Fosse Verdon vs Cabaret: Mein Herr Recreation
I had been hotly anticipating the new FX mini-series Fosse/Verdon since it was announced a few months back. After all, it’s a bio-pic of one of the greatest visionaries in musical theatre history, who also happens to be the director of my favourite film, produced by Lin-Manuel Mirand (the guy who wrote Hamilton) and directed by Tommy Kail (the guy who directed Hamilton), and starring Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams. Literally, you could not go wrong.
The debut episode is perhaps one of the best first episodes I’ve seen in some time, and perhaps one of the most exciting sequences in one in which Fosse and Verdon are shooting a musical number for the film Cabaret. It had been a few years since I last watched Cabaret, but my gut told me they were doing a bang up job of re-creating the sequence. I wanted to see just how accurate it was, so I went ahead and synced the two numbers together, and apart from some re-timing at the very beginning to get everything lined up… well, see for yourself.
On the surface, it may not seem that difficult to just re-create the staging/choreography so perfectly, but trust me: this is a feat and sets the stage for plenty more genius to come.