Sweet Charity 12/22

[crzyrocket]

Posted: 12/23/05 at 1:23am

I saw the show way back in March when it was previewing in Boston with Charlotte d'Amboise. I was charmed by Ms. d'Amboise and Denis O'Hare won me over. Janine LaManna (Nickie) and Kyra DaCosta (Helene) were my favorites though playing Charity's sweet, but tough best friends.

However, the show just didn't do anything for me. The book is very thin with no real plot at all. Basically it's scenes from Charity's life loosely stringed together until she meets Oscar. Then the small love story builds and the ending sort of smacks you in the face and it's over. The choreography was okay, but nothing too special. "I'm A Brass Band" ended the show and it was done very awkwardly, leaving lots of people in the audience confused. The only bright side was that I am a huge sucker for big brassy orchestras. So I was in heaven when the orchestra started the Overture.

Skip to today. Improvements have definitely been made to the show to make it run smoother. Ending with "I'm the Bravest Individual" works so much better and is actually more of a fulfilling finale. I was wary about Christina Applegate, but I found her Charity to be very cute and charming. Her voice is good enough and her dancing is fine, although after seeing Charlotte d'Amboise, it leaves a bit to be desired. Timothy Edward Smith was on for Oscar and I really enjoyed his performance. He stayed very close to Mr. O'Hare's characterization which was fine although I would have liked to have seen some variation. His voice is stronger than Denis O'Hare's which made a nice difference. Paul Schoeffler (Vittorio) I saw in Boston, and he still retains that beautiful voice of his. The accent has been toned down and makes him much easier to understand.

I was unfortunately disappointed with everything else. Perhaps it was an off night but the choreography was all over. Random people were just off beat during each number and the energy was just lacking. I remember enjoying "Rich Man's Frug" a lot in Boston. It was just sort of blah tonight. Christina Applegate did wow the audience with "If My Friends Could See Me Now". Audible gasp of surprise/delight when the Rothko painting lit up and became the backdrop to her silhouette. She got a great round of applause for that number.

I really wanted to like Mylinda Hull (Nickie) and Kisha Howard (Helene) but I just couldn't. There was chemistry between the two of them, but I didn't believe that they were Charity's best friends. They just seemed to be two co-workers who constantly gang on Charity and put her down. Their characters were very in-your-face which made "Baby Dream Your Dream" less easy to sympathize with.

The Colonial Theatre in Boston is a giant theatre. Because of that, the amplification was weak and I missed some lyrics/dialogue. The Al Hirschfeld is a much smaller theatre and suffers from overamplification. I felt like the actors were yelling half the time.

The amp does one thing right, it gives the orchestra a giant sound which is incredible. Cy Coleman's score is enjoyable, and like I mentioned before, LOVE the heavy brass. The first few notes of the Overture were absolutely thrilling. I see a lot of regional theatre in Boston and because of money/size restraints, the orchestras are usually very small. It doesn't bother me too much most of the time, but I really adore hearing a full pit orchestra doing it's thing wonderfully.