Sweet Charity Ending Question- Page 2

Posted: 3/30/07 at 2:13am

SO confused--so where was the hippie ending used?

[SuddenlyTrey]

Posted: 4/22/08 at 8:50pm

From my understanding the original ending in the out of towns, Chairty committed suicide in the lake... she never climbed back out. Since it was rather harsh the producers made Fosse and Simon change the ending to something "more fairy tale like" so they wrote the horrid Good Fairy bit as a joke for Ruth Buzzi to drive home the fact that life isn't a fairy tale... but alas the producers LOVED the good fairy and it remained until the movie and subsequent revivals.

And no other rights are released to the show other than the original 66 copyright. So any other endings and the ferris wheel bit are illegal.... unfortunately. (Unless of course you are doing it on Broadway with Christina Applegate)

Updated On: 4/22/08 at 08:50 PM

[bear88]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 4:28am

I saw a local production of Sweet Charity on Saturday night and had never seen it before. I knew it didn’t have a happy ending, and I gather there have been many different versions over the decades.

Here’s the one I got: Oscar breaks it off, Charity ends up in the lake, Oscar leaves, Charity gets out of the lake and sings ‘Where Am I Going?’ - not heard until then. That’s basically the ending of the show, aside from a version of ‘If My Friends Could See Me Now’ sang after the bows. There was no fairy. No reprise of ‘I’m the Bravest Individual.’

I have glanced at YouTube since getting home and saw various versions. This seems to be one of those shows where revivals and local productions choose their own ending.

I enjoyed the production and the actress who played Charity was wonderful. But there’s something that felt unearned about the unhappy ending. I gather that the source material was even darker.

I realize this is a Bob Fosse musical we’re talking about, but I’m not sure what purpose is served by the downbeat conclusion. It is perhaps more realistic, especially in the 1960s, and I understand that Charity is a resilient character who looks on the bright side even then. Still, there was a definite and off-putting sense that Charity kind of deserved to be punished because of her occupation - even though she is portrayed as a charming innocent. 

I’m glad I saw the musical, which has much to recommend it - fine songs and performances, famous choreography, the hilarious elevator scene. But it’s a musical comedy! The ending feels unnecessarily sour.

I know, I know. I am complaining about a 1966 musical. It’s a revival. But it was new to me.

Updated On: 6/29/25 at 04:28 AM

[Mskuphantm]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 4:46am

Even prior to Fosse and Neil simon  Italian film maker Federick Fellini made a movie and basically she makes the same mistakes and no matter what, ends up with a guy similiar to the one she met in the beginning, which for me proves, if youend up on the same situation and dont think you are the problem, or  dont change the way you have been doing, you dont change your outcome..  Or in even simpler terms doing the same thing over and over again will give you the same result...Fellini made movies to prove a point, of course.   As far as the Fairy and Abc i always put it as adverisement in a film subliminal messaging so to speak.or even Chairty losing her mind and everything that happened after she FIRST was pushed in lake in beginning everything that followed was a dream type moment, and she again awoke in the lake from the first encounter and the fairy was just some lingering dream image between dream and awake

Updated On: 6/29/25 at 04:46 AM

[inception]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 9:47am

Fosse always had the problem of not knowing how to end a show.  The ending he came up with originally for Pippin was equally unsatisfying.   The ending used now is better.

Even All That Jazz - he has his alter ego die from a heart attack because he refuses to make any changes & is still smoking etc while in the hospital for bypass surgery.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 9:52am

I saw the tour with Paige Davis back in 2006 and the Off-Broadway revival with Sutton Foster back in 2015. I enjoyed both productions quite a bit (aside from the tiny band and orchestrations used for the Off-Broadway revival - the kazoos in "I'm a Brass Band" was not a great choice IMO).

The 2006 tour used the "I'm the Bravest Individual" reprise.

The 2015 Off-Broadway revival used the "Where Am I Going?" reprise.

I think I preferred the "I'm the Bravest Individual" reprise.

