Sweet Charity

Sweet Charity is a musical with music by

The musical was adapted for the screen in 1969 with Shirley MacLaine as Charity and John McMartin recreating his Broadway role as Oscar Lindquist in Sweet Charity: The Adventures of a Girl Who Wanted to Be Loved. For Bob Fosse, who directed and choreographed, the film was his feature-film directorial debut.

The young woman Charity Hope Valentine is a taxi dancer at a dance hall called the Fandango Ballroom in New York City. With a shoulder bag and a heart tattooed on her left shoulder, Charity meets her boyfriend Charlie in Central Park. While Charlie silently preens himself, Charity speaks the pick-up lines she imagines him saying, and tells him how handsome he is ("You Should See Yourself"). Charlie then steals her handbag and pushes her into the lake (usually the orchestra pit) before running off. Passers-by discuss the apparent drowning but do nothing, until a young Spaniard finally rescues her. In the Hostess Room of the Fandango Ballroom, Charity tries to convince both herself and the other skeptical taxi dancers that Charlie tried to save her. Nickie, a fellow dancer, tells Charity that “your big problem is you run your heart like a hotel – you got guys checkin’ in and out all the time”. The manager, Herman, arrives to tell them it is time for work. The hostess dancers proposition the audience in the front room of the Fandango Ballroom ("Big Spender"). Helene and Nickie try to comfort Charity about Charlie's absence ("Charity's Soliloquy").

On the street, after work, Charity gives to every beggar who approaches her until she realizes she has no money. Just then, film star Vittorio Vidal rushes out of the smart Pompeii Club, in pursuit of his beautiful mistress, Ursula. Ursula refuses to go back inside with Vittorio, who promptly takes the only-too-willing Charity instead. Inside the Pompeii Club, the dancers are dancing the latest craze, The Rich Man's Frug. To everyone's astonishment, the famous Vittorio is accompanied by the unknown Charity. She tries to steer him away from the subject of Ursula. Finally, he wants to dance. Not having eaten since breakfast, Charity faints. There is general agreement amongst the dancers that she needs to be "laid down". Vittorio asks "where?", and Charity recovers enough to prompt Vittorio with "your apartment!".

Lying down on Vittorio's bed, Charity claims she is no longer hungry. She admits she is a dance hall hostess, putting it down to "the fickle finger of fate" (a favorite expression of hers). Vittorio is struck by her humor and honesty. Starstruck, Charity asks for a signed photograph to prove to the girls she was really in his apartment. While Vittorio fetches props from his old movies for further evidence, Charity remarks on her good fortune ("If My Friends Could See Me Now"). Ursula arrives to apologize for her jealousy; Charity is swiftly bundled into a closet before Vittorio opens the door to Ursula. ("Too Many Tomorrows") While Charity watches from the closet, Vittorio and Ursula make love inside his four-poster bed. The following morning, Charity is escorted from the room by a mortified Vittorio. In the Hostess Room, the girls are disappointed that Charity failed to get more out of Vittorio. Nickie announces she is not going to remain at this job for the rest of her life, prompting the girls to speculate on alternative careers ("There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This"), but Herman brings them back down to earth. Charity decides to seek some cultural enlightenment at the 92nd Street Y, where she gets stuck in a broken elevator with shy tax accountant Oscar Lindquist. While trying to calm him down, Charity learns that he is not married. She declares, "Oh Oscar... You're gonna be all right." After helping Oscar overcome his claustrophobia ("I'm the Bravest Individual"), the pair are plunged into new panic when the lights stop working.

After being trapped in a broken elevator, Oscar and Charity are finally rescued when it starts working again. Oscar invites Charity to go to church with him, to which she hesitantly agrees. As they walk under the

The stage blacks out onto three neon signs, reading "And so she lived … hopefully … ever after".

