Discovering Fosse

Growing up in Long Island, Richard Maltby Jr. often found himself watching his bandleader father orchestrate symphonic pop records. Sitting in on those recording sessions provided Maltby with a sense of structure and symmetry.

That sense, he suggests, is why he was selected to direct “Fosse,” the 1999 Tony Award winner for best musical that opens at the Shubert Theatre tonight. Who better to shape the work of the legendary choreographer than the man behind the nonnarrative, “inner organized” revue with the acclaimed 1978 Fats Waller musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ”?

Maltby, 62, who contributes monthly crossword puzzles to Harper’s magazine, is a noted wordsmith, as well. He co-wrote lyrics for such shows as “Miss Saigon,” “Baby” and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Song and Dance,” which he also directed. Much of the time, he collaborates with his Yale college chum, composer David Shire.

For Maltby, directing “Fosse” has been an eye-opener. The show provided a window into a complex, often misunderstood, man whose work in such shows as “Chicago,” “Pajama Game,” “Damn Yankees” and “Dancin’ ” is triggering creative ripples 13 years after his death.

Question: Did you know Bob Fosse?

Answer: No. And that was an advantage, since to know Fosse was to be enthralled by him--and I mean that in the “siren” sense. People who entered his circle, his consciousness, are still in his magnetic field, which doesn’t help when you’re trying to create a show and analyze his work.

Gwen Verdon never divorced Fosse even after he left her and their daughter for other women, including Ann Reinking--”Fosse’s” co-director and co-choreographer. Verdon even acted as a dance captain of sorts on some of his later shows.

Q: Verdon, it’s been said, is the “keeper of the flame.”

A: That’s true. “Fosse” got its start, in fact, when she put together classes to teach a new generation of dancers his steps and preserve his work on video. Verdon, as artistic advisor, and Reinking took the lead when it came to passing on the inner life of the numbers--of which they know every nook and cranny.

Rather than taking a chronological look at the material, I used Fosse’s vision as an expression of his identity--a way of revealing the man, himself.

Q: What kind of man did you discover?

A: Someone much warmer and nicer than I’d imagined--and very different from the way he saw himself. Fosse said he hated sentimentality. He had a reputation for being cool, even cold, and all about style. Yet I found his work funny, full of human feeling. It was a revelation to me.

Q: Wasn’t there also a dark side to him?

A: Absolutely. Fosse never bought into the sugary view of life served up in musicals. He knew that there’s a world out there that’s not the one of [“Oklahoma’s”] Curly and Laurey. Fascinated by so-called perversions that make people human, he’d go to Times Square “girlie” shows to pick up pointers--choreographic and otherwise.

Fosse was really two people: the show business entertainer and the ruthless, dark artist excoriated in “All That Jazz.”

Q: Did the dancers find Fosse’s movements hard to master?

A: These steps are very unnatural--geared, as Reinking says, to the choreographer’s own crooked, pigeon-toed body. The level of injury on the show is high. Another challenge was making sure that we didn’t use pieces with the same vocabulary.

Fosse didn’t expect his dances to be done all together, so he didn’t mind borrowing from himself.

Q: Would you put Fosse in the same league as choreographers George Abbott, Michael Bennett and Jerome Robbins?

A: Actually, Fosse’s best work is in film. “All That Jazz” and “Cabaret” were masterpieces, but it’s hard to say that about any of his stage shows, which really weren’t great musicals. The current hit version of “Chicago,” which comes closest and cements his reputation on Broadway, is an edited version of the original.

Q: This show played at the Ahmanson Theatre last year. Why bring it back?

A: The demand seems to be there. Last year’s run was sold out. Still, you never know--L.A. is unpredictable. “Miss Saigon” did enormous business every place but here.

Q: Who’s filling the seats?

A: People who saw the original shows and are finding new things in a different context. And younger audiences living in the world of MTV choreography and the break dancers behind Britney Spears. Fosse’s steps are a matrix for the new pop dancing, as well as hip-hop. The first Gap ads were an homage to his work. Kids understand this material--it wouldn’t do well as a nostalgia show.

Q: Which do you prefer, writing lyrics or directing?

A: I’m schizophrenic. I like doing both even though--or maybe because--they’re so different. Lyric writing is a very precise craft, while directing is emotional, intuitive, thinking on your feet. Anyone can write lyrics on a simplistic level, but to do it one degree better involves a great deal of pain--and a lot of throwing out.

Q: What’s next?

A: David and I are writing “Take Flight”--a show about the human impulse to leave the ground. It should see the light of day in about 18 months and, hopefully, start out in Los Angeles. Writing an original show is harder now because there’s a corporate mentality that stifles anything unusual. [Stephen] Sondheim compared Broadway shows to the ones put on in theme parks.

This approach has worked for some movie blockbusters and theater enterprises, such as Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King,” which was thrilling only because it was directed by a genius. Seeing the same recognizable stuff churned out again and again is the nail in the coffin for musicals.