Photo Flash: SWEET CHARITY At Theatre Royal Haymarket.. ummm. — Page 3

I miss Onna White.



Broadway needs an Onna White again.

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ALW cannot say enough about Tamzin. He gushes.

another girl that a lot of people who watched her on telly and Eastenders thought she was a mere soap actress.

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Here's a high school production I just found on YouTube. And I'm honestly hard-pressed to tell the difference between this underaged, nonprofessional production and that West End video montage (except that the latter was shot better).

If this is what is passing for "top drawer" theatre now in London and NY, then there's no need for anyone to venture out of neighborhood theatres, including the public school systems, community and dinner theatres. And you'll save a ton of money and have just as satisfying an experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bw9dD6LGm4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3JpLvS0ook

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Does no one find it just a titch ironic that Brits are decrying glitz? They were the ones to give us the helicopter, the chandelier, the choo-choo train show and the hooker cat riding the tire to heaven.

Exactly, Robbie. And those shows were completely devoid of the kind of character development or complexity that they are now claiming they do better.

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I saw the clips they posted to help sell it, which are terrible. If that's available as their "best of" montage, it's a big "fail."

Have you seen a good community theatre production of Sweet Charity? I have.


EDIT: "Terrible" is a bad choice of words. It doesn't suck, it's just not any better than those amateur, high-school video clips I posted. And that is a sad state of affairs for what should be a pinnacle production. Compare them side by side yourself, on their own terms. A clip next to a clip. Never mind the "oh, you MUST see it live" excuse. No, I mustn't. Not after that montage video showing the performers and the production.

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Updated On: 5/5/10 at 02:10 PM

"And those shows were completely devoid of the kind of character development or complexity that they are now claiming they do better."

Perhaps they only think they 'do' it better because there are actual characters to play in the American-written shows.

And when we're holding up SWEET CHARITY as a model of character development...*





*Said with love by a former Oscar Lindquist. And DAMN was I good.

Yes i have, a very good one in fact and a not so good one

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Is that John Rubenstein in the pink dress???

SonOfRobbieJ, I think you might be right.

I didn't know Tina Turner was in this.

She does a damn good Frug though

Actually, the one in the pink dress was the late Lynn Redgrave.

She and Danny Kaye recreated portions of Lady in the Dark, with Danny doing his legendary tongue-twister "Tschaikovsky" and Lynn playing Liza Elliot.

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@mallardo

Since this was my first time seeing Sweet Charity live, could you elaborate on your comment about how this production is an original conception of the musical?

I enjoyed the production immensely. The choreography is very much in the style of Fosse, but it's not a slavish copy. I liked how they retained the famous finger-wriggling in Big Spender but they put a different spin on it. The ensemble really made the sketch nature of the book work and scored nearly all the intended laughs (the gay/pocketbook joke failed to land, understandably).

Tamzin Outhwaite scored hugely in the acting stakes. She didn't make Charity too vulnerable (a la Maclaine), she got most of her laughs and she was very affecting in the break-up scene with Oscar (a wonderful Mark Umbers). The break-up scene could've been from a straight play, yet it didn't jar with the other sketch-like scenes and that's a testament to the strength of this production.