• Charity Hope Valentine, the girl who wanted to be loved.
• Oscar Lindquist, a man whom Charity befriends and eventually falls in love with.
• Charlie, Charity's boyfriend in the opening of the show, and the name on her tattoo
• Nickie and Helene, Charity's closest friends who are taxi dancers at the Fandango Ballroom.
• Herman, the authoritarian owner of the Fandango Ballroom; Charity's boss.
• Vittorio Vidal, a famous Italian movie star.
• Ursula March, Vittorio's girlfriend
• Manfred, Vittorio's butler
• Daddy Johann Sebastian Brubeck, the enigmatic leader of the Rhythm of Life Church.
• Carmen, a dancer at the Fandango Ballroom who is friends with Nickie, Helene, and Charity
• Rosie, the new dancer at the Fandango Ballroom.
• Suzanne, Frenchie, Betsy, and Elaine, dancers at the Fandango Ballroom

After a tryout at the

The Australian production was produced by J.C. Williamson, starring Nancye Hayes as Charity and Peter Adams as Oscar.^[4] The show commenced on 21 January 1967 at Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney, and subsequently played seasons in Melbourne and Adelaide.

The musical opened in the West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre in October 1967, running for 476 performances. Juliet Prowse starred, and was succeeded by Gretchen Wyler.^[5][6]

A

On June 15, 1998, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS presented an all-star fully staged one-night-only concert at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. It starred Chita Rivera, Bebe Neuwirth, Donna McKechnie, Debbie Allen and, in her last public stage appearance, Gwen Verdon, all in the shared role of Charity.^[7]

A

A national tour of the 2005 Broadway revival began in September 2006 and ended in August 2007. It starred Molly Ringwald and later Paige Davis as Charity.^[13]

A

Verity Hunt-Ballard won the 2014 Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Musical, while Dean Bryant and Andrew Hallsworth won the Helpmanns for Best Direction and Best Choreography, respectively. Martin Crewes was nominated for Best Male Actor, and Debora Krizak was nominated for Best Supporting Female. The show was nominated for Best Musical, and Andrew Worboys and Jessica James-Moody were nominated for Best Musical Direction and Best Sound Design, respectively.^[19] It also won several Sydney Theatre Awards for Best Production of a Musical, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical (Verity Hunt-Ballard) and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical (Debora Krizak).^[20]

The critically acclaimed production transferred to Playhouse in the Sydney Opera House from 15 January 2015 to 8 February 2015.^[21][22][23]

It then toured to the Canberra Theatre Centre, Arts Centre Melbourne Playhouse and the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre in Wollongong.

In August 2015

The musical was presented Off-Broadway by The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center, opening on November 20, 2016. Directed by Leigh Silverman with choreography by Joshua Bergasse, the cast stars Sutton Foster as Charity Hope Valentine, Asmeret Ghebremichael (Nickie), Shuler Hensley (Oscar), Emily Padgett (Helene), and Joel Perez.^[25][26]

In April 2019 The Donmar Warehouse revived the production for a limited run from 6 April 2019 to 8 June 2019. The production starred Anne Marie-Duff as Charity, Arthur Darvill as Oscar and a variety of guest actors to play Daddy Brubeck including Adrien Lester and Beverly Knight. This was Josie Rourke's last production as artistic director at The Donmar.

There are numerous recordings of the show's score available including:

• 1966 Original Broadway cast recording, entered the Billboard 200 on 12th March 1966^[28]
• Film soundtrack recording
• 1986 Broadway cast recording with Debbie Allen and Bebe Neuwirth
• First complete recording of the show conducted by Martin Yates. This version includes the complete score with bonus tracks from the film's score
• 2005 Broadway cast recording starring Christina Applegate and Denis O'Hare

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sweet Charity.

• ​Sweet Charity​ at the Internet Broadway Database
• Sweet Charity Synopsis and Character Descriptions Stage Agent
• Sweet Charity The Broadway Musical Home – musical information
• Sweet Charity Educational Study Guide Theatre Under the Stars