Among the many new shows that are premiering in 2019, FX’s Fosse/Verdon is definitely one of the most highly anticipated. The new trailer features Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams as the titular dance duo turned married couple, Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. Fosse/Verdon is based on the book Fosse by Sam Wasson and executive produced by the likes of Lin-Manuel Mirance. It’s also, as the pair’s daughter (and the series’ consultant), Nicole Fosse, explained, a brutally honest depiction of a toxic relationship.
“No matter what has happened that we’ve found out already, no matter what we’ve addressed, you can’t just sweep it under the rug,” she told the journalists gathered at the Television Critics Association earlier this month when she was asked about the more “questionable aspects” of her father’s behavior. “It’s a conversation that needs to begin in the household in every family, and it needs to be open and ongoing. I just think it’s really important to tell the truth.”
After all, as The Hollywood Reporter‘s coverage of the Fosse/Verdon TCA panel put it, we’re living in an age of post-#MeToo and Time’s Up entertainment initiatives. So how is a series purportedly glorifying an otherwise complex and problematic person going to contend with those aspects of his personality? By putting them front and center, which is exactly what the new Fosse/Verdon trailer does with its brief history of the pair’s relationship.
Fosse/Verdon premieres Tuesday, April 9 on FX.
