Sweet Charity First Preview: My Review- Page 2

[Demitri2]

Posted: 4/12/05 at 6:43pm

I don't think WISH was being negative at all. If anything he was being realistic and addressed the same question I had. When I first heard "Sweet Charity" was being revived my first reaction was "Why would a producer even consider putting money in this show?" When I read posts in the other room from people who had seen the show out of town my first question to them was, "Do you think the show warranted a revival and if you were a producer would you back it?" The overall consensus was a resounding "No!". That's what I don't understand about revivals.Of all the recent ones going back to"Guys and Dolls" (a success) which revivals following it were lucrative? NOT "42nd Street"(which ran 3 1/2 years!) and certainly not "Follies", "Candide", "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", "The Sound of Music", "Little Me", "She Loves Me","Wonderful Town", "The Music Man", "On the Town", "Oklahoma", "Flower Drum Song","Into the Woods" and I'm sure I'm forgetting others. Granted "Annie Get Your Gun" (?), "Cabaret"and "Chicago" made money but I question whether or not "Gypsy" or "Kiss Me Kate" actually recouped their costs and I doubt "Fiddler" or "La Cage" will. So with the odds of a revival being a success being extremely low, I too can't help questioning why anyone would back "Sweet Charity". Though it has a fine score I'm sure the producers saw or know of the Debbie Allen revival which was dreadful. Originally Verdon's name along with Coleman and Fields, Neil Simon and Bob Fosse might have been enough to draw a crowd for a time but why invest in a show that requires a power house leading lady and sports a book that is still being worked on due to its flaws?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/12/05 at 6:47pm

Marc. The production wouldn't have been mounted without Christina Applegate and wouldn't have opened following the Boston engagement without Christina Applegate, and Charlotte D'Amboise wouldn't have a job without Christina Applegate.

There may have been a time when being a stage star was enough to sell a show, but that is not the day and age we live in, and D'Amboise wonderful as she may be, is not a stage star.

I suggest you see Christina Applegate in the role before you vilify her on behalf of Ms. D'Amboise.

[justme2]

Posted: 4/12/05 at 6:54pm

Maybe I'm misreading...but what part of this WISH post below ISN'T negative, Demetri2?

"It has always failed before. It is a clunker and most folks find it terribly dull. Unless they have rewritten the book and done something about the pretentious silly direction and stuff, SWEET CHARITY will fail on Broadway as it has in its prior two incarnations."

[DAME]

Posted: 4/12/05 at 7:32pm

Get your show history right. The original show ws a hit. The 90's revival was a moderate hit. The property has been revived constantly in Civic light opera productions and regional musical theaters. The score has its place in our musical theater catalog. I can totally understand why a producer would want to revive this show. I also believe that the Weisslers see this as a show that could possibly be kept alive with stunt replacements a la Chicago. I hope so.

[EaboveMiddleC]

Posted: 4/12/05 at 8:26pm

Is Charity's Soliloquy still in the show?