*Official* Sweet Charity review thread.- Page 4

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 10:02pm

I need to review this show. Having known nothing of the orignal or even this production. just going in as a blank canvas. I hate how everything is suppose to be like the original. I mean whats the point of reviving the same ol' same ol'. What does Brantley look like? - just curious -

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 10:14pm

An opening night message to my favorite Charity revival cast member:

Denis, you'll always find work!

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 10:19pm

If the shows grosses continue to be successful than I think the show will be fine for a while.

[Princeton78]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 10:38pm

Actually Namo...
There was an article about him in the Boston playbill for "Charity" and he mentioned that after this show, he's going to give Hollywood a real try and bow out of the stage for a while. Made me sad.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:13pm

The AP is Mixed:

"It would be nice to report that things have come together triumphantly for "Sweet Charity," the problem-plagued revival which opened Wednesday at Broadway's Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Yet the production, like its heroine's efforts in the love department, delivers mixed, bittersweet results.
________________________________________________________________

Applegate's voice is small but serviceable and her dancing understandably a bit cautious. Yet she doesn't have the outsized personality required to carry the show -- a personality Gwen Verdon, in the 1966 original, must have possessed.

The star's lack of theater experience is all the more noticeable when she comes up against other cast members, particularly Denis O'Hare, as that claustrophobic accountant who meets Charity in a stalled elevator in the 92nd Street Y.

O'Hare is commandingly funny, even touching, until a bizarre twist at the end of the show. And there are generous supporting performances from Janine LaManna and Kyra Da Costa as two of Charity's dance-hall cohorts, Paul Schoeffler as the Italian cinema biggie and Ernie Sabella as the owner of the Fandango.
_____________________________________________________________

And, of course, there's "Big Spender," a number most identified with the show's original director and choreographer, the legendary Bob Fosse. It's a bit of a shock to see the song done now with new choreography by Wayne Cilento. His dance routines don't ape Fosse, but occasionally pay homage to him -- without much style or complexity of their own."

AP REVIEW

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:26pm

Variety is Mixed-To-Positive:

"For a show that arrives in New York saddled with a potentially crippling load of baggage -- tepid reviews for its Minneapolis and Chicago tryouts; an injured star; an out-of-town closing notice, later retracted -- "Sweet Charity" has a plucky spirit that won't be denied, and that's largely due to Christina Applegate. While the Broadway novice had musical purists clucking at the Great White Way's colonization by TV stars before anyone had given her a chance, Applegate turns out to be sweet, sexy, vulnerable and giving, her unforced performance providing a booster shot of gusto and heart to help fill the voids of Walter Bobbie's uneven production and Neil Simon's eternally problematic book.

The former "Married ... With Children" star is, of course, no Gwen Verdon (who is?), and she's by no means the most gifted musical performer ever to grace a stage, but she's no slouch. Recovering from a broken foot in remarkable time, Applegate may be guarded in her moves, favoring her good foot, but it's not so apparent that anyone unaware of the history should notice. And she more than holds her own in dance numbers (given added support in ankle boots). Early reports that Applegate's voice was paper thin also prove unduly harsh. She's not a belter, but she carries a tune with confidence and high-wattage personality.
_______________________________________________________________

One of the most remarkable aspects of this revival is the absence anywhere in the Playbill of Bob Fosse's name, especially since it's in the remnants of the original choreographer-director's unmistakable dance style that the show almost sizzles -- notably in the tawdry erotic sales pitch of "Big Spender" or the pugilistic go-go and cocky strut of "Rich Man's Frug." The decision not to follow the successful "Chicago" model and replicate the original Fosse moves becomes highly questionable when the alternative is choreographer Wayne Cilento's formless dance compositions, which too often struggle (and fail) to find any unity, layering on more when less is required.

Indeed, the handicap here is not a star without a Broadway pedigree but the lackluster stewardship of Cilento and Bobbie. This is nowhere more apparent than in a disastrous take on "The Rhythm of Life," in which hippie religious guru Daddy (Rhett George) is swamped by a mess of unfocused ensemble dancers while his vocals are drowned in funky arrangements that resurrect "Shaft" by way of "American Idol." What should be a punchy act-two opener becomes an amateurish muddle that stalls the momentum and erodes the good will engendered by an enjoyable first act.
____________________________________________________________

Whatever its weaknesses, the enduring appeal of "Sweet Charity" in the end boils down to having a lead capable of inspiring as much love as she recklessly hands out, and Applegate fits that bill. Even when she's being (literally) drummed offstage in Cilento's bombastic, "Stomp"-ified take on "I'm a Brass Band," the entirely adorable sitcom graduate has an unassuming charm that just won't quit."



http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117926990?categoryid=1265&cs=1

Updated On: 9/18/05 at 11:26 PM

[justme2]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:28pm

"'Sweet Charity'
Hey, big spender: Ever heard of Fosse?
Linda Winer"

Yeah...no one is comparing the work of Bobbie and Cilento to the old version. Nice title, NY Times.

