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

direct the singers in the show and Fosse to do the dances, even when they appeared in the middle of a song.
    Damn Yankees rehearsals began on March 7, 1955, over separate spaces on different floors at the Waltons Warehouse, and the first run-through was held on March 20, 1955. Abbott supposedly had less faith in Verdon’s acting abilities so he is said to have minimized her dialogue, until he saw that she had a disarming and comic vulnerability. She credited Fosse as being more helpful to her as an actress than Abbott, who had reportedly told her, “Say the words and get off.” Verdon also found that he was equally difficult because he gave line readings. This would make her tear her hair out.
    Verdon had done her own research for Lola by spending time on English Avenue observing the attitude of Cuban–Puerto Rican people, and she also learned a pseudo–Spanish accent for the part. She imagined the character as a child, more funny than sexy, in the way she copied Lola Montez and the movie ladies of the ’30s and ’40s who flared their nostrils and used eye attitude to be sexy. However ,Verdon acted it straight rather than funny, meaning every word. Fosse helped her get the character from the dialogue in the Lola song, and he worked to the classical music of Aaron Copland and Morton Gould which helped him with the oddball phrasing of the dance steps. The Lola number was designed to showcase her combination of sexiness and humor. Fosse and Verdon worked together to present a dance that was a parody of the bump and grind routines that they were both familiar with from their mutual experience in burlesque. It was also a continuation of the comic vamping that Carol Haney and he had employed for “Hernando’s Hideaway.” Verdon would give sole credit to Fosse for choreographing the number, which was a sign of her lack of vanity and generosity. But an examination of the dance reveals that while his touches are the small movements, the strides and turns are typically hers.
    There were two scenes in the play where Verdon was called upon to act and here she was also coached by Fosse. In the scene where Lola tells Joe that she was the ugliest woman in Providence, Rhode Island, Fosse wanted Verdon to reveal a secret about herself to provide the meaning required. He suggested she think about something she did that she now felt guilty about, so Verdon recalled the times when she was a kid and she used to steal things. However she did not like using such personal things in her work to fill in for something in a scene because she worried that she wouldn’t be able to remember that thing every night. Verdon felt it was better to have some sort of technique you can call on, just as a dancer does, to prepare to perform. This need would be met with her further studies with Sanford Meisner in her next show, New Girl in Town .
    Tryouts were held in New Haven with three previews from April 2, 1955, and then Boston for three weeks. One problem that was encountered: Audiences were more interested in the baseball and the character of Lola than the love story between Joe and Meg. She had a late entrance into the story and only had one solo number, “Whatever Lola Wants.” Verdon didn’t complain because that was not her nature, but she was still aware of the situation. The authors didn’t want her to detract from the love story, but it was clear that Verdon had the potential to be a show stopper. They decided to build up her part, giving her two new songs and a new dance, and her character was made more sympathetic. In New Haven, the song “A Little Brains, a Little Talent” was added before “What Lola Wants” in the first act.
    Richard Adler was unhappy with Fosse’s choreography for the new number. Verdon was doing tiny bumps where she moved nothing but her hips, as if she was adjusting herself inside her panties. Adler felt this was not enough because he said his friends didn’t know what she was doing. She apparently became