Margery Beddow quoted in Playbill

Margery Beddow is thrilled to have been included in Robert Simonson's article "Beyonce and Beyond". Please scroll down to watch Bob Fosse's original choreography for Gewn Verdon in Mexican Breakfast and also an interesting compilation of dancing styles to the tune of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" with Gwen Verdon on "The Ed Sullivan Show", Shirley Maclaine in "Sweet Charity" and of course, Beyonce.

Channeling Fosse: Beyoncé and Beyond By Robert Simonson
(SOURCE: please click on the title above to read the complete article at Playbill.com)

...While Beddow is happy that the Fosse influence lives on, she feels like something is being lost in translation.

"Fosse would appreciate the fact that they're beautiful and are looking very sexy," she said of the "Single Ladies" video. But "they really needed to go a bit deeper into what Fosse's style was. The point of his work was it was all about acting. Whether you're singing and dancing, you're acting. You're in the business of communicating ideas. Fosse had a subtext to the steps, so that you would be doing something with your hips, but with your eyes and your head, you're thinking 'How do you like this?' Something would be challenging, something would be 'Ha, ha, ha. I’m going to walk away now.' There was something you were thinking in each section."

Beddow said she could see that Beyoncé and her companions, "were thinking sexy, but it was one color. Fosse always said the head and the eyes develop last. They look out at the audience. They're landing it on the audience.

"He said, 'If a dancer isn't also an actor, it's just so much animated wallpaper.'"

Biography

In film Margery Beddow was featured in Disney's ENCHANTED which was reprised on the 2008 Oscars. She performed in both the original THE PRODUCERS starring Zero Mostel as well as the recent PRODUCERS - THE MUSICAL with Nathan Lane. She had a role in the TV film LEGS starring Gwen Verdon. Margery was also seen as Reba in the film WALTZING ANNA. She just completed the role of the dancing teacher in the Catholic School in the film DOUBT starring Meryl Streep which will be released in December of 2008.

Margery has appeared in seven Bob Fosse musicals and wrote the book, BOB FOSSE'S BROADWAY, which is now in its fourth printing. As a Choreographer, she created two Broadway shows, DEAR OSCAR and WIND IN THE WILLOWS. In touring companies she choreographed CAN-CAN with Yvonne De Carlo, PAJAMA GAME with John Raitt, THE OLYMPIAD, DAMN YANKEES and a Cole Porter revue called COLE. In New York she recently directed and staged a show at Town Hall called, BROADWAY BY THE YEAR, as well as a show for the Lyric and Lyricists Organization called, NOEL COWARD AND HIS LADIES which starred Steve Ross. Margery was the show Doctor and Production Supervisor for the Off Broadway show, MENOPAUSE THE MUSICAL which ran for over four years. She was Director/Choreographer on innumerable Industrial shows and many Cabaret Acts.

As a Performer on Broadway she performed in ten Broadway shows: REDHEAD, CONQUERING HERO, WE TAKE THE TOWN, LITTLE ME, TWO ON THE AISLE, ALMANAC, TAKE ME ALONG, ULYSSES IN NIGHTTOWN and revivals of FIORELLO and SHOWBOAT.

Margery performed on tour as Gladys in PAJAMA GAME, Nicky in SWEET CHARITY , Lola in DAMN YANKEES, Lil Dolan in ON YOUR TOES, Felicia in READY WHEN YOU ARE C.B., Angie in BALLROOM, Sue Smith in NO, NO NANETTE, Maggie in 42ND STREET, Snobson in FASHION, Rosita in EL GRANDE DE COCA COLA and Matron Mama Morton in CHICAGO.

Off Broadway shows include, SING MELANCHOLY BABY, SECOND SUMMER, WIT & WISDOM, ANYONE CAN WHISTLE and JOHNNY ON A SPOT.