[Glebb]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:29pm

She was the weakest dancer before the injury.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:31pm

Princeton, that is VERY depressing news if Denis abandons Broadway for Hollywood. Very sad news indeed.

Just back from opening night. I thought Christina was far better than she was given credit for. She has tremendous charm and pizazz and nails the book scenes. But the choreography is mediocre (and I think that someone with real guts and bravura could have made a valid alternate to Fosse) and the thin book worse than that. I'll post more tomorrow.

I'm bemused by Brantley's "Nyah Nyah, Melanie was better" line.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:32pm

Winer writes for Newsday.

[Princeton78]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:43pm

Ugh..finally at least 1 mixed/positive review...

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:55pm

The overall consensus of the show by the critics seems to be mixed. But mixed reviews were expected - so no suprise here. I say if we didn't have the cilento choreo - the reviews would've been much better.
Updated On: 5/4/05 at 11:55 PM

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:58pm

TheaterMania is up.. And it's ... A RAVE!

"Christina Applegate has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat -- or, more precisely, from de jaws of de feet. Though she broke her right foot during the obstacle-ridden Sweet Charity road tour, the peppery television star has landed on both pegs. She's apparently done everything in her power to reach Broadway, and it has worked. The smart money said that it couldn't be done -- bets were even waged publicly with producers Barry and Fran Weissler -- but the smart money turns out to be wrong. Applegate is a singing, dancing, acting delight as Charity Hope Valentine, the dance-hall hostess with a heart of gold.

The blonde, apple-cheeked Applegate keeps up with Charity every quick-step of the way. The boob-tube import has a chirrupy singing and speaking voice, long legs for lithe terpsichoring, a light-hearted sense of comedy, and a figure to set orchestras playing. She's so accomplished that anyone who wasn't around for her reported out-of-town miseries would be right to wonder what all the moaning was about -- or, conversely, would realize once again the value of out-of-town preparation. That's where a lady can make mistakes, correct them, and be transformed into a serious Tony Award contender.

As no one who's hung around Manhattan's Glamour Gulch for a few decades will have forgetten, this is the show that Bob Fosse and Neil Simon shaped on leading-light Gwen Verdon from the Federico Fellini-Tullio Pinelli-Ennio Flaiano film Nights of Cabiria, way back in 1966. While Applegate is no Gwen Verdon, it could also be said that Verdon was no Giulietta Masina, the first to play the winsome character. Never mind. It's far more than enough that Applegate is Applegate as she trills and twirls through Simon's solid laugh lines and the masterful Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields songs. (What a shame that the recently deceased Coleman isn't around to hear his score revived with such brightness.) The star is amusing in her comedy scenes, especially when hiding in Vittorio Vidal's closet. She's impish in "If My Friends Could See Me Now" and poignant in "Where Am I Going?" Only in "I'm A Brass Band" is there the merest hint that the calisthenics that were second nature to Verdon have been slightly scaled back for Applegate.

The same kind of shrewd retooling that director Walter Bobbie did in reviving Chicago has now been brought to bear on the charming, cheerfully inconsequential Sweet Charity. (Both shows are about innocents out of their depths, and both were Verdon vehicles.) Bobbie has invaluable help from William Ivey Long's 1960s costumes, though there isn't an abundance of them; Charity and the girls aren't far removed from being charity cases in the one dress each that they sport. Set designer Scott Pask and lighting designer Brian MacDevitt do extremely clever work here; theatergoers will have to see to believe what they do with the Mark Rothko-inspired painting that backs Charity when she's wishing that her friends could see her now.

______________________________________________________________

At the end of the 1966 production of Sweet Charity, a then-little-known Ruth Buzzi was featured in an amusing sight gag. That comic interlude has been eliminated here in favor of something far more triumphant for Charity Hope Valentine. Considering this revisal's history, the sequence serves as a sweet apotheosis not only for Charity but for Christina Applegate as well."
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/5984

Updated On: 5/5/05 at 11:58 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 11:58pm

Holy crap! Theatermania is very positive!
Updated On: 5/5/05 at 11:58 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:02am

Theatremania.com is a Rave:

Edited.
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/5984

Updated On: 5/5/05 at 12:02 AM

[shira467]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:06am

Well, to each his own...

[justme2]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:12am

Sorry Margo,
It was so bad a review I assumed it was the POST.

