#1
Posted: 5/1/05 at 8:09pm
Well.............
It's not a disaster.
But, it's also not very good either.
It felt like something you'd see in summer stock in a tent somewhere (if summer stock came with a $10 million budget).
It has some lively moments, but they don't register very soundly because they aren't grounded in anything -- character, attitude, perspective, point of view are all missing. Obviously, these are director and choreographer problems and the work of both here is on a level several notches below Broadway quality. Mediocre, in fact. This would be a first rate production for a community theatre in Des Moines, but it's simply not up to real professional standards, let alone the impossibly high bar they set for themselves in taking on the legendary Bob Fosse.
Bobbie's direction seems to consist mostly of blocking odd-looking stage pictures and making sure the pacing doesn't lag -- which it doesn't for the most part. For a former actor, it's surprising how little distinction and nuance Bobbie's given to some of the secondary roles -- Helene and Nicki, for example, are roughly interchangeable personality-wise, which wasn't the case in previous productions.
Then there's Cilento's choreography. What a fiasco. It would have been one thing to totally toss out the Fosse choreography altogether and start over, but that's not quite what's happened here. Cilento in his infinite wisdom has kept a lot of the actual steps and moves, but unaccountably stripped them of their context, wit, character and narrative quality, dumbing them down, tossing them into his choreographic blender and then randomly reassembling them into an incoherent free-for-all.
Take "Rich Man's Frug," for example. Fosse created that dance as a satire of the snooty hoi polloi one would find in the exclusive clubs of the day. Each dancer was given a character to portray (in rehearsal they came up with names and back stories for the characters they were playing in the dance). The "ballet" was an expression of their hauteur and attitude which points up how insecure and out-of-place Charity feels in that scenario. It shows her state of mind and is a perfect segue into the following Vittorio scene. It's NOT just an excuse for a dance number. Well, it wasn't when Fosse created it. With Cilento, it's just a bunch of random oddly-dressed people having a good time on a dance floor of a club -- there's no subtext, no character development, no comment. Just dancing (using the same wrist twirls and frug movements Fosse employed) -- without a brain in its head like all of Cilento's work here.
The rest of his work seems uninspired and earthbound -- and not just the stuff he created for the recovering Ms. Applegate. Numbers that legendarily flew and stopped the show -- "Big Spender," "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This" and "I'm A Brass Band" notably -- never truly take off here and are all flash, no substance. Until Cilento learns and fully understands that what separates the legends from the second-raters is detail -- notably individuality within an ensemble -- he'll never be more than a hack-for-hire.
Now, onto the performers. I found Applegate to be very winning overall. Quite adept at comedy with a solid stage presence, a pleasant-enough voice (though her pitch wavers from time to time), and what looks like perhaps, a decent dance technique. In most productions, Charity is the best dancer on the stage -- Applegate is far from that, but she works hard. She's certainly not the main problem with this show.
Denis O'Hare was his usual reliable self, managing to be both hilariously neurotic and quite touching as Oscar. Janine LaManna and Kyra Da Costa acquit themselves fine acting-wise as Nicky and Helene (though both could stand to be a bit broader, funnier and idiosyncratic), but are let down by Cilento in the choreography department -- they never get a chance to really soar.
Paul Schoeffler displays a lovely voice and fine comic timing as Vittorio. Ernie Sabella is criminally underused, but wonderful in his brief moments on stage. Rhett George does what he can with Daddy -- another number that's a mishmash and never takes off.
The design elements are all standouts in a cartoonish, cotton candy kind of way. And the orchestra sounded fantastic, by the way, under the direction of Don York. I must say, though, I missed the bossa nova accents in the orchestration of "Charity's Soliloquy."
"Sweet Charity" whatever it's flaws, has always been a prime showcase for great triple threat performers -- Verdon, Prowse, McKechnie, Reinking, Allen etc.... -- in this incarnation, it's now just a passable comedy with some good songs and some mediocre production numbers tossed in as if they were an afterthought.
This show was once known as a prime example of the "tired businessmans'" genre of shows which had a certain popularity in the 50s and 60s -- undemanding light entertainments full of flash and pretty girls, designed to help someone unwind after a long day of meetings before hopping the last train home to Hartford. I'm afraid that if that same "tired" businessman (I assume he still exists) were to attend this rather lackluster, humdrum, spark-free production of "Sweet Charity" rather than exiting the theatre refreshed and ready to head for home, I think he may instead have slipped beyond "tired" and into a full blown coma at what he had witnessed.