All in all, it's a fun and fluffy show with some good ear worms in the score.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 9:58am

The film this musical is loosely based upon, Nights of Cabiria, is one of the greatest masterpieces ever made. It has the best ending in cinematic history.

Updated On: 7/3/25 at 09:58 AM

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 10:00am

There’s also the Neil Simon in the room. Simon didn’t like to end his musicals with a finale: Sweet Charity, Little Me and Promises Promises all had sung finales added in revivals, which originally ended with dialogue scenes and playoff music.

[inception]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 10:01am

Something else I just thought about was that even when it originally played Broadway,  you might get a different show on different nights because depending on how she was feeling Gwen Verdon would cut whole numbers from some performances. 

Chita Rivera played Charity for the first tour,  and still did select numbers from the show in her nightclub act when I saw that in 2014. It was a thrill.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 10:38am

Gwen only cut “Where Am I Going?” from certain performances - a song she always felt uncomfortable singing. She never cut any other songs ever. This is well documented and not speculation:

“Cy Coleman explained to writer Robert Viagas how Broadway star Gwen Verdon used to cut the song "Where Am I Going?" from SWEET CHARITY. "Our leading lady, Gwen Verdon, wanted to cut the number because she said she was already dancing too much and was too tired ... She used to cut it sometimes.  She would just decide not to do it that day.  What were we going to do? Fire Gwen Verdon?”

[inception]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 10:41am

Thanks for the clarification 

[altonido]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 5:38pm

Some "Sweet Charity" endings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSYCqU07F5Q&t=881s

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/30/25 at 5:49am

TotallyEffed said: "The film this musical is loosely based upon, Night of Cabiria, is one of the greatest masterpieces ever made. It has the best ending in cinematic history."

You sir, have impeccable taste. Nights of Cabiria IS a masterpiece! A beautiful film with a heartbreaking performance by Guilietta Masina! 

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/30/25 at 5:54am

The insertion of hippies in the film version of ‘Sweet Charity’ was done to be relevant in the time the film was made. This always irked me. 
 

I don’t think hippies were in the mainstream back in 1966 when the original show premiered. 
 

1967’s Summer of Love and the musical HAIR changed all that and suddenly hippies were everywhere. 

[inception]

Posted: 6/30/25 at 10:04am

I don't mind the film's ending, maybe because that's the first version I ever saw.   The flower children are a very idealized version of the hippie kids of the era.  I always get a little thrill seeing Bud Cort, who shortly after appeared in MASH & then did the cult classic Harold & Maude with Ruth Gordon.

I like the final title card "She lived hopefully ever after "  Would you really want her to end up with Oscar?  He's such a shmuck.

I also don't mind Shirley MacLaine in the film version. 

This film version is better than what happened with How to Succeed... where so many numbers were cut.

If you want to see a really strange 60's rom com, 1966's Promise Her Anything just received what I believe may be its first home video release with  blu-ray of a new HD restoration by Paramount.  Leslie Caron is a widowed single mother of a 1 or 2 year old who moves into an apartment in Greenwich Village (actually filmed in London) & Warren Beatty is a her next door neighbor - who films quickie porno movies ( pretty PG stuff is shown). She gets him to babysit while she pursues her child hating boss,  & he finds success using the baby as a gimmick in his films.  She goes a bit ballistic, but Beatty is charming so they live happily ever after.  It's a real WTF?  Actually surprised Paramount decided to spend the money restoring it. But Beatty has the same comic charm he later displayed in things like Shampoo & Heaven Can Wait.

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 6/30/25 at 10:13am

I saw a regional production where Oscar says he’s leaving her. She pushes him into the lake. Then says the line about still having her dowry and dancing off. Knowing that director, I’m guessing this was an unauthorized change.

[bear88]

Posted: 7/3/25 at 2:50am

Thanks for everyone’s replies. I knew the musical is based on Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria, which I haven’t seen (but am now curious about).

