Quotable Quotes: On the Red Carpet with Sweet Charity
WHAT: Opening night
WHERE: Guastavino's
WHEN: May 4, 2005
"There really are no words to really describe the journey that we've all taken. It's one thing to open on Broadway, which is a dream come true. It's something really amazing in my life--but just to think about the journey that we've all taken, it holds that much more meaning and that much more substance on a higher level than the ego or the physical life. It's like on a different level now. Not to get esoteric and crazy, but it really is like a miracle that's happened." --Christina Applegate on the rocky road to Broadway
"We're having a good time. We're glad we made it! Woo-hoo! We were a little concerned there for a minute, but we stuck it out, and we're so glad we're here." -- Kyra DaCosta on opening the show on Broadway
"I actually didn't believe we would get here. There was a point in Boston where I thought, 'This is a nightmare come true. All this work and this thing is falling apart.' And you know, you feel like a failure when you close out of town." --Denis O'Hare on making it to the Broadway opening of the show
"It's unbelievable that we finally got here. The roller coaster ride has been amazing, but the journey has always been good with the work. I mean, it's just some of the things that happened. [Christina Applegate] breaking her foot kind of blew us all away but we recovered." --Choreographer Wayne Cilento
"We've had many difficult things that we faced along the way, so it feels like--I think we all feel a little bit like [Christina Applegate], like a little bit like Charity Hope Valentine. Our resilience and our hope and our belief in bringing our show to New York." --Director Walter Bobbie
"It's a definition of a Broadway show. It has great singing, great songs. It has great roles." --Rhett George on what audiences love about the show
"I love that she's present, that she's hopeful, that everything is a joy, that everything is magical. Even the pain is magical. Such a beautiful lesson to learn." --Christina Applegate on her character, Charity Hope Valentine
"Who [Applegate] really is, it just brings the right perfect vulnerability. There's just a kind of quirkiness to her that is just perfect for the role." --Kyra DaCosta on what Christina Applegate brings to the role of Charity
"Her vulnerability. Her beautiful beautiful comic timing, her doe eyes that don't lie. They don't lie and I know it because I'm on stage with those eyes and I think to myself, 'Oh my God. I could fall in love with her!'" --Janine LaManna on what makes Christina Applegate the right performer to play Charity
"There's something about [Christina Applegate] that's unknowable. You keep looking at her because you don't get the answer you want. You keep looking for more and more and more, and you're never going to finally get it. She doesn't give herself up easily and that's a really intriguing quality I think." --Denis O'Hare on Christina Applegate
"How scary is that to try to recreate Bob Fosse, and I think [Wayne Cilento] did it brilliantly." --Kyra DaCosta on the dance numbers
"I have to say, it's one of maybe the hardest jobs I've ever done. Just respecting [Bob Fosse] and doing the work proud and kind of doing my own thing--it was rough. It's hard doing a revival and trying to do a new spin on it and give it a fresh take." --Wayne Cilento on accepting the task to choreograph this revival
"We set out to do the work of Dorothy Fields and Neil Simon and Cy Coleman and although I think that there's some of [Bob Fosse] in the DNA of this material, it was really not about reconstructing his production but looking at this material the way you would look at Hello, Dolly or Fiddler or Nine or Cabaret and just see if this material could still speak to us." --DirectorWalter Bobbie
"It really seems to connect with the audience and still sort of hold hands with the tradition of the past. I think that's amazing." --Shannon Lewis
"Everyone had to come with an idea of kind of like killing your parents, killing your fathers. If you're going to get out from under the thumb of somebody greater than you, you have to one way kill them. I think that [Wayne Cilento] did it really lovingly. He quoted [Bob Fosse]. He honored [Bob Fosse], and then he did his own thing because you have to. [Bob Fosse] wouldn't copy anybody else." --Denis O'Hare
"I left everything alone. I added more percussion and more energy and just a little more fire to get my passion in there but basically we kept the structures the way they were and we just went for it." --Wayne Cilento
"It's been a dream since I was a little girl. I used to come here all the time and go to every show--The Wiz, Annie, Cats--and you know, I'd always thought that was what I was supposed to do. My life took a different turn but now here we are again." --Christina Applegate on early ambitions to be on Broadway
"I love it! I love singing these songs! I mean I grew up singing 'Big Spender'" --Kyra DaCosta on the classic music in the show
"We needed to edit and kind of weave it together and make it move together and I think we did a really pretty good job about that." --Wayne Cilento on making the revival different from others
"I like Sweet Charity. I didn't like it at first. I hated it at first. It's hard to sing. But as I gotten better and better at it, I like it more and more." --Denis O'Hare
"What it is more than anything is a comic part. I think you have to be a fabulous comic actress to pull off this role because she dances a few times in the show, but that's not the soul of the character. The soul of the character is a woman who wants to be loved." --Director Walter Bobbie on casting the right actress to play Charity
"She's a true gem. An absolute confident go-getter. She embodies so many qualities that are so admirable that it's hard to list them all because you understand why she is where she is when you talk to her." --Janine LaManna on Christina Applegate
"I try to set a tone of love and appreciation and gratitude as much as I possibly can, and luckily for me, it hasn't been that hard of a job because the people that I work with are unbelievable. I think the stars were aligned and we were all put together and I am just blessed." --Christina Applegate
"I love being with her on stage. Between her and Janine LaManna we have such a connection on stage that it just makes our job easy." --Kyra DaCosta on her co-stars
"She is always positive. When we got our closing notice in Boston she said, 'Don't take any other jobs! This is not over!' It's sure will that got her to this stage anyway and she really has the talent and the drive and the light." --Shannon Lewis on Christina Applegate
"Honestly, she is a classy lady. I have so much respect from her after all she's been through from the whole foot thing and everything. She's here and she's a tough girl. I feel like someone else probably would have given up and she really stuck with us, stuck with the show, stuck with herself. She's a big reason why we're here tonight." --Rhett George on Christina Applegate
"It was a triumphant night for her. The girl, you know, she just wouldn't say no." --Walter Bobbie on Christina Applegate
"[Neil Simon's] scripts are just so unbelievably truthful and he writes comedy from the heart. Even though its very biting, a lot of the funniest lines in the show are the most biting lines." --Janine LaManna
"She's very, very loving--but just right to the point. I'm sure my sister is right now up there in the balcony is ready to go, 'You are imitating me!' And I'm going to say, 'Yes, and thank you very much for it!'" --Janine LaManna on her character Nickie
"They opened their arms, their hearts, their love, their support when we came in and we needed it because we were just thrown in."-- Kyra DaCosta on joining the already established company
"Unfortunately, her accident really bonded [the company] together. Praying together. When they put the notice up in Boston, the company used to pray every night before the show that we would be re-opened. I mean it's an amazing family. It really is." --Wayne Cilento on how close the company has become
Interviews by Paul Wontorek
Compiled by Grace Hernandez