It's not a disaster.
But, it's also not very good either.
It felt like something you'd see in summer stock in a tent somewhere (if summer stock came with a $10 million budget).
It has some lively moments, but they don't register very soundly because they aren't grounded in anything -- character, attitude, perspective, point of view are all missing. Obviously, these are director and choreographer problems and the work of both here is on a level several notches below Broadway quality. Mediocre, in fact. This would be a first rate production for a community theatre in Des Moines, but it's simply not up to real professional standards, let alone the impossibly high bar they set for themselves in taking on the legendary Bob Fosse.
Bobbie's direction seems to consist mostly of blocking odd-looking stage pictures and making sure the pacing doesn't lag -- which it doesn't for the most part. For a former actor, it's surprising how little distinction and nuance Bobbie's given to some of the secondary roles -- Helene and Nicki, for example, are roughly interchangeable personality-wise, which wasn't the case in previous productions.
Then there's Cilento's choreography. What a fiasco. It would have been one thing to totally toss out the Fosse choreography altogether and start over, but that's not quite what's happened here. Cilento in his infinite wisdom has kept a lot of the actual steps and moves, but unaccountably stripped them of their context, wit, character and narrative quality, dumbing them down, tossing them into his choreographic blender and then randomly reassembling them into an incoherent free-for-all.
Take "Rich Man's Frug," for example. Fosse created that dance as a satire of the snooty hoi polloi one would find in the exclusive clubs of the day. Each dancer was given a character to portray (in rehearsal they came up with names and back stories for the characters they were playing in the dance). The "ballet" was an expression of their hauteur and attitude which points up how insecure and out-of-place Charity feels in that scenario. It shows her state of mind and is a perfect segue into the following Vittorio scene. It's NOT just an excuse for a dance number. Well, it wasn't when Fosse created it. With Cilento, it's just a bunch of random oddly-dressed people having a good time on a dance floor of a club -- there's no subtext, no character development, no comment. Just dancing (using the same wrist twirls and frug movements Fosse employed) -- without a brain in its head like all of Cilento's work here.
The rest of his work seems uninspired and earthbound -- and not just the stuff he created for the recovering Ms. Applegate. Numbers that legendarily flew and stopped the show -- "Big Spender," "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This" and "I'm A Brass Band" notably -- never truly take off here and are all flash, no substance. Until Cilento learns and fully understands that what separates the legends from the second-raters is detail -- notably individuality within an ensemble -- he'll never be more than a hack-for-hire.
Now, onto the performers. I found Applegate to be very winning overall. Quite adept at comedy with a solid stage presence, a pleasant-enough voice (though her pitch wavers from time to time), and what looks like perhaps, a decent dance technique. In most productions, Charity is the best dancer on the stage -- Applegate is far from that, but she works hard. She's certainly not the main problem with this show.
Denis O'Hare was his usual reliable self, managing to be both hilariously neurotic and quite touching as Oscar. Janine LaManna and Kyra Da Costa acquit themselves fine acting-wise as Nicky and Helene (though both could stand to be a bit broader, funnier and idiosyncratic), but are let down by Cilento in the choreography department -- they never get a chance to really soar.
Paul Schoeffler displays a lovely voice and fine comic timing as Vittorio. Ernie Sabella is criminally underused, but wonderful in his brief moments on stage. Rhett George does what he can with Daddy -- another number that's a mishmash and never takes off.
The design elements are all standouts in a cartoonish, cotton candy kind of way. And the orchestra sounded fantastic, by the way, under the direction of Don York. I must say, though, I missed the bossa nova accents in the orchestration of "Charity's Soliloquy."
"Sweet Charity" whatever it's flaws, has always been a prime showcase for great triple threat performers -- Verdon, Prowse, McKechnie, Reinking, Allen etc.... -- in this incarnation, it's now just a passable comedy with some good songs and some mediocre production numbers tossed in as if they were an afterthought.
This show was once known as a prime example of the "tired businessmans'" genre of shows which had a certain popularity in the 50s and 60s -- undemanding light entertainments full of flash and pretty girls, designed to help someone unwind after a long day of meetings before hopping the last train home to Hartford. I'm afraid that if that same "tired" businessman (I assume he still exists) were to attend this rather lackluster, humdrum, spark-free production of "Sweet Charity" rather than exiting the theatre refreshed and ready to head for home, I think he may instead have slipped beyond "tired" and into a full blown coma at what he had witnessed.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 5/1/05 at 08:09 PM
