Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The hope is that in rediscovering 'Chicago,' audiences will rediscover what theater was. It was sophisticated, complicated, adult.
To tell you the truth, I see any revolution as basically a penmanship exercise. It all loops around and winds up where you started.
It's hard to dance after a certain age. All those athletic things - like looking up at my kneecaps - they're just not there anymore.
The odd thing about Bob is that even though he's known as really taking chances and being very sensual, he was also a very moral man.
Working with people who have a lot of heart is just the best. You can hire it, but you cannot teach it. It's either there or it's not.
You get to a certain point in your life and you think you can do it all. And then you do do it all, and then you have to top yourself.
Ingenue parts are plentiful. And once you get old, they'll start hiring you again for character parts. But the middle years are tough.
Something can be said for quitting for a little while. You can get completely drained as a performer and creator. You have to fill back up.
There's a lot of heart to Bob's work that doesn't always get recognized because of all of the sensuality, dark statements and wit of his work.
Once Bob commits to something, it's almost like a child. He doesn't want anybody else to take care of it, even if it might be to his detriment.
Bob was fascinating to watch. It was like being a student of Albert Einstein. This guy was really brilliant, and I got to watch and experience it.
Bob was very influenced by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. That huge type of creativity which takes nothing and makes it into something very wrenching.
When I did 'Goodtime Charley' that helped a great deal, but 'Dancin' was such a huge hit. It catapulted me in to being a consistent principal to count on.
All great directors - however, they do it - make you want to be good. I hope I do it. It's like being a parent, a psychiatrist, a disciplinarian and a friend.
I like meeting people from other walks of life and finding out about other worlds, and knowing that I'm fairly adept at one world and really stupid in many others.
Bob was beloved by people, very intelligent people, for their entire lives, and he had tremendous loyalty from everyone. I know he has a reputation for being abusive, but he's not.
Mr Fosse was obviously influenced by Brecht and Weill, as well as Bergman and Fellini, and you could see the influence of vaudeville and African American hoofing - and Fred Astaire, too.
People always remark on how I'm not as tall as I look in film. I tell them about the time I saw Lassie on a studio lot, and she was this tiny scruffy dog. Film makes you larger than life.
When you're a teenager, you don't want to look different. So being very tall can set you apart, not being able to see very well can set you apart... and you just want to fit in. We all do.
It's all cyclical. Sometimes things just come in packs. At one point you had this collection of great choreographers where you would see eight bars and you would know definitely who did it.
Sometimes I gave conflicting emotions because it's been going on for so long now, but then I see somebody dancing real well and it just comes back like an old love. The flame ignites again.
Every step is basically a word, especially with musical theatre, because you're not doing it for dance's sake, you're promoting a story - and, more than that, a moral. You're propelling a story.
The whole gist of 'All That Jazz' is Faustian. It's about a man who sells his soul to show business - which Bob didn't do. He understood the dangers of glamour and falling into that kind of life.
Dancing is the personification of music, and music is an abstract expression of the human spirit. But still it's the act of communication, of making one feel. Otherwise it would just be gymnastics.
You can always work around this, that or the other, but if everybody's in there because they love it and they just want to do it the best they can, that's an ideal situation that you don't always get.
In sixth grade my teacher said that we had to do a talent show. You could sing or recite a poem... I went a wrote a little sketch for myself called 'Our Big World' about how many ways you could use a scarf.
I love doing concert choreography because everything is about your vision, come heck or high water. Of course, you also take the blame for everything, but it's wonderful to be able to make up dance for dance's sake.
I'd announced when I was 13 that I wanted to go to New York instead of college - that was quite a disaster, but it gave my parents plenty of time to get conditioned that after finishing school I really was determined.
In theatre or in ballet, the ballerina always passes on what they know. It's a hands-on craft. You can't really learn the soul and the pathos of it if you just see a video. It has to be taught by someone who is in the know.
For 'Chicago,' the dancers need to demonstrate an affinity for the Fosse style. Sometimes dancers come in with brilliant technique, but if the Fosse style isn't easy for them, or it's awkward for them, they won't be right for this show.
I announced at the dinner table when I was 11 that I wanted to be a ballet dancer. But my goal changed to musical theater after the choreographer Robert Joffrey saw me perform while I was on scholarship at the San Francisco Ballet School.
You have to have tunnel vision as a dancer to get to where you're going. But once you get there, you have to save yourself by spreading your horizons. It's the paradox of this profession. The very thing that makes you very good will destroy you.
Fosse would say that it's important to trust silence. He very much liked the use of the tacit, or silent, count, where nothing is happening. He also liked percussion. His is a world of angular movement and mystery, quiet, semi-taciturn and percussive.
I loved 'Cabaret.' I loved what it had to say and the whole style and brilliance of the book. It was my first time performing Fred Ebb and John Kander's work. They took risks. Even when their shows are fun and funny, they are about very serious issues.
I was up for parts in 'Charlie's Angels' and 'Three's Company,' but other people got them. At the time I was very disappointed because I knew the shows would be tremendous hits. But if I had done either I would not have done the following: 'Chorus Line,' 'Dancin',' 'Chicago,' 'Movie Movie,' 'All That Jazz' and 'Annie.'
Michael Bennett, Tommy Tune and Agnes de Mille fought to be director-choreographers. They were just not going to do it any other way because the choreographer is so often at the bottom of the creative totem pole when you put a show together. So with that power you get a more direct point-of-view and that helps something called style.