Honoring unforgettable Gwen Verdon

Gwen Verdon (Photo courtesy of PhotoFest)

I'm Not Lola: A Tribute to Gwen Verdon

DANCERS OVER 40 

HONORS THE QUINTESSENTIAL BROADWAY GYPSY
GWEN VERDON

A video history and discussion of one of the most beloved Broadway dancers

Monday, May 23, 8 PM

St. Luke's Theater
308 West 46th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues), Manhattan

Tickets: $40 ($65 for premium seats) $25 for members of Dancers Over 40
Reservations: Telecharge or 212-239-6200

Broadway veterans Lee Roy Reams and Harvey Evans head this tribute to Gwen Verdon. Paul Phillips, Verdon's stage manager, is flying up from Florida with some personal video clips. Those, combined with other well-known dancers and dances from that era, will be showcased.

GWEN VERDON (1925-2000) born Gwenyth Evelyn Verdon in Culver City, Ca., was one of Broadway's biggest stars during its golden era and beyond, and winner of four Tony Awards. As a toddler, Gwen had rickets, which left her legs so badly misshapen she spent her early days in orthopedic boots and rigid leg braces. Her mother put her 3-year old in dance classes and she went on to study ballet, tap, jazz, ballroom, flamenco, Balinese--and juggling! At age 11 she appeared in the 1936 movie The King Steps Out, and, after eloping with reporter James Henghan in 1942 began her career as assistant to Jack Cole and as a Broadway gypsy.

Her breakthrough came in 1953 when Michael Kidd cast her in a featured role in Can-Can, where her opening-night Garden of Eden performance was so well received that the audience screamed her name until the startled dancer was brought from her dressing room in her bathrobe to take a curtain call. Verdon received a pay raise and her first Tony Award for that triumphant performance. In 1955 she starred in Damn Yankees, and will forever be identified with her role as the vampish Lola, a role that won her second Tony and the lead in the movie version. Another Tony came when Verdon played Anna Christie in the 1957 musical New Girl in Town, followed by Redhead (1959--her fourth Tony). In 1966 Verdon appeared as Charity in Sweet Charity, another triumph directed by Bob Fosse, whom she had married in 1960.

Although eventually estranged, Verdon and Fosse continued to collaborate on projects such as Chicago (1975) in which she originated the role of murderess Roxie Hart. After that Verdon concentrated on film acting, appearing in many movies, including The Cotton Club, Cocoon, Cocoon: The Return, Alice, and Marvin's Room.

In 2000, at the age of 75, Gwen Verdon died in her sleep of a heart attack at the home of her daughter Nicole in Woodstock, VT. At 8pm that night all marquee lights on Broadway were dimmed in her memory.