Sweet Charity 2005 Revival Changes.

Can anyone tell me how it worked with the addition of Oscar's new song and some of the liberties they took with the score?

Also I was reading that they took out "Love to cry at Weddings" for the out of town-tryout and put "If There Were More People" in for Herman. Although "Weddings" was re-inserted.

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"You Should See Yourself" was also cut out of town, but was brought back in Boston or for Broadway.

The ending of the show was completely rewritten by Simon and closed with Charity's reprise of Bravest Individual.

eember hearing about Big Spender opening the show at one point, but none of these other changes! What was the new song? And If There More People? Were they Coleman/Fields songs?

The ending of the piece always seems to be an issue for people, although I like the original ending. From all the clips I saw I thought the choreography was quite uninspired (Cilento is a great dancer, but I've never been impressed by his choreography).

I know I always carp on here about how important the original choreography is for a show--depending on a show, but recent examples like various versions of iconic dances Bennett originally did like Who's That Woman and Turkey Lurkey Time prove what an unenviable task it is to do new versions.

But I think this is particularly true for Charity--I don't think ilento even tried hard, but I still can't imagine anyone improving on the original Rich Man's Frug. I've seen (a recording) of the 1980s Fosse supervised Charity revival, which of course made its own changes like the new Bravest Individual, dropping the Soliloquy--which I believe Gwen often did anyway--using the movie version of the title song... That said, in most respects it replicates the original 1967s production and what's most amazing about the staging isn't so much the iconic dances, most of which I knew anyway, from various shows and the movie, but just how well the show flows from scene to scene--with the clever set that opens and closes on various areas of the stage like a camera iris.

Eric Montreal: you mentioned the "Rich Man's Frug" in the SWEET CHARITY context. But, that number was from the 1962 glorious production of LITTLE ME, one of the best shows I have ever seen and THE funniest musical I have ever seen. Apparently, that number was left out of both Fosse anthologies, for some perverted reason.

I saw the 2005 SWEET CHARITY and remember little about it, except that it was mediocre.

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RICH MAN'S FRUG = Sweet Charity

RICK KID'S RAG = Little Me

I didn't see the revival, but I know when it comes to listening to the score, I always pull out the 2005 recording. I love Applegate as Charity, and really wish she'd come back to musical theatre. The genre is full of "not-so-strong" singers who get by just fine (Angela Lansbury comes to mind first).

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The new song for Oscar was "Good Impression" in the 2nd act - very well done by Denis O'Hare and the guys. Was it a cut song from an earlier version of the score? I've never been sure.

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Re: Cilento vs. Fosse - it's always sad when a mediocrity tries to compete with a genius.

Re: 2005 Sweet Charity - Applegate was just so dang normal, I found her utterly uninteresting to watch. Sweet, pretty, charming, sure; but absolutely nothing surprising or eccentric about her at all. (And the set and new orchestrations just seemed cheap and bus & truck).

Gypsy, no worries--it's precisely the kind of mistake I make on here all the time. Little Me seems to be a production that has never worked post Fosse (and yes, I know even that production closed earlier than expected) and is great on the CD--I wish I could have seen it too. Fosse should have had at least one number from it, I have seen the performance of Deep Down Inside on the Ed Sullivan Show which is a lot of fun. In Razzle Dazzle, a book about Fosse, Swen Swenson is quoted that his male striptease routine to I've Got Your Number actually caused women to rush out of their seats and chear--surely he was exagerating? lol

I don't own the 2005 cast album, what I heard didn't sound too inspiring, but is the new song A Good Impression credited to Fields and Coleman or a different lyricist? I know a bunch of songs were cut from the original--and of course at least one, Poor Everybody Else was later used in Seesaw (it was replaced by Brass Band in Charity, out of town I believe, because Gwen found it way too hard to dance and still, that late in the show, sing a song that had so many held long notes during a dance number).

One critic said that Rhythm of Life for that revival was made more "hip hop" but the sample on amazon.com doesn't make me think that... Of course the Debbie Allen revival did give a more R&B arrangement to Bravest Individual and a more synth 80s feeling to Where Am i Going, which surprisingly I think kinda works.

Applegate-committed,inspired, enchanting, heartbreaking, athletic dancer.

Ringwald-flat, buffoonish, pathetic, backfat,danced offstage during "Im A Brass Band" and came back out at the end. Total waste.

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AMERICAN DANCE MACHINE (How I wish they were still around) used to do THE RICH KIDS RAG, it was very funny and def foreplay for Fosse's FRUG in CHARITY.

Another word about the 1962 LITTLE ME, which critic Walter Kerr called, "A Blockbuster that's as gentle as a breeze"-- what a great quote. There was a newspaper strike going on at the time of the opening of LITTLE ME--critics' quotes were broadcast on the radio-- and this strike which affected all of the then 7 daily newspapers went on for some time, preventing shows from utilizing valuable and necessary print advertising. This caused a pre-mature closing of LITTLE ME. There was no TV advertising of Broadway theatre at that time that I can remember. PIPPIN seems to have been the initiator of TV advertising and was credited with giving that show a great sales boost.

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I thought the revival was pretty bland, Christina while
being a great actress just was not a good dancer or singer,
I respect the producers for wanting to try something different
with the colorful sets and costumes but it didnt work, oh and
the choreography was just terrible beyond belief, This show
doesnt seem to work without the fosse choregraphy and verdon
herself,I wish someone like vanessa williams or sutton foster
could tackle this role, it needs a strong dancer with great
comic timing