Back to the Fandango Ballroom
The last time Sweet Charity played Broadway, it was in a twentieth-anniversary revival that adhered closely to the 1966 original. With original stager Bob Fosse still in charge, the superb choreography was scrupulously recreated. Also back were Robert Randolph's stylized, abstract settings. Neil Simon's book revisions amounted to no more than modest trims. As in the original production, the title role was taken by an experienced musical woman who was also a top-notch dancer.
All of that fidelity produced sparkling results. But in the hard-working but seriously underpowered new production of Sweet Charity at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, just about everything is different from the original.
Unlike the two previous productions of the show, this one was not conceived for an accomplished Broadway dancer-comedienne. Instead, it marks the Broadway debut and apparent musical-theater debut of film and television actress Christina Applegate.
While Wayne Cilento's choreography offers occasional homages to Fosse's original, the musical staging is new. Simon has done a thorough rewrite of his book, with perhaps a quarter of the dialogue altered.
The '66 and '86 productions made the story a fable by punctuating the action with lit-up, narrative supertitles bordering the proscenium. Those signs, which served to unify an episodic show, are absent here. And with no Good Fairy appearing, the show has a new final scene for a suddenly assertive Charity.
The alterations extend to more trivial matters. Traditionally clad in black throughout, Charity now wears red. The song "Baby, Dream Your Dream," for Charity's dancehall comrades Nickie and Helene, is performed backstage at the dancehall, rather than at Charity's apartment. A scene on a parachute jump is now set on a ferris wheel. And Charity no longer spends an entire night in the closet of Italian movie star Vittorio Vidal.
Also unlike the two previous Broadway Charitys, this one has had a famously troubled period of gestation. After disappointing reviews in Minneapolis and Chicago, Applegate broke her foot during a Chicago performance and had to be replaced for the Boston engagement by her standby, Charlotte d'Amboise, an experienced musical performer and fine dancer. It was announced that d'Amboise would open the show in New York. After disappointing reviews in Boston, the producers announced that the production would close there, then rescinded the closing notice four days later, giving Applegate time to recover from her injury to open the show in New York. All of this garnered a great deal of publicity for a show that was not selling well at the box office.
After all of the adversity this production has weathered, it would be nice to report that it has arrived in triumph. But the new Charity is a lackluster revival of a musical that was vastly better the first and second time around. Although it boasted songs like "Big Spender" and "If My Friends Could See Me Now," Sweet Charity's superbly jazzy score was underappreciated when the show was new. But two elements of that original production were fully acknowledged, and they made the show a hit: Fosse's choreography and the performance of star Gwen Verdon.
During its road tour, this revival was altered to better reflect the original. Two original songs "You Should See Yourself," "I Love to Cry at Weddings" that had been cut were put back in, while one "If There Were More People Like You" of two trunk songs added to the show for the revival was dropped. Even the celebrated six-note beginning of the overture was restored. But certain aspects of the production were less easy to alter.
Cilento's choreography may in spots quote Fosse's original, but it is otherwise new, and it lacks style and wit. As a result, the big numbers fail to ignite. "The Rich Man's Frug" is the most Fosse-esque routine, but it lacks the humor and comment with which Fosse was able to imbue it. And sequences like "The Rhythm of Life" and "I'm a Brass Band" similarly disappoint.
It's not entirely Cilento's fault: I don't envy any choreographer who has to come up with a new routine for "Big Spender." But numbers like "The Rich Man's Frug" and "The Rhythm of Life" are only lightly integrated into the plot and only feel justified if they're terrific, as they used to be. A better solution for the current production might have been to take the route of the recent Broadway Gypsy and Fiddler on the Roof revivals, recreating the essential aspects of the original choreography, with additional musical staging by a new choreographer.
The staging by Walter Bobbie, who directed the blockbuster revival of a certain other Verdon-Fosse musical, is likewise lacking in a style that might unify Charity's elements. That may allow for questions to be raised about the quality of the book, a feathery if funny concoction with a somewhat problematic heroine. Even in '86, the character of Charity, the dance-hall hostess with a heart of gold who has rotten luck with men, came across as something of a doormat. In the new production, Charity winds up by finally standing up for herself. But the new ending feels abrupt and unmotivated, and Applegate and O'Hare have a hard time selling it.
Of course, Charity is nothing if not a vehicle, and a great deal depends on the star performance. Applegate's pluck and determination to make it to the stage are formidable, and the audience is rooting for her from the moment the curtain rises. Her Charity is in the Shirley MacLaine mode, which means it's more naturalistic than the stylized stage Charitys of the '60s. An adept actress, Applegate has abundant sweetness and vulnerability, and she's warmly appealing.
But Applegate's singing is unimpressive, particularly in "Where Am I Going?" Her dancing is game but limited, and the choreography she's been given is less challenging than that of past Charitys. And she's rather too youthful and fresh to be wholly believable as a character who, like Chicago's Roxie Hart, should look a little used.
Above all, Applegate lacks the effortlessness of top-notch musical-theater performers. She knocks herself out to please, but comes off as blandly proficient and mechanical. Likable and a hard worker, Applegate is neither distinctive, versatile, nor fascinating enough to carry a Broadway revival of Charity.
O'Hare begins with an over-the-top, extremely broad elevator scene, and remains almost at that level throughout. It's an eccentric, mannered performance, but it does supply the evening with some much-needed personality. Janine LaManna makes a tart Nickie; Paul Schoeffler is a charming Vittorio with a big-voiced "Too Many Tomorrows"; and genial Ernie Sabella doesn't have a great deal to do as ballroom boss Herman.
Scott Pask's sets tend to be spare and skeletal, while Brian MacDevitt's lighting is effective. The costumes don't seem to come from William Ivey Long's top drawer, or perhaps he's simply run out of imaginative '60s styles.
For the record, let's note that the original '66 melodies of "I'm the Bravest Individual" and the title song, both altered in the '86 production, have been restored. More unusually, the song "Charity's Soliloquy," absent since the first New York version, has also been restored, even if it doesn't work as well with Charity alone on stage and without the dance-hall patrons.
Of course, there's always that Coleman-Fields score to relish. But Charity used to be a show about style, and the lack of it here is dispiriting. Without inventive staging and an electric star, it's hard to fall in love with Charity.