Summary: The legendary choreographer and director Bob Fosse forever changed the way America dances. He's the only person to win an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy in the same year. And according to Sam Wasson, author of the new biography Fosse, he revolutionized the American musical twice. In an interview with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Wasson says Fosse introduced a grit and edginess never before seen in musicals; and his inspiration came from his own traumatic experiences as a young dancer in seedy burlesque clubs. And though Fosse's life was filled with depression and over-indulgence, Wasson points out that it was also full of love and friendship. Interview Highlights Sam Wasson, on why Bob Fosse is critical to an understanding of American pop culture: He revolutionized every medium that he influenced. Most great artists, if they're lucky they revolutionize one. Television, film, stage, dance...in each respect, Fosse left an imprint. That's just unbelievable; that' s just a giant talent. On Fosse's inspiration for Cabaret: Up until that point, most movie musicals were sort of out of date; they were old-fashioned; they didn't really speak to the post-60s feeling of America, which was depressed and angry. You can't really sing about depressed and angry - at least up until that point, on film you couldn't. And Fosse found a perfect idiom - a dance idiom for that and a cinematic idiom for that. He found it in his own dark, depressed past. He grew up in these horrible burlesque halls. These were really bad, mean places, especially to a kid of 13. Watch the trailer for Sam Wasson's Fosse, featuring a number of notable cameos from Bob Fosse's world:
