SWEET CHARITY Revival — Page 3

ljay, the show ends with Where Am I Going, sung first by Charity and then the full company. Slowly the company exits leaving Charity once again alone on stage to sing the final phrases of Where Am I Going leading into Charity repeating the phrase "you should see yourself, you should see yourself, you should see yourself" over and over.

Trish, I'm a Brass Band stayed pretty close to the original choreography and There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This was very Fosse too.

Bergasse seemed to be doing more his own thing with the Frug and Rhythm of Life. There are certainly nods to Fosse all over the place, but these aren't recreations of the original choreography or even Reinking's more overt homages in the Chicago revival. The space here is somewhat limited, but if this does transfer to a Broadway house I think the Frug in particular will need to be rethought. It needs to wow and in its current state it doesn't- by fault of the choreography NOT the dancers, who were delightful and very polished for a first preview. (The chorus boys are all cute, ha)

Thanks, Whizzer. I figured that might be the case. So nothing spectacular, even given the small space. Bergasse often hires cute chorus boys!

Ha, I found it very moving! Plus, Sutton really knows how to have the rug pulled out from under her and go from happy-go-lucky to lost and bewildered. For once she's not the bravest individual and taps into some real vulnerability. She wisely doesn't oversell the moment (tears and all that crap), which only makes it more emotional.

The ending sounds thrilling. I'd also love to hear more about Emily Padgett!

Hensley was good. I don't think he'll ever be the funniest Oscar, but he killed the final scene with Charity. His singing of the title song was heartfelt.

Padgett was a riot and sounded terrific. I strongly disliked the Side Show revival (through no fault of her), but enjoyed her a lot in Bright Star and think she's even better here.

The Soliloquy was performed on the ballroom dance floor with all the other girls and customers dancing with Charity and each other. This revival isn't taking any cues from the Applegate revival. I think it's trying to pay tribute to the original, but in a stripped down setting.

This seems promising! I love how it sounds pretty true to the original production.

Updated On: 11/3/16 at 12:11 AM

How's the use of the space? I mean, are set pieces moved on and off, or is it all done with just chairs?

I'm very excited about this!

Were any understudies listed on the playbill?

"No brass. Sweet Charity with no brass. "

I wish we had emojis here so I could share the face I just made. YIKES.

That's not cheesy at all. It's actually very beautiful, and it sounds like Sutton is already so fully realized as Charity. What a treat.

His Oscar (by default) reads differently from others I've seen; older and, well, more physically different from the other guys Charity's been around with. He's sadder, in a way. There's a different kind of loneliness. In other versions of Sweet Charity, I've found Oscar's obsession with purity less interesting as just another of his neurotic tendencies than it is as a larger social factor that ends up ruining the relationship. Charity is stuck in the old virgin/slut dichotomy, and even with this seemingly sweet man, she can't just be seen as neither--can't be seen as just herself.



But Shuler's Oscar definitely seems like a man who has lived a long time with being very mentally troubled. It makes you wonder what has happened in his life that has made him so frightened of so many things; that won't let him connect. He's an older guy who seems very badly to want to find something he lost, or something to do with childhood. Just the feeling I got.



I don't mean to say he's not funny; he got plenty of laughs in the elevator scene. And he is very sweet when he sings the title song. But he feels less like a simple lovable nerd in the mold of, say, handsome John McMartin in the movie. It felt a bit darker to me. I was more aware of how possessive the character is, and how much he's inventing HIS version of this girl. This is aided by the staging of his final scene and the moment when Charity falls into the pond a second time, which really needs to be clarified, but is done in a non-literal way that feels quite sinister and sad.

Updated On: 11/3/16 at 03:03 PM

I hasten to say that a lot of this might just be me really leaning in looking for the Downtown touch, but the production is more interesting the more I think about it.



I had seen a production where all of Charity's beaus were played by the same guy, which I thought worked very well. Like she keeps doing the same thing. Here, I was confused because Joel Perez is cast in many male roles, including Charlie and Big Daddy and Vittorio and Herman, but NOT Oscar. Maybe the idea is that it really feels like Oscar is going to be different from all the other men who come into her life, romantically or not. He looks different in her eyes. And then, when that doesn't work out--when he breaks her heart while insisting he's "saving" her-- it's even worse. Thinking about how their last moment together is staged again.

Man, wish I could see this a second time!

Updated On: 11/3/16 at 03:23 PM