Sweet Charity

Sweet Charity
National Tour, starring Molly Ringwald
Pangates Theatre
Wednesday, October 11, 2006, 8pm

Fun and a totally fluffy, this production of Sweet Charity survives by virtue of its energetic cast and an endearing star. Molly Ringwald manages to do the opposite of what happens when they revive musicals: she makes the book scenes more charming than the songs. She sings adequately enough, but it's the loveable character that she creates as Charity Hope Valentine that endears you to her - and to the show.

The national tour of Sweet Charity is a tour of the 2004 Broadway Revival production, directed by Walter Bobbie and with choreography by Wayne Cilento (this production was more notorious for the drama that surrounded it; star Christina Applegate broke her foot during the pre-Broadway tryout tour and the production was nearly cancelled before she perservered and brought the show into New York for a, well, less than financially successful run). The original production of Sweet Charity lives in legend thanks to Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon (thankfully there's a film version to save Fosse's dance numbers); it was very dance driven, and was virtually built around Verdon's unique talents. The Cole Porter score is great and the Neil Simon book charming, of course, but it's always a question when a new production of "Charity" pops up: how will they crawl out from under the shadow of Fosse and Verdon?

In this production, they get through it by being as cute as possible. The sets are bright and colorful (like a palette of bubblegum colors), the cast energetic and bubbly.

Ringwald is a great actress... this was to be expected from her history of film and stage work. She carries a book scene expertly, and takes you along for a great story. Dancing and singing aren't quite her strong points; she sings adequately enough, and the dancing is barely passable, but you like her as Charity. The production does fail her in a few key points though: you don't actually like her until about midway through Act 1 because the first bits fly by so fast you don't get a chance to meet Charity until later - a big mistake on director Bobbie's part.

The choreography definitely can't banish the memory of Fosse, especially as the songs were virtually constructed around Fosse's dances (and, since Cilento throws in plenty of references to Fosse, lest you forget who was there first). The dance numbers have the character of dance show routines - expertly performed, with technical firecrackers and a fabulous ensemble of dancers - but they're also really random seeming. Suddenly we're in 2006 hipster Las Vegas dance land, leaving the charming, 1960s musical Sweet Charity somewhere behind. But still, the numbers are so damn well performed that you almost don't care (almost).

In any case, it was going to be hard to leave Fosse behind. The production works as a great diversion, and the cast takes you away when the direction hiccups here and there. It's just FUN... like cotton candy - sweet enough to make you forget you're ingesting tons of processed sugar.


Photos by Craig Schwartz. Left to right: Molly Ringwald, Amanda Watkins and Kisha Howard in "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This;" Dancers in "The Rich Man's Frug;" Molly Ringwald as Charity.

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