Gwen Verdon: A Life on Stage and Screen

by Peter Shelley

American dancer, singer and actress Gwen Verdon (1925-2000) won four Tony awards for her work on Broadway and also appeared in films and on television. Stricken with rickets as a child, Verdon overcame severe leg deformity through ballet training, making her film debut at 11 as a solo ballerina in the musical The King Steps Out (1936). Her theater credits include Can-Can (1953-1955), Damn Yankees (1955-1956), Redhead (1959-1960), New Girl in Town (1957-1958), Sweet Charity (1966-1967) and Chicago (1975-1977). When not dancing on stage or screen, she coached other actors, such as Jane Russell, Lana Turner, Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe and Shirley MacLaine. This first full-length biography of Verdon covers her life and career, her individual performances and her collaborations with choreographers Jack Cole and Bob Fosse, her husband.

273 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 31, 2015

Reviews

[Linda Penney]

This is a poorly-written quasi-chronology of the work of one of America's quintessential Broadway dancers and Fosse "instruments." Most of the content is from secondary sources (magazine and newspaper articles and reviews) in the public domain, including YouTube. There are several inaccurate references, including one to the tagline of the 1990 Woody Allen film, "Alice" in which Gwen played Mia Farrow's late mother. I say "quasi" chronology because following the chapter on Gwen's death, the author continues to chronicle her life from a different place in her career. If you really want to know something about this brilliant artist who changed dance on stage and on film, read one of the better-reviewed biographies of her husband, the legendary Bob Fosse and view clips of her work and interviews on YouTube. This book was a huge disappointment and a trial to get through.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a laundry list of her appearances. We never get any sense of the person or what motivated her.

[Heather McC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gwyneth Evelyn Verdon, frequent collaborator to her husband Bob Fosse deserves a biography of her very own, and Peter Shelley's is the very first book dedicated solely to her. From humble beginnings to legendary status, Verdon overcome heartbreak, setbacks, challenges, and missed opportunities in order to follow her passion. Shelley takes a very detailed approach to Verdon's life story, with a complete appendix and bibliography in the back of the book.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written. The subject deserved a better biography. See Linda's review for my thoughts exactly. Painful to finish.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Textbook not biography

This is one of the worst attempts at a celebrity biography I have ever read. If the author has any great affinity for his subject or even the world of Broadway and dance, he succeeds only in hiding it. There are no stories about Verdon's emotional life to speak of, no insights into what made her the star she was, only the cutting and pasting of details from other sources. He doesn't provide context for some of the people mentioned, making it impossible to determine whether their effect on her life was significant or not. There is almost no look into Miss Verdon's inner life, just the repetition in tedious detail of every television or movie appearance she ever made, including the show's plot and a description of what she wore in any film or photos.
His writing is rarely ever inspired as it provides the warmth of a textbook author who did not benefit from the services of a good editor. Prime example, beyond many instances of awkward syntax and typos, is the fact that he brings the book to its natural conclusion with her memorial and then tacks on another chapter describing how she kept busy and supported Fosse's efforts by serving as his unofficial dance assistant in the early 1960s.
Dry as burnt toast and almost devoid of color, I do not recommend this book. Gwen Verdon deserves a much better biographer.

[Michelle "Champ" · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover is amazing, the subject is perfection, but the book was not great. I forced myself to finish because, in all my years of loving Fosse, I have NEVER seen a book on Gwen. I needed to love this book. I am so let down. It was more a chronological listing of things she had done and what she wore with a bit of her real-life person sprinkled in. I just needed more about Gwen and Fosse, Gwen and her other loves, Gwen and her childhood. I needed more. I am not going to tell you to read this book unless you are a HUGE fan, because you won't finish it if you aren't. I am so sad to say that.

[John Kenrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Details galore but little personal substance

Delighted that this Broadway legend finally got a biography. But while Peter Shelley offers tons of extraneous facts (every TV appearance, every dispute about air dates, every version of every incident) we get very little about who Verdon was and what the people in her life were like. I realize most of those involved in her life and career are dead, but there must be diaries, existing interviews, something. The result is a cold collection of dates, names and places. Verdon was a passionate, vibrant woman deeply loved by colleagues and the public - she deserved a more personal biography than this.

[paula thieme · Rating 2 out of 5]

What she wore

I got tired of reading about what she was wearing at every event. I wanted to read this to learn more about Gwen Verdon and her friends, relationships, and life in general. I felt like I was reading her Wikipedia page.