Sunday Morning, and All That Jazz

Okay...enough. I've caught up on my sleep, forced myself to re-read my most recent scribblings and listen to my recordings, and feel a bit better. Probably just another classic case of over-extension (you have no idea how many irons I keep in the fire from moment to moment...I recently joked that Jaz leads a double or triple life...then I lead the life of the faceted sphere of my old series of poems (Know how many facets a diamond has? 58 in the "modern round brilliant cut. Slacker.)).

I'm working with a new protege (she knows who she is) and her work is extremely evocative. It reads like much of my work from about a decade ago. Which of course creates an emotional time warp in my head. Add to that the nakedly emotional and somewhat erotic aspect of some of her work and it is like running an obstacle course: Exhilarating but still exhausting.

But if you don't get tired, you aren't doing anything.

I sat down an re-watched "All That Jazz" the other evening, which also tunnels inside my psyche. I mentioned the film the other day as my favourite and someone asked me to talk about the film, so I will, in brief, right here.

Bob Fosse, for those of you unfamiliar with the man, was a director and choreographer who is considered one of the giants of broadway. Seen "Chicago"? That was the musical he was working on when he had a heart attack and the modern version of it still bears many of his stylistic earmarks. Paula Abdul's video "Cold Hearted Snake" is an homage to a scene from this movie entitled "Air-rotica". He directed "Cabaret" and "Lenny" as well as several other films. The list goes on and on and on.

This film is Fosse's self-indictment of the creative artist as a self-destructive asshole. His lead character Joe Gideon, played to an Academy Award (the film won 5 Oscars) nomination by Roy Scheider, is a choreographer and director who can't keep himself out of trouble with his womanizing, his drinking and his pills. He's flirting with death, literally (played by Jessica Lange in the role that brought her back from the career disaster that was "King Kong") and running out of time. The only thing in this life he cares about, besides his art, is his 12 year old daughter Michelle (Coincidentally, my daughter's middle name. No, not coincidentally.).

We watch him editing a new movie he directed (based on his experiences editing the film "Lenny), organizing a new Broadway show and being an ass to his girlfriend Katie, played by actress/dancer and all-around lust-object Ann Reinking, who was Fosse's girlfriend at the time the events this movie is based on actually occurred. It must have been strange for her to go through on screen some of the same things she went through in real life.

The musical numbers in this film serve two functions: First, many of them are necessary to show us his work and creative process (the "Air-rotica" sequence is a cathartic moment for him, where he can depict on stage the futility of his libido. The second function is to provide us with elaborately staged hallucinations when he is struck down by a heart attack, depicting his own awareness of his own failings as a person, a husband and a father.

In real life, Fosse survived the heart attack, and Chicago made it to the stage. Although Fosse's original vision of the song "Razzle Dazzle" being an orgy on the courthouse steps was changed (yes, kids, "Air-rotica" was for real). The finale to the film features a near-death Joe Gideon being joined by Ben Vereen for a recap of his miserable life, in an elaborate staged version of "Bye Bye Love" renamed "Bye Bye Life". I have asked the song to be played at my funeral.

So there it is...