Making her Broadway debut in a show choreographed by the legendary Michael Bennett, and achieving stardom in a musical choreographed by the equally legendary Bob Fosse, Ms. Neuwirth has a true insider's view into the styles of the two masters. "Michael Bennett and Bob Fosse were very different... I loved working with Michael. He was great, very nice to me and supportive, but in terms of choreography, I'm much more of a Fosse dancer than a Michael Bennett. Michael is low to the floor, heavy. Bob is much more pulled up and lyrical and athletic and elegantly sensual. I think those trained in ballet do better with Fosse. One is up, one is down." Indeed, she has nothing but praise for Mr. Fosse. "Every second I spent with him was diamonds," she says with gentle admiration and respect in her voice. "I loved him and I am blessed to have been able to work with him. He was a genius, and I don't throw that word around. And I worked with Gwen [Verdon], who was his equal. She was magnificent."
Fosse's work, she says, has thematic elements in common with Kurt Weill's. "One of the things that appeals to me and makes sense, and that I sensed at 13, is that there's a duality, an irony in the world that [Fosse] evokes," she says. "The movements have an irony and a darkness, and I feel in... Weill material that there is also an irony and a duality and a darkness that makes sense, and I am quite fulfilled expressing in that mode. That's the most satisfying thing, where there is great joy and great light, but great depth and darkness and mystery. The emotional life that Fosse investigates is a deep emotional life. It's not standard fare... I'm more satisfied where emotional life is deep and profound. There is a similar truth in Weill." She pauses, and chuckles. "It's also satisfying not to be funny. I'm a little tired of being funny! I'm a little bit saturated in comedy, and there's more to me than that. It's nice to be able to be tragic now and then. I happen to think that the best comedians are the best tragedians."
Having starred on Broadway before and after the days of the British "mega-musicals" invasion, Ms. Neuwirth is guardedly optimistic about the future of the true American Musical. "We're coming back to human theatre. Cats all but destroyed humanity of theatre- everything was special effects... I commend Walter Bobbie and Ann Reinking for what they did with the material [in Chicago]. Audiences appreciate it. Theatre is a visceral experience for the audiences as well as performers. The more effects and machinery, the more you remove the audiences from their experience. I blame Cats for that. I commend Chicago on the healing." And, she points out with no small amount of American pride, "A Chorus Line really is the longest running Broadway show. Cats is from the West End, not Broadway."
"A dancer is a person who expresses physically," Ms. Neuwirth says thoughtfully, when asked what she loves most about dancing on stage. "It's the first thing that defines a dancer, so being on stage is natural. Theatre is physical medium. It's when I am who I am most. It's the most natural for me."
