How Fosse/Verdon Faithfully Recreated Cabaret's "Mein Herr," With One Small Twist
Fosse/Verdon is not trying to put its own spin on Bob Fosse's creative work. It's just trying to peek behind the curtain.
That's true for the show's central conceit-revealing Gwen Verdon's previously overlooked role in Fosse's productions-and it's true for its depiction of Cabaret's iconic number, "Mein Herr."
"We all know what it became, but we don’t know how it got there," says Kelli Barrett, the actress playing Liza Minnelli playing Cabaret's Sally Bowles in Fosse/Verdon.
Fidelity was front of mind for everyone involved in the production. "I’m talking down to the length of a tassel on your left leg," Barrett says. "I mean really, it was so specific." For her, that meant "body-breaking" rehearsals, overseen by Valarie Pettiford-a Tony-nominated Broadway star, known for her role in Fosse, a 1999 Broadway review that showcased Fosse's work-and choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler.
Once she got a hold on the number, they brought out the big guns: Fosse/Verdon executive producer Nicole Fosse, the real-life daughter of Verdon and Fosse. "It was amazing to ask her, 'Okay, what were they thinking about when they made this?'" Barrett gushed. "She can give you the intention behind the smallest movement."
The result is a faithful recreation of "Mein Herr," but with the seams on display. Fosse (Sam Rockwell) coaches the dancers, running the fictionalized rehearsal over and over. "I wanna see every muscle, every tendon," he says, holding a spyglass to his eye.
It certainly stacks up to what Minnelli herself remembers. "We did everything properly because Fosse was like that-he wanted everything done right and precisely," she told Grammy.com, the website of the Grammy Awards, in 2014.
All that rehearsal paid off in the final product as it's seen in 1972's Cabaret;"Mein Herr" would go on to become one of the most memorable musical numbers in film history. Fosse/Verdon also offers a look at the performance that would become the final cut, but it's stitched together a little differently than it was in Cabaret. It's not shot-for-shot, not in one neat package. Instead it's chopped up, cutting to Fosse with a cigar hanging from his mouth, nodding at Verdon.
"We thought, what’s the point of showing exactly what was captured?" Barrett explains. "Why don’t we give the audience the opportunity to imagine what it would have been like to create it?"
It's a shift that plays well, saving the show from trying to exactly imitate something that it could never quite achieve. Might as well embrace the gaps. "In the end, I think it worked out well," costume designer Melissa Toth says. "I said to my staff, 'I think we’re about maybe five percent off, but that’s okay.'" After all, she explains, the actors aren't exact either-they can't be.
"When you watch it, it’s not my goal for you be like, 'Oh, that’s Liza Minnelli,'" Barrett says. "It’s my goal for you to understand her story and her essence through me, really. Because I’ll never be Liza Minnelli. No one will."
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