Charity Hope Valentine's getting a couple of new best friends. Broadway.com has learned that Janine LaManna and Kyra DaCosta will replace Natascia Diaz and Solange Sandy in the Broadway-bound revival of Sweet Charity. The two new actresses will begin performances as Nickie and Helen, cohorts of Christina Applegate's Charity, when the production begins its final pre-Broadway stop in Boston on March 18. As previously reported, Charlotte d'Amboise will also start performances in the title role, subbing for injured headliner Christina Applegate, at the same time.
DaCosta appeared in the ensemble of Aida and also served as the Nehebka understudy. Her off-Broadway credits include Red Hot Broadway at the Acorn Theatre and the Encores! staging of Golden Boy. She has also appeared in productions of Dreamgirls, Finian's Rainbow, Once on This Island, Smokey Joe's Café and TV's The Parkers and A Makeover Story, which she hosted. DaCosta recently toured the country as a “Harlette” on Bette Midler's Kiss My Brass tour.
LaManna is best known for playing Gertrude McFuzz, the sweet bird with a one-feather tail, in Lynn Aherns and Stephen Flaherty's Seussical. Despite the show's less than stellar critical reception, LaManna was often praised for her performance, winning a Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Featured Actress in a Musical. LaManna's other Broadway credits include Ragtime, Swing!, Kiss Me, Kate and The Look of Love. She performed in the first national tours of Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman. This past summer LaManna starred as Amneris in the North Shore Music Theater presentation of Aida.
Diaz and Sandy were featured in the revival when it premiered in Minneapolis from February 8 through February 20 and in Chicago, where the show just finished a run at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. In both cities the duo received positive notices.
Sweet Charity, which is scheduled to begin performances at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on April 4, will continue to star Denis O'Hare, Ernie Sabella, Paul Schoeffler, Rhett George and Shannon Lewis.
