Movers and Shakers: Gwen Verdon

Published Mar 10, 2023, 10:00 AM

Gwen Verdon (1925-2000) was a true Broadway icon. Her status as a triple threat dancer, actor and singer earned her four Tony awards during her career. 

This month, we're talking about movers and shakers: dancers, stuntwomen, martial artists, and other pioneering women who've used their physical prowess to shake things up.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more.  Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures. 

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, and Abbey Delk. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. 

Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.

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Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica. This month, we're talking about movers and shakers, dancers, stunt women, martial artists, and other pioneering women who use their physical prowess to shake things up. Today we're talking about a true Broadway icon. Her legacy is often tied to her longtime professional and romantic partnership with choreographer Bob Fossey, but she's a legend in her own right, and her status as a triple threat dancer, actor, and singer earned her four Tony Awards during her career. Please meet Gwen Verdon. Gwen was born in January of nineteen thirty five in Culver City, California. As a toddler, Gwen developed rickets, a disease that causes softened bones and bow legs. She was often bullied by their children for the special shoes and corrective leg braces she wore until her teenage years, but Gwen's condition did little to dim her star quality. Her mother was a dancer, and she encouraged Gwen to pursue the performing arts. Gwen started dance classes at two years old. A few years later, she was performing in theaters in downtown Los Angeles and was hailed as the world's fastest tapper. When she was seventeen years old, Gwen's path to stardom was temporarily derailed. She married James Hennigan, a writer at The Hollywood Reporter. They were married for five years and had a son together. After their divorce, Gwen left their child in her parents care so she could return to the stage. Gwen auditioned for Hollywood dance coach Jack Cole and began working as a choreographer with him on film sets. She taught steps to starlet's like Marilyn Monroe and Betty Graybell, and occasionally appeared as a dancer on screen. Gwen made her Broadway debut as a in the musical Alive in Kicking in nineteen fifty. Three. Years later, she earned a role as a featured dancer in Cole Porter As Can Can. Gwen's talents quickly attracted resentment from the show's leading lady, Leela. She pushed for Gwen's part to be cut back, but on opening night, Gwen proved too bright a start to conceal. In her much diminished role, Gwen gave a stunning performance and then left the stage for her quick change. The audience wasn't having it. The people were so enthralled by Gwen that they wouldn't stop applauding after her. The show couldn't go on. Eventually, a producer had to go get her from the dressing room. Gwen rushed back out to the stage, wrapped in a towel to take a second bow. The role in Cancan earned Gwen her first ever Tony Award and a reputation as a triple threat with strong chops and dancing, singing, and acting. Gwen's next Broadway role was as the seductive Lola in Dan Yankees in nineteen fifty five. She earned another Tony for bringing down the house with numbers like Whatever Lola Wants, which featured a now iconic striptease, Whatever Lola Worms and the ruts Handy Too Man, Little Lola. There was a perfect encapsulation of her uniquely comedic yet sensual style of dance. Dan Yankees also marked the beginning of Gwen's partnership with legendary choreographer Bob Fosse. Their work, together with Gwen's Fosse's muse became one of the most celebrated Broadway partnerships of all time. Gwen's legacy is inextricably tied to Fossey's choreography, but he praised her as a singular and individual talent. He once explained in an interview, people ask if I created Gwen, and I say she was hot when I met her. That alabaster skin, those eyes, that bantam rooster walk her and the leotard I will never forget. The pair worked together again as choreographer and leading lady in several Broadway shows throughout the nineteen fifties and sixties. Gwen earned two more Tony Awards for her performances in the musicals New Girl in Town in nineteen fifty eight and Redhead in nineteen fifty nine. The duo also worked together on Sweet Charity, which ran for more than six hundred performances and has become a Broadway cult classic. Through their many hours working together, Gwen and Fosse also formed a romantic attachment. They got married in nineteen sixty and had a daughter, Nicole, three years later, but their marriage was troubled by Fosse's infidelity. In nineteen seventy one, the couple separated permanently, though they remained collaborators and friends and never legally divorced. Around that time, Gwen's career as a dancer was drawing to a close, but her final Broadway role would be one of her best, remembered, Roxy Heart, in the first ever run of Chicago. The show opened in nineteen seventy five, with Fossey as director and choreographer. Though Gwen's performance was praised by critics, the show's run was ultimately short lived. Chicago would not become a real hit until its revival in nineteen ninety six. After her on stage career ended, Gwen continued to work with Fossy behind the scenes on his projects, including his nineteen seventy eight musical Dancing and his nineteen seventy nine autobiographical film All That Jazz. Gwen was by his side when he died of a heart attack in nineteen eighty seven. It was the same night his revival of Sweet Charity opened in Washington, d c. Gwen would go on to serve as artistic adviser for the dance Review Fossey based on her late partner's work. The show won the Tony for Best Musical in nineteen ninety nine. Gwen died in her sleep in October of two thousand. She was seventy five years old. As a widely beloved leading lady, she was honored by a ceremonial dimming of lights on Broadway the week of her death. In fifty years or so, it's gonna change, you know, but always hailing days. All month, we're talking about movers and shakers. For more information, check us out on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast Special thanks to Louis Kaplin, my favorite sister and co creator. As always, we're taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you on Monday.

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