Fosse/Verdon Review: Providence (Season 1 Episode 8)

Fun, laughs, good times…not exactly how I would characterize Fosse/Verdon but it’s nevertheless been a fascinating series, one whose subjects were clearly well loved — and thoroughly analyzed — by the creative team that brought the show to the small screen. 

Fosse/Verdon Season 1 Episode 8 “Providence” concludes the show’s run in an appropriately dramatic and uber-meta fashion. 

If there’s one theme for this episode, it’s that we end as we begin. The series is bookended by key moments from the night of the Sweet Charity national tour premiere in Washington D.C. and by the creative process of two different Sweet Charitys; on the first episode, it’s the film Bob and Gwen are working on, and on this one, in events occurring decades later, they’re hard at work on a revival of what they call “their baby.” 

As the episode kicks off, Bob is readying to film All That Jazz, a semi-autobiographical film and one of the crowning achievements of his career.

As Bob sits down, Paddy (Norbert Leo Butz, who needs his own show, stat) calls out the current structure of the film’s story, saying Bob’s “endings are always shit” and brusquely pointing out the significant overlap between Bob and the film’s protagonist, Joe. Bob/Joe ultimately should realize that Gwen is his true soulmate and his equal “as a creator and an artist” or it will be too late once he’s ready to change. 

Without even firmly knowing how the episode will end, it’s clear that this is a moment we’re meant to remember. Cut to: the closing scene where a dying Bob lies in Gwen’s arms and moments of their on-and-off-stage partnership flash through his mind.

Paddy was right, dammit (because of course he was!); Gwen is the best partner Bob’s ever had, in every sense of the word, and it’s particularly devastating to see how their intimacy and connection had been rebuilding and strengthening so much prior to his death. 

Admittedly, there’s a distinct sadness watching Bob’s death that I hadn’t anticipated feeling.

The show hasn’t shied away from showing his self destructive and hedonistic qualities, and even on this episode, there are moments where he’s downright despicable.

Lifting painful real life conversations with Ann for his All That Jazz script and forcing her to audition with those, leveraging a moment of paternal intimacy with Nicole as fodder for a scene for the film, urging Gwen to go on the Chicago tour as soon as she announces she’s seriously considering a move outside of the city: they’re all problematic choices.

Bob is oftentimes not a good man, but there are enough small glimpses of his humanity and vulnerability throughout the series that it’s still sad to see him go.

It also helps that one of the moments that best captures Bob’s more sensitive side occurs on this episode, as he performs a mournful dance at Paddy’s funeral. What a lovely way for Sam Rockwell to wrap up his time on the series. He hasn’t been given the meaty material that Michelle Williams has but this was an emotional, lived-in performance.

Speaking of Michelle Williams, it’s necessary to have at least one section devoted to the extraordinary work she’s done over the course of the series. I’ve discussed this at length over the past eight weeks, but this episode drove home what exceptional work she’s done not just at emulating Gwen Verdon’s voice and spirit but capturing how it evolved over a long period of time.

In a scene in the latter half of the episode, I was struck by how distinctly differently the older Gwen moved and sounded compared the Gwen of earlier periods. She handled herself differently on the stage. She walked differently — slower — and she was less nimble.

Top notch work from the hair and make up team also helped but so much of the art of this performance was in a carefully honed physicality and intentionally on Williams’ part. The fact that she could imbue even the smallest, most seemingly banal moments, like making pasta for dinner, with a deep inner sadness is a testament to the depth of her craft.

For me though, the pièce de résistance of the episode is the recreation of the “Bye Bye Love” scene from All That Jazz. For those unfamiliar with the origin material, “Bye Bye Love” is a brilliant yet bizarre moment as Joe hallucinates an extravagant musical farewell to his loved ones as he dies.

Given the autobiographical nature of All That Jazz at a basic level, it’s already a pretty meta moment. In Fosse/Verdon, that’s amped up a notch by the inclusion of producer Lin Manuel Miranda making a cameo as Roy Schneider. 

So to be clear, at one point in Fosse/Verdon, Sam Rockwell as Bob Fosse is directing Lin Manuel Miranda as Roy Schneider, who is playing Joe Gideon, a character based on the real Bob Fosse. Later, Bob steps into the rehearsal for a scene as people around him cheer for him, and for a moment he forgets they’re really cheering for Joe Gideon, who while Fosse-inspired, is still very much a fictional character, and actually, the adoration of the crowd around him is very scripted and the cheers completely fake and hollow.

It’s…a lot. But it’s also bold and clever and complicated, as much of Fosse’s work was. 

Kudos to Miranda for keeping this appearance quiet in advance of the episode airing; realizing it was him underneath the Schneider hairpiece was one of the greatest Easter eggs of the whole series.

Overall, while the series has had its ups and downs, it’s tried to present the story of two great auteurs in an artistic, unique way, rather than playing everything as a simple, linear biopic. I didn’t love all of the choices it made along the way, but I respect that it did make distinct choices. 

I also think it succeeded in shining light on Gwen Verdon, whose legacy was minimized for so long in favor of a Bob Fosse-centric narrative.

What she and Bob Fosse shared wasn’t always easy, and it absolutely was deeply codependent, but despite their challenges, as we saw time and time again, they worked better together. They saw each other in a way no one else did and when one of them worked on their own, their work didn’t come together easily.

It was only when working together that they could find cohesion and strength and fully live up to the potential of their artistry. Truly, they simply [could] not do it alone.

Fosse/Verdon may not have answers as to why this was the case, but it drives home the point that they were two halves of a whole. So next time you see a bowler hat, or jazz hands, or a hip thrust, don’t just think of Bob Fosse.  Gwen Verdon was there, every step of the way.

What did you think of the curtain call of Fosse/Verdon and the season as a whole? Is there another famous show biz collaboration you’d want to dive into? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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