear of the movie Fame ever again. There's nothing worse than a teenager or twenty something who wants to be in musicals, who thinks it's his calling or some such nonsense. Gross.

Then, one day in the early 90s, my old pal Vince sat me down and made me watch the anti-musical All That Jazz. That is, it's a musical, loosely based on the life of choreographer Bob Fosse, written and directed by him too, which uses and subverts the form in ways I had never imagined was possible. The plot is not fluff, and the characters are real and sophisticated interesting people. It's totally great. I had to reevaluate my understanding of musicals.

Years later, after much thought, and an embrace of Broadway standards by way of the many great jazz renditions performed by the likes of John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald, I still think musicals are stupid, but that doesn't mean they don't have great value as art. Essentially, the plots and characters really only serve as vehicles for the showcasing of great music, singing, and dancing. If I let the stupid get in the way, I miss out on some of the greatest American performances in history. Sure, West Side Story is fucking retarded, but how about that kickass Leonard Bernstein score? How about those cool Sondheim lyrics? How about that groovy dancing and snapping?

If I hadn't gotten over my anti-musical bias, I would have never gotten into Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. As problematic as musicals are, they are America's one major contribution to world theater as an art form. That's something, too.

Anyway, getting back to the point, Bob Fosse, who died in 1987, was brilliant. Last night the Simpsons, which I now rarely watch because it's not really funny anymore, paid him tribute, which was, this time, pretty funny. Got me thinking.

Some years ago, I sat transfixed in front of my parents' TV screen watching a bit of what I realized was a movie, directed by the great Stanley Donen, based on the marvelous classic childrens' book The Little Prince, which a girlfriend had given me my second year at the University of Texas. I, like many others, love that book. And the moment of the movie I saw turned out to feature Bob Fosse as the Satanic snake, writhing around in the Sahara, exaggerating his S's, singing the marvelous Lerner and Lowe tune "Snake in the Grass," a sort of evil suicide-seduction piece aimed at the title character.

(Aside: you know, The Little Prince is yet another musical that defies the stupid; the more I try to justify my bias, the more problematic my arguments become.)

This number is my favorite of all musicals. Fosse, who Donen reportedly had to beg to join the cast, choreographed the piece himself: it shows him in all his glory, showcasing all his great talent in a relatively short seven minute sequence. And, of course, it's on YouTube. So I figured, why not post it here?

So here you go:



Brilliant, just brilliant. And that's a word I often hesitate to use.

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