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:16am

Howard Kissel from Ny Daily News is mixed, definetly positive on some aspects.

http://www.nydailynews.com/05-05-2005/entertainment/col/story/306598p-262232c.html
Updated On: 5/5/05 at 12:16 AM

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:18am

Variety is a rave. For the actors, and especially Christina.

Puts the blame where it belongs: on Bobbie & Cilento.


For a show that arrives in New York saddled with a potentially crippling load of baggage -- tepid reviews for its Minneapolis and Chicago tryouts; an injured star; an out-of-town closing notice, later retracted -- "Sweet Charity" has a plucky spirit that won't be denied, and that's largely due to Christina ApplegateChristina Applegate. While the Broadway novice had musical purists clucking at the Great White Way's colonization by TV stars before anyone had given her a chance, Applegate turns out to be sweet, sexy, vulnerable and giving, her unforced performance providing a booster shot of gusto and heart to help fill the voids of Walter Bobbie's uneven production and Neil Simon's eternally problematic book.
The former "Married ... With Children" star is, of course, no Gwen Verdon (who is?), and she's by no means the most gifted musical performer ever to grace a stage, but she's no slouch. Recovering from a broken foot in remarkable time, Applegate may be guarded in her moves, favoring her good foot, but it's not so apparent that anyone unaware of the history should notice. And she more than holds her own in dance numbers (given added support in ankleankle boots). Early reports that Applegate's voice was paper thin also prove unduly harsh. She's not a belter, but she carries a tune with confidence and high-wattage personality.

From its origins as Fellini's film "Nights of Cabiria" -- with the sublime Giulietta Masina as a clownish hooker -- through its transformation into an American stage and screen vehicle in which turning tricks was semi-sanitized into taxi dancing, the story has hinged entirely on the audaud's emotional attachment to this bruised, open-hearted optimist who still believes in love despite being its serial casualty.

Just two weeks ago, with substitute lead Charlotte d'Amboise on while Applegate's foot healed, the revival seemed terminally flat and lifeless, dampened by a pallid Charity whose romantic success or failure was hard to get too concerned about.

From the moment Applegate twirls around the Central Park lamppost that caused her injury, it's clear she's this production's salvation. She nails the character with disarming sincerity and deft comic timing; the audience is with her from the start. Applegate personally persuaded producers Barry and Fran Weissler to reverse their decision to close in Boston, and her determination to go on commands admiration. This is a terrific vehicle for her, and she makes consistently good choices in the role.

Too bad not everything here hits that same level.

One of the most remarkable aspects of this revival is the absence anywhere in the Playbill of Bob Fosse's name, especially since it's in the remnants of the original choreographer-director's unmistakable dance style that the show almost sizzles -- notably in the tawdry erotic sales pitch of "Big Spender" or the pugilistic go-go and cocky strut of "Rich Man's Frug." The decision not to follow the successful "Chicago""Chicago" model and replicate the original Fosse moves becomes highly questionable when the alternative is choreographer Wayne Cilento's formless dance compositions, which too often struggle (and fail) to find any unity, layering on more when less is required.

Indeed, the handicap here is not a star without a Broadway pedigree but the lackluster stewardship of Cilento and Bobbie. This is nowhere more apparent than in a disastrous take on "The Rhythm of Life," in which hippie religious guru Daddy (Rhett George) is swamped by a mess of unfocused ensemble dancers while his vocals are drowned in funky arrangements that resurrect "Shaft""Shaft" by way of "American Idol." What should be a punchy act-two opener becomes an amateurish muddle that stalls the momentum and erodes the good will engendered by an enjoyable first act.

If Bobbie's direction had half the vibrancy of designer Scott Pask's gift-wrap backdrops, the show might really have flown. A musical so strongly identified with Fosse's electric staging and precision moves needs to be tightly marshaled; the inert, sometimes chaotic direction is anything but. That casts a glaring light on the troublesome aspects of Simon's revised book, particularly in the second-act development of Charity's romance with meek accountant Oscar (Denis O'Hare). He's set up as a nice guy but ultimately revealed to be a spineless milquetoast whose love for her is unable to transcend his moral qualms about her past.

Multiple stabs have been taken over the years at creating a satisfying ending (including an aborted happy outcome shot as an alternative ending to the 1968 Universal movie), and this latest tweak, which has a hastily empowered Charity affirming her newfound self-reliance, is no more successful than its predecessors.

But the show has far too many assets to be a total miss. Chief among them are Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields' terrific songs, which have snappy wit, a big heart and just the right sprinkling of sentimentality, socked across by a muscular orchestra. There are some delightful comic turns here, too, led by O'Hare's nerdy, eccentric Oscar.

