| Big Deal | |
|---|---|
 Playbill cover | |
| Music | various |
| Lyrics | various |
| Book | Bob Fosse |
| Basis | Big Deal on Madonna Street |
| Productions | 1986 Broadway |
Big Deal is a musical with a book by Bob Fosse using songs from various composers such as Ray Henderson, Eubie Blake, and Jerome Kern. It was based on the 1958 film Big Deal on Madonna Street by Mario Monicelli. The musical received five Tony Award nominations, with Fosse winning for Choreography. The production was Fosse's final work, as he died the next year.
After shopping the project around to various composers (including Stephen Sondheim and Peter Allen), [1] [2] Fosse eventually settled on using popular songs of the 1920s and 30s. Fosse said that by using existing songs: "I can pick the perfect songs that will say the right things, and they're known. We'll have the greatest score in the world because they're all hit songs." [3] Fosse said of the main character, Charley: "That's my part! A swaggering bumbler who thinks he's a ladies' man, and he's not." [2] [4]
Big Deal opened on Broadway at the Broadway Theatre on April 10, 1986, and closed on June 8, 1986, after 69 performances and six previews. Directed and choreographed by Fosse, with Christopher Chadman as associate choreographer, the musical featured Cleavant Derricks as Charley, Loretta Devine as Lilly, Wayne Cilento, Cady Huffman, Valarie Pettiford, and Stephanie Pope. [5]
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In Chicago in the 1930s a group of small-time unemployed African-American men plan to rob a pawn shop. Their leader, Charlie, is a former boxer. But the hapless would-be thieves run into many obstacles along the way.
Frank Rich in his review for The New York Times wrote: "Big Deal, the new Fosse musical at the Broadway, contains exactly one of those show stoppers, and attention must be paid. If only for 10 minutes or so just before the end of Act I, Mr. Fosse makes an audience remember what is (and has been) missing from virtually every other musical in town. The number is set to the old song Beat Me Daddy Eight to the Bar, and it unfolds in a Chicago ballroom of the 1930s called (need I tell you?) Paradise...The disappointment of Big Deal is that even Mr. Fosse, one of the form's last magicians, can conjure up that joy so rarely. There are some other pleasurable passages in this musical - period songs (or snatches of them) agreeably sung or danced by talented performers - but this is a mostly lackluster effort that often seems to be lumbering clumsily about." [6]
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Tony Award | Best Musical | Nominated | |
| Best Book of a Musical | Bob Fosse | Nominated | ||
| Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical | Cleavant Derricks | Nominated | ||
| Best Direction of a Musical | Bob Fosse | Nominated | ||
| Best Choreography | Won | |||
| Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Musical | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Cleavant Derricks | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Director of a Musical | Bob Fosse | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Choreography | Won | |||
Robert Louis Fosse was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), and Chicago (1975). He directed the films Sweet Charity (1969), Cabaret (1972), Lenny (1975), All That Jazz (1979), and Star 80 (1983).
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Leo Robin was an American composer, lyricist and songwriter. He is probably best known for collaborating with Ralph Rainger on the 1938 Oscar-winning song "Thanks for the Memory," sung by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938, and with Jule Styne on "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," a song whose witty, Cole Porter style of lyric came to be identified with its famous interpreter Marilyn Monroe.
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Cleavant Derricks Jr. is an American actor and Tony Award winning singer-songwriter, who is best known for his role of Rembrandt Brown on Sliders.
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Kathryn Doby is a Hungarian dancer, actress and choreographer who worked as assistant and dance captain for Bob Fosse. She made her Broadway debut in the ensemble of Fosse's Sweet Charity at its premiere in January 1966 at the Palace Theatre in Times Square. Aside from her performance in the musical Gregory (1970), her work on Broadway continued with Fosse as a Player and Dance Captain in Pippin (1972) and as an assistant to Mr. Fosse for Chicago (1975) and Dancin' (1978). Her film credits include The Night They Raided Minsky's – “Minsky Girl” (1968), The Handmaid's Tale (film) – Aunt Elizabeth (1990), and again worked with Fosse as a dancer in Sweet Charity (1969), Cabaret – Kit Kat Dancer (1972), and All That Jazz – Kathryn (1979).
Mr. Fosse sees himself in the musical's central character, a failed prizefighter named Charley who is played by Mr. Derricks. I certainly identify with Cleavant, the director observes with a chuckle -a swaggering bumbler who thinks he's a ladies' man, and he's not, but he keeps trying and covering up. I always say to Cleavant, 'That's my part.'