Sweet Charity seems like a softened version of the film, but as a musical comedy, it upends expectations. Oscar may not be a prize, but as portrayed in the production I saw, he seems decent enough - and making improvements with Charity’s help. If anything, I thought Oscar - given his reluctance to kiss Charity - might be gay, or at least an offensive 1966 version of gay. But then I remembered it was a revival of a Broadway musical from that era, so that made no more sense than the odd hippies who were included and felt out of place.

Despite everything, I enjoyed the musical well enough, as several of the performances were quite good, including that of the actress who played Charity. I was rooting for her and thought she deserved better. I guess that’s how you are supposed to feel.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/3/25 at 7:13am

 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 7/3/25 at 11:11am

CarlosAlberto said: "TotallyEffed said: "The film this musical is loosely based upon, Night of Cabiria, is one of the greatest masterpieces ever made. It has the best ending in cinematic history."

You sir, have impeccable taste. Nights of Cabiria IS a masterpiece! A beautiful film with a heartbreaking performance by Guilietta Masina!"


Thank you, Carlos! What a special, special film. I cry every time.
 

[merle57]

Posted: 7/4/25 at 9:26pm

Sweet Charity has a great score, fabulous choreography, a dazzling performance by Verdon or Gallagher or Rivera. The  score carries  Charity's emotional character arc.   Like Pippin and Chicago, Fosse liked flippant endings. It worked in Chicago because it was in a musical number by Kander and Ebb, not a book scene, and it reinforced the superficial and cynical values of society "at that time" but actually a comment on America during Watergate. That end was completely consistent with the entire style of the evening. The last line of Pipiin about being in a musical comedy after such a powerful"suicide temptation" scene with the sets, costumes, and lights disappearing dealt with illusion and reality, and the danger of trying to live in magical thinking and illusions.  The one line  about it's ok for a musical was flippant, but worse, it undercut the serious theme Fosse had set up. One ending Schwartz has added is Theo singing Corner of the Sky to show the cycle of delusions is about youthful ambitions having to learn to surrender to truth. That works.  Another would be for Pippin to sing Corner of the Sky with new lyrics showing he has learned that he is not special or unique, just wonderfully human.

Sweet Charity actually has a comic-tragic ending -- once again, the naive romantic sweet girl has been duped by a user.  Reprising Where Am I Going? could have been a good ending musical moment with her dancing off "hopefully" but unsure. But since the book was a cartoon most of the night, very sketch comedy in style, I think Fosse and Simon opted for a cartoon ending, a television "tag."  It  bothered audiences back then - I remember most of us did not laugh, we sucked in air as if someone had hit us in the stomach.  It was a letdown ending, but not for the character, it called attention to the authors and director. It was not a Chaplin "endearing" ending, just a thud. 

Anyway, those are my two cents .... I loved Verdon in the original and Chita on tour, even enjoyed Shirley in the movie, and the wonderful score and choreography. The ending never worked for me, either the hippie flower child ending or the other one on the DVD. 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 7/4/25 at 9:37pm

The fairy ending sounds like a brilliant foil moment in keeping with Charity’s patterns of bad luck, and the two different audiences seems to enjoy the fairy ending in the auroraspiderwoman YouTube clip. A great Neil Simon gag!

Updated On: 7/4/25 at 09:37 PM

[Jarethan]

Posted: 7/4/25 at 10:42pm

If I remember the original ending correctly -- I have not seen SC live since June 1966 -- the fairy coming out in the end worked.  It gave Charity the chance to become hopeful once again, but left  the audience knowing that nothing was going to change.  I think the movie accomplished the same thing, although the whole hippy thing was even cliched when the movie opened.

I am amazed that I have never seen SC after the first time I viewed it.  I was really too young to appreciate it when I saw it (I was 15 1/2) and, even though I loved the music -- I guess I just never had that much interest in seeing it.  I have always enjoyed the movie, although it does seem to have dated worse than a lot of other movie musicals.  And Shirley MacLaine was absolutely great.

[bear88]

Posted: 7/5/25 at 5:37am

I am spending too much time thinking about this ending.

