Quips, Quotes & Anecdotes!
*Gwen Quotes*
"I like the character of Charity because she's so hopeful, and she's never bitter. Plenty of things happen to her that could make her bitter. She always thinks tomorrow's going to be beautiful. And someday it will be."
"These girls I've played are naive and pure. They are looking for someone to really love. But they aren't very bright, and they haven't been brought up in a family situation that enables them to evaluate. As for the prostitutes, well they're 'loved' every 20 minutes, or what substitutes for love in about 90% of American homes-- I'm pretty cynical about that."
"Sex in a dance is in the eyes of the beholder. I never thought my dances sexy. I suppose that's because I see myself with my face washed, and to me I look like a rabbit."
(at the opening of 'Sweet Charity', when asked if she was nervous before the show):
"I usually get very calm. I don't know if that's good, but I do. And then the moment I'm out there, the first few moments I'm... it's like when you watch a horse race and the horses just won't stay in the stall... that's how I feel. So I guess that's a kind of nervousness."
(when asked what opening night was like):
"Oh I don't know. You can never appreciate it at the moment. Usually you look back on it, like a year later, and say, 'Oh, wasn't that exciting and thrilling?'"
(when asked if there was any meaning to her in being at the opening night of the Palace in it's rebirth of becoming a legitimate theatre):
"Well, yes. I know that it's kind of history-making type opening... in that the Palace has gone legit. But, I mean, that's what everybody else says. But when you have people like Sarah Bernhardt play there it's been a legit theatre, I don't care what anybody else calls it."
Fred Robbins: "But you didn't get payed 500 dollars in gold tonight, didja, like she [Sarah Bernhardt] used to insist on?"
Gwen Verdon: "No, but I've got a bear-skin rug on the floor!"
*Quotes About Gwen*
See what some of the stage's most legendary performers and playwrights had to say about Gwen.
"To work with a performer like Gwen Verdon... I feel every time I come to rehearsal I should pay. I wanted to pay for my opening night tickets tonight 'cause she's just such a joy to watch."~Acclaimed playwright Neil Simon, who wrote the book for 'Sweet Charity'
"Well, I tell you, she has a unique quality to me that I've never seen in any other female. It's... it's almost Chaplain-esque her quality. She's got the ability to mak eyou cry and laugh, almost within a hair's breath. And I've never seen anybody be able to do that. She has a kind of unreal-real quality as a human being on the stage. And nobody has it. Except her."~'Sweet Charity' Co-Star, Helen Gallagher (Nickie)
"I thought she was absolutely fabulous tonight (the opening of 'Sweet Charity')! She's got everything, ya know? And she works so darn hard."~Broadway legend, Ethel Merman
"She's just sheer perfection! She can't make a wrong move. Anything she does is right. Her instincts are just perfect. It's her attitude towards the profession. I've never seen her in a rehearsal that didn't seem as though there were 5,000 people out front. She gives every minute, and it's perfect for the writers because then you know what you have on stage. It's not like some people who hold back and say 'Well, I'll give it later.' There's just no one I've ever worked with that's comprable to Gwen."~Neil Simon
"My God, how she danced."~Broadway legend Chita Rivera, speaking at Gwen's funeral
*Anecdotes*
*For those of you who have seen the musical "Sweet Charity", you know about the costumes that the Fandango Ballroom girls wear, and how they are often adorned with sequins or feathers, and how many of them had bowas. During the out of town rehearsals for "Sweet Charity", Gwen's voice began to grow increasingly scratchy whenever she would sing. However, she continued to practice hard and sing until she had no voice at all. She went to the doctor, and lo and behold, there was a feather from one of the bowas wrapped around her vocal chords.
*During "Redhead," there a specific set piece that, after being set up, the stagehands were supposed to lock into place. One evening, however, one of the stagehands missed his cue, and the piece fell... on Gwen's feet. A few moments later, Bob Fosse rushed out on stage yelling for them to close the curtain, and then the call came out over the audience: "If there's a doctor in the house, PLEASE report backstage." Later in the show, Essie (Gwen's character) was supposed to stamp her feet. Instead, she lightly tapped them on the floor, and the audience roared with laughter!
*Unusual stage mis-haps were no stranger to Gwen. During her first big show, "Can-Can", something went wrong one night during the "Apache" dance number. The plan was, a cake would be carried in front of Gwen, she would grab the cake-knife, and then plunge the knife into her dancing partner at the end of the number. Of course, as luck would have it, the end of the knife broke off in her hand. With the prop unusable, she did the only thing she knew to do. She grabbed the guy and kissed him! Then, when she was backstage and out of costume, the stage manager came in to tell her she had to make an extra bow because the audience was going wild! So Gwen went out, trying to cover herself since she was out of costume, and took that bow.
