Free Gwen Verdon: A Life on Stage and Screen by Peter Shelley Page A

may have become a career advance for her, but she was presumably contracted to stay in The Pajama Game in the part of secretary Gladys Hotchkiss, which was then running on Broadway. Haney’s connection with Verdon also had the women look similar, though Haney at 5’6” was taller than Verdon’s 5’4” and she had a deeper speaking voice. The producers had approached Mitzi Gaynor and the French ballet dancer Jeanmarie, but both had rejected the part. Verdon said that Marilyn Monroe wanted the part but other sources say she turned it down. Apparently the show’s choreographer, Bob Fosse wanted Verdon. Although she had limited singing experience, the producers were willing to take a chance on her because of her spectacular dancing talents.
    But Verdon initially turned them down. She preferred to stay with Cole rather than return to Broadway. Cole was unimpressed with the offer and believed that playing such a part would be debasing Verdon’s talent. But the producers persisted because they wanted her, and eventually she agreed and they got her. So once again Verdon said goodbye to Cole and hello to Fosse.

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Damn Yankees , Bob Fosse and New Girl in Town

    Director George Abbott had helped author Douglass Wallop adapt his book The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant into a musical for Broadway with songs by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross who had done the same for Abbott’s previous show, The Pajama Game . Damn Yankees , a retelling of the Faust legend, was set during the 1950s in Washington when the New York Yankees dominated major league baseball. There was a feeling that musicals about baseball were jinxed because you couldn’t show the game on stage, and those that had tried in the past were failures. However the producers Fred Brisson, Robert Griffith and Harold Prince moved ahead. Verdon said that after she had been cast she nearly lost the job when she went dancing with Abbott. They were doing the merengue at Roseland and he was on the wrong beat. Verdon started to count for him and Abbott was not pleased.
    Fosse was as leery about working with Verdon as she with him. Although she had not been asked to audition for the show’s producers, Fosse wanted her to audition for him. He knew that she was good but he did not know whether she would be good for him . Fosse was intimidated by her reputation. He had heard that Verdon could be difficult, that she was a high-class snob with an iron-clad pedigree and a hatred of the kind of Broadway dancing she considered to be animated wallpaper.
    The producers arranged for them to meet in a dance studio on Broadway at 64th Street. He showed her some ideas he had for the choreography for her number “Whatever Lola Wants.” Watching Fosse slithering and stalking his way through the oldest stripping tricks in the book, observing his winks and blinks and finger curls that she could tell came from weeks of careful preparation, she was impressed. As he worked out when she should breathe and laugh and smile and how much, her incredulity became enthusiasm. Her enthusiasm gave him confidence and his confidence increased her enthusiasm. She asked him to do it again and made suggestions, which he appreciated. For Lola’s advance on the baseball player Joe Hardy, Fosse had her stop and scratch an itch on the back of her leg with one toe. Verdon found the move hard to do in high heels because they affected her balance. Since Fosse wanted to keep the moment in, he brought to rehearsal a pair of oversized high heels to show her that it could be done. He would tell her that he did this because he never asked people to do what he was not willing to do himself.
    The couple was more than compatible. She admired his technique and he admired her body, her enthusiasm, her desire for perfection, and endless energy. Verdon would say that when Fosse got a-hold of her, she was a great dancer but he developed and “created” her. She got the job and they agreed to work together. Abbott was to