About this item
Bob Fosse (1927-1987) is recognized as one of the most significant figures in post-World War II American musical theater. With his first Broadway musical, The Pajama Game in 1954, the "Fosse style" was already fully developed, with its trademark hunched shoulders, turned-in stance, and stuttering, staccato jazz movements. Fosse moved decisively into the role of director with Redhead in 1959 and was a key figure in the rise of the director-choreographer in the Broadway musical. He also became the only star director of musicals of his era--a group that included Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, Michael Kidd, and Harold Prince--to equal his Broadway success in films. Following his unprecedented triple crown of show business awards in 1973 (an Oscar for Cabaret, Emmy for Liza with a Z, and Tony for Pippin) , Fosse assumed complete control of virtually every element of his projects.
About the Author
Kevin Winkler enjoyed a career of more than twenty years as a curator, archivist, and library administrator at the New York Public Library, prior to which he was a professional dancer. His book, Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical, won the TLA 2018 George Freedley Memorial Award Special Jury Prize for an exemplary work in the field of theatre or performance, and was a finalist for the Marfield Prize, the National Award for Arts Writing. Kevin has served as a consultant for Lincoln Center Education, curating resources to accompany PBS Lincoln Center Live performances available throughout New York City public libraries. He has blogged for the Huffington Post and is a MacDowell Colony fellow. Kevin is an on-camera commentator in the new documentary Merely Marvelous: The Dancing Genius of Gwen Verdon. He is at work on his next book, Everything is Choreography: The Musical Theater of Tommy Tune, to be published by Oxford University Press.
