Just how sweet is this “Charity?”
To be as blunt as Charity herself, very. The national tour of “Sweet Charity” is a bold explosion of Bob Fosse-styled dance, brash neo-’60s spectacle and comedy that is all in the timing and delivery.
Molly Ringwald is stunning in the title role, and her Charity is the quintessential hopeless romantic – with a twist. She’s desperate and lacks any self-esteem until the final scene. It’s obvious throughout this mostly sunny production, playing the Buell Theatre until Dec. 17, that Ringwald and her castmates understand the show’s dark complexities. After all, it was originally based on Federico Fellini’s “Nights of Cabiria,” only Fosse changed the lead from an Italian hooker to a New York taxi dancer.
So this is clearly a Broadway musical. You’re not going to leave the theater teary-eyed. But casual theatergoers who know this show only from its brassy hit number “Big Spender” will be surprised to see and hear the song performed not as a celebratory, flirtatious taunt but a dire power struggle, a depressed plea for greener grass.
Charity and her fellow dancers don’t lead a pretty life. They dance with men for money, and sometimes they do more than dance. Charity is a pushover always getting jacked over by the Johnnys she dates, but eventually she meets Oscar in a YMCA elevator. The anti-Johnny, Oscar is a good guy – only neuroticism comes to him as candor does Charity.
He sees her as purity embodied, and the one thing she forgets to tell him is her seedy profession.
Ringwald is winning as Charity, and her stage experience is obvious from the start. With all the editing involved in film – the medium we best know her from – timing isn’t always the actor’s responsibility. But in theater, there is no splicing. And Ringwald’s delivery, both comic and poignant, is dead-on for most of the show.
Her “You Should See Yourself” opens the show eloquently. It’s one of the better songs in a show not always known for its captivating music, and it reveals Ringwald as a fine singer. We learn later that Ringwald isn’t as experienced a dancer; it seems like she and the choreography try to play it off as Charity’s clumsiness, but it’s obviously a deficiency.
Ringwald’s Charity is best when interacting with others, especially Guy Adkins’ Oscar. When the two meet in the elevator at the end of the first act, it’s a master class in physical comedy that spreads all the way to the end of the show. When Oscar takes Charity to the Rhythm of Life Church, the giant “Age of Aquarius”-style number “Rhythm of Life” opens Act II with a potent funk-fueled bang. Adkins’ Oscar evokes shades of Dick Sargent – gangly, overanxious and awkwardly charming.
The act-one lull here is tough to overcome. Charity is saddled with a couple of lame and overwrought songs that Ringwald can’t save. Aside from a bright dance number at the Pompeii Club, it’s an unfortunate dip that isn’t conquered until the act’s last two songs, “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” and “I’m the Bravest Individual.”
It’s here where product placement enters the theatrical realm. And it’s tacky. Italian film star Vittorio Vidal orders a Gran Centenario at the Pompeii, and later dancers use crates emblazoned with the tequila’s logo to build a staircase central to the action. These touring shows cost money, yes, and sponsors are necessary. But this blatant on-stage shilling is bad form.
“Big Spender” is the show’s second song, and it sets the tone for the evening. The cast meshes beautifully, but while most individual performances are solid, others fail to connect. Scott Faris’ interpretation of Walter Bobbie’s direction from the 2005 Broadway revival smartly navigates this show’s seedy underbelly, with an eye toward the characters’ vulnerabilities without losing that Broadway sparkle.
And Wayne Cilento’s choreography, which wonderfully captures the exaggerated era Charity inhabits, is sweet indeed.
Staff writer Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
“Sweet Charity”
MUSICAL|National touring production|Written by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields|Directed by Scott Faris|Starring Molly Ringwald|Buell Theatre at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets|THROUGH DEC. 17|8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday| 2 hours, 30 minutes|$25-$65|303-893-4100, 866-464-2626, all King Soopers or denvercenter.org; 800-641-1222 outside Denver
