Now that the revival of Sweet Charity has officially opened on Broadway to mixed reviews, I want to go back and revisit the preview performance that I saw awhile back with some specific observations and thoughts. There may be some spoliers here, so beware if you want to see the show and be surprised.
-Christina Applegate has the talent, charm and appeal to develop into an authentic stage star. I hope that she decides to stick it out and become a real presence in the theatre community. That said, she's not the ideal star for this material, but she's mostly carrying it off with grace and aplomb.
-While I love that the "Charity's Soliloquy" number was retained here and was thrilled to see this usually cut number performed, I thought that Applegate needed to put it across with more energy. It was one of my few criticisms of her performance. The number, a prime character piece for our leading lady, just sort of sat there.
-Director Walter Bobbie needs to sit in sections of the theatre other than the center. Both the famous closet scene and the elevator scene that introduces Denis O'Hare as Oscar were partially obscured from my location in the mezzanine house left. And I wasn't even as far left as I could have been. The problem with the closet scene is that the wagon carrying the closet set stop far too much stage right, blocking Charity and her bits of business from view from anyone sitting on the sides. In the elevator scene, actors need to be directed to stay as front and center as possible because the depth of the elevator cube causes them to be lost from view of those on the sides if they move around too much.
-Cilento and Applegate need to work on a better solo dance part for "If My Friends Could See Me Now." There's a point toward the end where it looks like Applegate is improvising and it's clearly not as good as the rest of it. This could simply be a matter of her not quite being up to doing the original choreography yet and Cilento allowing the improvisation in the meantime, but...no. It needs to be fixed.
-Applegate needs to not leave the stage during the climatic "I'm A Brass Band" number. This point has been hammered elsewhere, so I'll simply state that this is the character's grand epiphany and she needs to be present for all of it.
-O'Hare is amazing as the nice guy, who just can't reconcile himself to parts of Charity's past. As shitty as he is to her toward the end of the show, I still felt that his Oscar was basically a nice guy with good intentions. It's just that, as Sondheim reminds us, nice is different than good.
-It struck me that I wanted to see a sequel set 25 years later where Charity and Oscar meet up again in a random meeting in the park. We find out that Charity did indeed get herself out of the dance hall into a better job, found herself a good man and had a wonderful marriage and family and put all her love and caring to use. Oscar would still be alone, never having found anyone else willing to deal with his neuroses and eccentricities. He always regretted breaking if off with her and has thought of her often, while she, after a while, never gave him a second thought.
-Janine LaManna and Kyra DaCosta were terrific as Charity's friends at the dance hall. But their big number, "Baby, Dream Your Dream" is staged with just the two of the them onstage, after Charity has exited. It feels odd since we haven't really become very invested in them, except as appendages of our heroine.
-The sets and costumes were fun. Charity is in red throughout, which looks horrible in all the publicity shots of Applegate I've seen, but isn't so bad in the show itself. Most of the costumes are in darker colours and it does sort of make her "pop." But should an actress in the lead of a Broadway musical need a bright red dress to help maintain focus? I don't know, let's ask Carol Channing.
So, yes, as I said before, I did very much enjoy the show. I say go and see it for yourself and make your our decision.
Posted by Jere at May 6, 2005 02:51 PM | TrackBack