All that Fosse.

Picture this: Bebe Neuwirth, Debbie Allen, and Gwen Verdon gathered around an ancient upright with Sweet Charity's composer, Cy Coleman, belting out "If My Friends Could See Me Now." Verdon, who created the title role for the Bob Fosse Broadway musical, and Allen and Neuwirth, who played Charity in revivals, were rehearsing for the concert version performed last June at Avery Fisher Hall as a benefit for several AIDS organizations.

Chita Rivera and Donna McKechnie joined those taking turns as Charity; Whoopi Goldberg popped up everywhere. The all-star supporting cast included Betty Buckley, Hinton Battle, Jim Dale, Helen Gallagher, Robert Goulet, Pamela Isaacs, Jerry Orbach, and Marisa Tomei. Former New York City mayors David Dinkins and Ed Koch walked on as policemen. The distinctive dance numbers, including "Rich Man's Frug," led by Diana Laurenson, were danced by gypsies well acquainted with Fosse shows.

For Verdon it was a particularly special occasion. She has spent the last three years deeply involved in reviving and staging her late husband's choreography and acting as artistic adviser for Fosse: A Celebration in Song & Dance, codirected by Ann Reinking, with Richard Maltby, Jr., as production director for the Canadian producer Livent Inc. Garth Drabinsky of Ragtime fame is coproducer on the project. Fosse opened in Toronto in July; Boston and Los Angeles are to see it before it opens next year on Broadway.

Chet Walker, billed as co-choreographer, had worked with Fosse on musicals both as dancer and dance captain. It was he who suggested the idea of A Celebration to Fosse before he died in 1987. Says Verdon, "I knew Chet was doing fabulous research. After Bob died we waited about three years. Then I said, `Okay, let's see what you've got.'" It grew from there, with a workshop in Toronto, where Livent is headquartered, with Walker, Verdon, and her daughter, Nicole, coaching the dancers [see Dance Magazine, July, page 33].

Although Verdon and Reinking could easily be rivals for Fosse's choreographic inheritance, they are instead friendly twin authorities on his work. "I welcomed Annie coming in on the project," says Verdon. "I wanted her on this right from the very beginning, but she was so busy, what with Chicago and everything. She's given it an overall structure, directing the entire look of the stage ... The show is nothing but dance and song and it isn't chronological, but you can see Bob's growth. It spans so much in terms of his development and ability, which was enhanced by working with a variety of people. He never just collected dancers and then overlaid work on them. He'd cast knowing a dancer's abilities and what qualities would come through, whether it was for Mary-Ann Niles, Annie Reinking, or me. I came from an all-dance background. Mother was a dancer. I was a tap dancer, and when I worked with Jack Cole we learned all kinds of ethnic dancing as well as everything else. Bob used those abilities. When he choreographed for Annie [who had ballet training], he started being much more open, using grands jetes and that sort of thing. She's strong and limber and so musical."

There was no lack of material to winnow down to thirty-six numbers. Fosse worked on such Broadway smashes as Pajama Game, Pippin, and Damn Yankees (where Fosse and Verdon met), and such movies as the Oscar-winning Cabaret and All That Jazz. His last Broadway show, Big Deal, flopped, yet even it featured the spectacular "Beat Me Daddy Eight to the Bar."

Says Verdon, "We've got numbers from when Bob and I and Mary-Ann danced together on a TV comedy hour. We have `I Gotcha' from Liza with a Z, and the original Baseball Ballet from Damn Yankees. We've even collected material from the Library of Congress about the War Ballet from Conquering Hero (based on Preston Sturges's 1944 hit movie, Hail the Conquering Hero), a twelve-minute danced battle between the Marines and the Japanese on Guadalcanal"--unfortunately not in the show--"There's `Sing, Sing, Sing,' from Dancin', the Alley Dance from the movie My Sister Eileen, and `Steam Heat' from Pajama Game; `Mein Herr' from Cabaret, and `Take Off with Us' from All That Jazz. Some of the most obvious hits have not been included; of course, `Big Spender' from Sweet Charity couldn't be ignored. So many of the numbers were done before these kids were born! I'd say, `Jack Cole,' and they'd say, `Who?' "

For Verdon, Fosse: A Celebration in Song & Dance is "the culmination of a great ambition that I thought would never happen." And does she want to appear in it? Cheerfully admitting to seventy-three, she declares, "I can't really dance anymore--well, maybe for a count of eight! I work out at home, never go to class, don't like aerobics and that stair stuff. But the dancers respect what I want to share with them because I want all dancers to be great dancers. `Never be mediocre!' I tell them. `Be bad! But never mediocre.' "

With that, Verdon, the redhead who was Broadway's Redhead, turns and, contradicting herself, dances out the door.

Hilary Ostlere is a senior editor of Dance Magazine.