After 41 Years Nicole Fosse Brings Dancin’ Back To Broadway

18 years ago super agent Sam Cohn, who represented Bob Fosse, approached his daughter, Nicole Fosse, about doing a production of her late father’s show Dancin’.

The musical, which debuted on Broadway in 1978, was particularly important to Fosse, who created, directed, and choreographed the show that represented and celebrated his boundless vocabulary of styles from jazz to ballet to tap and put the dancers front and center.

“Dancin’ is an incredible example of how Bob Fosse’s style is not one thing and shows all the different styles that make up Bob Fosse. He could cultivate an entire world,” says Nicole Fosse who remembers dancing with her father around the living room as he devised and choreographed numbers like “Mr. Bojangles.”

“I told the kids who showed up for the auditions for this show. If you don't really love to dance then you'd better not come back because this is really going to test your affection for it,” said Fosse to the New York Times in 1978. “You’re going to be dancing more and harder than you've ever danced in your life. If you don't have dance in your soul, you're going to be very unhappy here.”

For Nicole Fosse Dancin’ is akin to a book of poetry or short stories. “My father was able to create and elicit feelings, emotions and thoughts from the audience members within a dance and song number, without there being an overarching plot to the entire musical,” says Fosse. “He wasn't constricted by telling the story of the musical and could do whatever he wished.”

And even though at the beginning of Dancin’ the audience is told that the show is a “plotless musical,” every number tells a story. “The show is a journey through the human existence,” says Fosse. “Love, fear, love lost, courage, patriotism and doubt is all explored in these poems that create the show.”

After opening on Broadway in 1978, Dancin’ was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, ran for 1,774 performances and brought Fosse his seventh Tony Award for Best Choreography. Now 41 years later Dancin’ has returned to Broadway with classic numbers like “Crunchy Granola Suite,” “Sing, Sing, Sing,” “Mr. Bojangles,” “I Wanna Be a Dancin' Man” and more.

Wayne Cilento, who starred in the original Broadway cast of Dancin’ and was nominated for a Tony for his performance, directs a cast of 22 of Broadway’s most elite dancers who range in age from 19 to 45. The show is playing at the Music Box Theatre.

For principal dancer Ioana Alfonso being in Bob Fosse’s Dancin' is particularly meaningful, especially now, post Covid-19. “Movement is necessary and vital. It's a way of having community and communicating with each other. It’s a universal language,” says Alfonso. “I hope that audiences are able to celebrate and have joy in that, especially after the last couple of years. The need to move and express, not just dance, is so important. So I hope audiences see the show and take away how amazing the human body and this art form is to communicate things that cannot otherwise be communicated.”

Dancin’s diverse cast includes Alfonso, Yeman Brown, Peter John Chursin, Dylis Croman, Jōvan Dansberry, Karli Dinardo, Tony d’Alelio, Aydin Eyikan, Pedro Garza, Jacob Guzman, Manuel Herrera, Afra Hines, Gabriel Hyman, Kolton Krouse, Mattie Love, Krystal Mackie, Yani Marin, Nando Morland, Khori Michelle Petinaud, Ida Saki, Ron Todorowski and Neka Zang.

“The biggest joy for me is watching all of artists falling into the roles that they're doing and how they have interpreted Fosse’s moves. Watching this eclectic new generation of dancers bring his work back to life is beyond belief,” says Cilento who was not only transformed as a performer after working with Fosse, he went on to choreograph many Broadway shows including Wicked and The Who’s Tommy.

In fact, Cilento was surprised how emotional the experience would be. “The first time we did the show I just fell apart,” says Cilento “Remounting Bob’s work and then watching it unfold and all this new beautiful energy coming out of it was so moving and emotional.”

For Fosse, who has been devoted to preserving and protecting the artistry of both her parents through the Verdon Fosse Legacy, which she created, believes that her father would be thrilled with this new iteration of Dancin’. “Yes, the performers are dancers—their legs go up, they spin and do all the technical dance things. But they are all great storytellers and brilliant actors,” says Fosse.

“As my mother, [Gwen Verdon], used to say, ‘at some point, I don't give a rat's ass if I start on my right foot or my left foot. I need to know what I am doing.’ And every performer on that stage is so in touch with who they are in every given moment.”