MONDAY 5 AUGUST 2019

Dance to the music of time

Real-life drama ‘Fosse/Verdon’ steps behind the showbiz curtain to

explore a unique marriage, says Ed Cumming

Power couple: Sam Rockwell as superstar choreographer Bob Fosse and Michelle Williams as superstar dancer Gwen Verdon
(BBC/FX/Eric Liebowitz)

★★★☆☆

Fosse/Verdon (BBC2) sashays over to us, jazz hands aloft, four months after its American release, a train of
rave reviews and awards nominations in its wake. It’s an eight-part drama with a large budget, co-produced
by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who created Hamilton and bows to none in his knowledge of razzmatazz. There is
no particular reason for it not to be fantastic.

It has a compelling real-life subject, the marriage of the superstar choreographer Bob Fosse, who won the
Best Director Oscar for Cabaret in 1972, and the actor and dancer Gwen Verdon. She was a star in her own
right but she also knew how to get the best out of him, and stuck by his side even after their marriage broke

Section 2 /TV review