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Cast does justice to 'Fosse'By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic© St. Petersburg Times published January 23, 2002 Dancers in black, wearing derby hats, twitch their shoulders, snap their fingers, wiggle their pelvises. There's no mistaking the trademarks of Bob Fosse, whose marriage of ballet, jazz and vaudeville hoofing dominated Broadway choreography from The Pajama Game in 1954 until his death at 60 in 1987. Today, Fosse may be more popular than ever, with the revival of his Chicago going strong after more than five years. Fosse, broadcast on PBS's Great Performances, celebrates the choreographer-director in the Tony Award-winning revue, co-directed by Ann Reinking. Reinking appears in several numbers, as does another longtime Fosse dancer, Ben Vereen. Filmed last August, just before the show ended its New York run, Fosse was directed for TV by Matthew Diamond, a onetime dancer who made the Oscar-nominated documentary Paul Taylor: Dancemaker. Though some drawbacks of dance on the small screen are unavoidable -- primarily the lack of visual depth -- this is an impressive piece of work, with fluid camera work that doesn't call attention to itself. Fosse is a must for theater and dance enthusiasts, but it should also draw converts with a spectacular cast. Even when numbers run too long -- the finale Sing, Sing, Sing being the worst offender -- there are all those gorgeous dancers to look at. People who saw Fosse on Broadway or on tour may find that the dancers' personalities come across more vividly onscreen, such as the charming, gaminelike duo of Meg Gillentine and Dana Moore in Nowadays and Hot Honey Rag from Chicago; sizzling Rachelle Rak in I Gotcha from the TV special Liza with a Z; and Vereen's touching soft shoe to Mr. Bojangles from Dancin'. In an interview about Fosse, with whom she lived in the 1970s, Reinking said his choreography "is elegant, yet it is very funky. It is fragile, yet it is also quite tough. It is sensual, yet it is witty." These qualities are documented well in masterpieces like Steam Heat from The Pajama Game; the ballplayers' ballet from Damn Yankees; and Rich Man's Frug from Sweet Charity. AT A GLANCEFosse airs at 9 tonight on WEDU-Ch. 3.
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