A couple of you, Mskuphantm and Jarethan, have made similar though not identical points about the ending. Mskuphantm argues that the conclusion, following the Fellini film, places the blame on Charity for winding up with the same sort of guy who treats her badly - same behavior, same bad outcome. Jarethan, you say Charity may remain hopeful but the audience knows that nothing is going to change. If I have unfairly characterized your points, please correct me. 

But in the production I saw, the first boyfriend doesn’t say a thing and then tosses Charity in the lake while stealing her money. We don’t know this guy at all; he just seems like a bad person. The film star is actually rather sweet and just wants to reunite with his girlfriend. Oscar comes across as pathetic at first but seems to genuinely like Charity. Maybe he was portrayed differently in Broadway productions. He’s shaken by his discovery of her occupation but that doesn’t seem too bizarre given that she’s been lying to him. The only turn comes at the very end, when he says they can’t marry because he will always obsess about guys she’s been with. Oscar doesn’t steal from her or do anything worse. He just leaves her in the lake without bothering to help her to shore.

My question is: Why does Charity get a sad, almost punitive ending, even with the ‘hopefully ever after’ tagline? Concluding the show with ‘Where Am I Going?’ isn’t a terribly hopeful way to wrap things up. Is she just unlucky in love or is the musical suggesting that there is something wrong with Charity that will leave her perpetually doomed to ending up in the metaphorical or actual lake? Oscar seems like no prize at the end, but he had been improving until then with Charity’s assistance.

From what I understand of the Fellini film, the creatives were trying to follow that template while converting it into a musical comedy. But that sets up different expectations. I can see why subsequent revivals have tried to ‘fix’ the ending.

This isn’t like Chicago, in which Fosse’s cynical ending flows logically from the story. And it’s not like All That Jazz, which is an incredibly dark film that ends with a twisted but brilliant conclusion.

Sweet Charity just wants to end where it began, even though the character seems to have evolved. Maybe that’s the point, that nice people sometimes don’t get the happy ending we wish for them. It just felt oddly sour.

Updated On: 7/5/25 at 05:37 AM

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 7/5/25 at 8:14am

There’s many differences between the Fellini film and the Broadway musical but the most glaring is the Americanized (i.e. prudish) handling of Charity’s “lifestyle.” In the film, she is a prostitute and it’s very matter of fact. There’s no beating around the bush. In the musical, what she does for work is watered down and it’s all implications and innuendo. In the film, Oscar is a totally different character (I won’t spoil for those who haven’t seen it) and the choice to make Oscar so prudish and judgmental in the musical just doesn’t work. It leads to an unsatisfying ending, no matter the variant. 

 

This is why one should see Nights of Cabiria because they are really entirely separate things. Sweet Charity is more loosely inspired by it and less of a traditional adaption. Fellini’s film has audacity which leads to a truly heartbreaking and masterful film. Sweet Charity, while charming, is too afraid to really rock the boat too fiercely.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 7/5/25 at 12:53pm

The hippie rescue ending in the film, with some of the most scrubbed looking counter culture tribe members ever seen, is actually a nod to Nights of Cabiria, wherein Cabiria encounters a young group who dance, travel on mopeds, and behave with indifference to society. The message seems to be: step outside - move beyond - moral judgement for self-acceptance. Yet because the hippies are so egregiously sentimentalized - think teaching the world to sing in the Coke commercial - the sequence feels imbued with calculated artifice rather than an unbidden imprimatur by those outside of society. 

But the problem with the adaptation is in the chasm between the world of a streetwalker and that of a dance hall hostess, a Depression era phenom already over by 1960s. Fosse's edit tries to have it both ways, inserting Oscar's POV shots of hands on Charity's body to suggest she's been "used" (up). But since we have no working knowledge of these hostesses and their boundaries - in a G-rated musical - we're left with the occupation merely coded for prostitution rather than a depiction of sex workers who try to exit the oldest profession. It becomes a commentary on women and sexist views of "promiscuity" without ever addressing it. At age 16 - and I loved the score and saw the show in London with Gretchen Wyler - I thought the ending was mystifyingly abrupt. It still fails to satisfy. 

Updated On: 7/5/25 at 12:53 PM