Airdate: Fosse / Verdon

FOX Showcase has now confirmed airdate for FX drama Fosse / Verdon for late May.

The 8 part series stars Sam Rockwell as legendary choreographer and director Bob Fosse and Michelle Williams as Broadway star Gwen Verdon. Expect this to be prominent in awards season this year, folks.

The series also features Margaret Qualley, Norbert Leo Butz and Evan Handler.

This launches this week in the US meaning Australian viewers will be behind by around 7 weeks.

Foxtel Arts will also premiere documentary, Bob Fosse: It’s Showtime! hosted by Australian musical theatre star, Caroline O’Connor.

Spanning five decades, Fosse / Verdon explores the singular romantic and creative partnership between Bob Fosse (Sam Rockwell) and Gwen Verdon (Michelle Williams). He is a visionary filmmaker and one of the theater’s most influential choreographers and directors. She is the greatest Broadway dancer of all time. Only Bob can create the groundbreaking musicals that allow Gwen to showcase her greatness. Only Gwen can realize the unique vision in Bob’s head. Together, they will change the face of American entertainment – at a perilous cost.

As Bob journeys from fledgling Broadway choreographer to lauded auteur of stage and screen, he fuels his manic creativity with drugs, alcohol, and sex, often abusing his celebrity and power to feed his appetites. Meanwhile, Gwen goes from a legendary triple threat, winning four Tony® Awards in six years, to an actress struggling to stay relevant in an industry obsessed with youth and novelty and double standards.

Through it all, Gwen plays an instrumental role in Bob’s work, not only as the greatest interpreter of his choreography, but as a largely unrecognized collaborator, even as their marriage unravels in the face of Bob’s increasingly self-destructive tendencies.

Featuring show-stopping choreography, including original pieces as well as some of the most iconic works of Bob and Gwen’s careers, such as Sweet Charity with Shirley MacLaine (1969), Cabaret with Liza Minnelli (1972) and All That Jazz with Roy Scheider (1979), Fosse / Verdon will tell the story of these two brilliant, complicated individuals – the love they shared, the art they created, and the price they paid in the pursuit of greatness.

Thomas Kail, Steven Levenson, Joel Fields, Lin-Manuel Miranda, George Stelzner, Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams are Executive Producers of the limited series that is produced by Fox 21 Television Studios and FX Productions.

Levenson wrote the premiere episode which was directed by Kail. Actress, dancer and producer Nicole Fosse, and daughter of Fosse and Verdon, serves as a key Creative Consultant, Co-Executive Producer and oversees The Verdon Fosse Legacy. Co-Producer Andy Blankenbuehler is serving as a Choreographer, as is Susan Misner. Erica Kay serves as Producer.

Fosse / Verdon 8.30pm Sunday, May 26 on FOX Showcase.
Bob Fosse: It’s Showtime! 7:30pm Thursday May 23rd on Foxtel Arts.