While O'Hare's singing has limitations (compensated for with barbershop backing on the revival's one new song, "A Good Impression"), his neurotic, twitchy personality is plenty big enough to inhabit this candy-colored musical. His shtick in the superbly designed elevator scene, when panicked claustrophobic Oscar begins literally climbing the walls, brings an invigorating new comic jolt to the show. The interplay between O'Hare and Applegate is irresistible.

Paul Schoeffler as Italian matinee idol Vittorio Vidal and Shannon Lewis as his haughty drama-queen girlfriend, Ursula, register amusing turns. Schoeffler brings strong voice to "Too Many Tomorrows," even if the turbulent lovers' reconciliation is overshadowed by Applegate's comic business in the closet. Ernie Sabella makes Fandango Ballroom boss Herman a lovably crass figure, given his moment of warmth in "I Love to Cry at Weddings."

After weighing in as feeble presences opposite d'Amboise as Charity's sassy but soft-hearted dancehall pals, Nickie and Helene, respectively, Janine LaManna and Kyra DaCosta feed off Applegate's sunny energy to create far more dynamic characters, even if DaCosta seems a tad too contempo ghetto for the '60s setting. Both performers are robust singers and dancers, ably covering in the latter department for any post-injury scaling back of Charity's dance role in "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This." Here again, Cilento conserves an echo of Fosse in the rooftop number's rowdy mix of toreador twirls and twinkle-toed balletics.

Prolific costumer William Ivey Long supplies countless fun variations on slinky, little dresses in bold hues, a smooth fit with the gaudy-chic wallpaper of Pask's minimal sets. Those are peppered with droll touches such as the endlessly extending phallic couch in Vittorio's boudoir or the Mark Rothko-style art, which allows for a snazzy silhouette lighting effect in "If My Friends Could See Me Now."

Brian MacDevitt's lighting throughout is a colorful mix of lurid, smoky purples and sugary pinks that seems a fitting reflection of a woman stuck in a low-life dive, dreaming of fairy tale romance.

Whatever its weaknesses, the enduring appeal of "Sweet Charity" in the end boils down to having a lead capable of inspiring as much love as she recklessly hands out, and Applegate fits that bill. Even when she's being (literally) drummed offstage in Cilento's bombastic, "Stomp"-ified take on "I'm a Brass Band," the entirely adorable sitcomsitcom graduate has an unassuming charm that just won't quit.

Updated On: 5/5/05 at 12:18 AM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:22am

MasterLcZ --

Variety is already excerpted (look up this page a few posts) and for copyright reasons you can't reprint the WHOLE review. It's also too mixed to be called a rave.

Updated On: 5/5/05 at 12:22 AM

[MATheaterLover]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:30am

While it isn't a rave for the production, Variety's article is definitely a love letter to Ms. Applegate.

Of course, it's Variety, who looooves their Hollywood.

I honestly thought Applegate would have greater support. I want to see if Riedel still sticks by her side.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:34am

Bergen Register is Mixed-to-Negative:

"Sweet Charity" is a musical with drama, comedy and unexpected twists and turns. Unfortunately, all of that happened offstage.

Onstage, the show, which opened Wednesday night at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, turns out to be rather less compelling. It's a star vehicle with a star who, while very appealing, is unable to do the Broadway-musical things that might make the revival of this second-rank, 40-year-old show take off.
_____________________________________________________________

For a Broadway beginner, she has real stage presence and is a capable and ingratiating actress. But she looks and behaves like an ingénue. She's cute and perky and could pass for a co-ed. If her Charity has accumulated deep emotional scars, they're well-hidden.

The original 1966 production was directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse - Walter Bobbie and Wayne Cilento do those tasks here, without great distinction - and its star was the singular Gwen Verdon, a great dancer.
______________________________________________________________

Cilento has given her a variety of simple steps, poses and gestures, which she carries off well, but her inability to really strut Charity's stuff in the big musical routines - to stand out from the chorus - means that none of those numbers really take off the way they should in a big-time show.

The rich score, which also includes "Big Spender," "The Rhythm of Life" and "Baby Dream Your Dream," isn't served much better in the routinely presented non-Charity numbers."

Bergen Register

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:38am

"If she returns to Broadway, it would be nice to see her in a role more suited to who she is as a performer."

I actually thought Charity is the perfect role for her..

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:40am

Selling Tix on TDF & on 47th Street for Opening Night...ouch!

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 12:46am

What are you trying to say?

1 - Sweet Charity is not on TDF right now
2 - It was there for weekday shows during previews
3 - Your favorite show "La Cage" is always on TDF.. so?