We met Marsha Mason!

Last week we had the privilege of attending a live podcast recording of "Live at the Lortel" in the West Village where the guest was four-time Oscar nominee Marsha Mason. While a good portion of the interview focused on her new play "Little Gem" and her deep devotion to the stage, all of her Oscar nominated performances got at least some airtime. (She never intended to be a film actress but then Cinderella Liberty kind of fell into her lap). 

The piece of the interview we found most fascinating was hearing her talk about her work on Chapter Two...

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Emmy Nomination Announcement, Live

Ken Jeong and D'Arcy Carden (The Good Place) announcing the nominees for the television Academy's 71st annual prizes.

And here are the nominations in the top categories announced live via screenshots. We'll talk more about the Emmys once we wrap our head around these nominations...

BEST DRAMA SERIES

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Emmy FYC: "Fosse/Verdon" Outstanding Main Titles

Thanks for your sharing our ultra specific obsession with your comments on the Outstanding Main Title Design category at the Emmys. Just a day after posting that overview of the eligibility, in which we were frustrated to not find a roundup of the Fosse/Verdon titles, we fell upon this Behind-the-Scenes video of the making of, and now we're more in love with them than we were before. Enjoy!

FOSSE - BEHIND THE SCENES - REEL from yU+co on Vimeo.

Who knew that they were filming real objects, and that it wasn't CGI?!? That must be why they're so handsome. At the yU+co you can see each super-brief credit sequence (it changed for every episode) and please note how ultra episode-specific they are (radiant gold for the Oscar/Tony/Emmy focused episode, black & white and smoky for the Lenny episode, watery for the beachhouse episode, and so on).

Really hoping this show gets nominated in that under-discussed category. 

More on Fosse/Verdon  + Emmy FYCs

Fosse/Verdon - Finale!

by Eric Blume

Michelle & Sam as Gwen & Bobby

Fosse/Verdon wrapped its 8-episode run this Tuesday, and here’s a quick recap on the final three episodes, and some overall thoughts on this captivating mini-series.

Episode Six, “All I Care About is Love” 
Episode six concerned Fosse’s heart attack during the editing of Lenny (1974) editing and rehearsals for Chicago on Broadway.  It was one of the weaker episodes of the series, especially coming off the previous episode, the almost-staged-play episode with the characters locked in a Hamptons house, arguably the show’s high-water mark.  That episode gave director Thomas Kail (who went from Hamilton to TV with graceful ease) the opportunity to put in the nails early on and keep screwing tightly, with all the actors laser-focused on their objectives and obstacles.  Episode Six, on the other hand, contained some material handled directly in All That Jazz, and it felt more like a transitional episode for the final narrative haul of the show...

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Fosse/Verdon - Ep. 5: “Where Am I Going?”

previously on Fosse/Verdon

by Dancin' Dan

Figures that the episode randomly assigned to the resident dance expert of Team Experience is the only episode of Fosse/Verdon so far that hasn’t had even the tiniest bit of dancing in it. I seem to be enjoying the show more than some of the rest of the team, and i've particularly marveled at the series’ recreations of some of Fosse’s best known pieces, some of which I have had the good fortune to dance myself. One of the choreographers who taught me told our ensemble that most of Fosse’s choreography is defined by tension - you must always be holding tension in your body somewhere in order to make it look and feel right. To that end, when we were dancing movements that were supposed to be more fluid, she told us to imagine that we were dancing through peanut butter. It’s an image that I now always associate with Fosse’s work, and I found it particularly apt for this episode. Even though there’s no dancing, there’s plenty of tension. Every character looks like they’re moving through peanut butter, pushing and straining to get what they want.

Bob Fosse had his unprecedented year of glory, and ended up in the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic for his troubles...

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