Review: SWEET CHARITY at Theatre In The Park (Indoors)

Opening this past Friday was the Theatre In The Park (indoor) community theater production of 1966's "Sweet Charity." The show is best known for several Cy Coleman/Dorothy Field songs that have long survived the play's original run and several revivals. The most well-known tunes are "Big Spender," "If My Friends Could See Me Now," and "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This."

"Sweet Charity" finds its roots in a 1950's Italian film about a hooker with a "heart of gold." It was developed to be a Broadway musical as a star vehicle for singer/dancer/star Gwen Verdon by her husband (at the time) the fabled Broadway dancer/choreographer/director Bob Fosse.

For an Americanized version of the play in the early 1960s, libretto writer Neil (Doc) Simon turns Charity Hope Valentine into a "Taxi-Dancer." "Taxi-Dancers" provided companionship for lonely men between 1849 (The California Gold Rush) and the 1950s. Men purchased what we would recognize as carnival ride tickets at a ticket booth. The men then chose from a line-up of perspective partners. A ticket was worth the length of one dance. The dance partner kept half the price of the ticket as commission.

Regardless of how messed-up this arrangement sounds to 2019 ears, it was a lucrative way for a single girl to earn a living during the "Great Depression." Taxi-dancers earned much more than female office workers of the time. It was a step towards independence during a time of strict moral codes and over-protective Victorian fathers.

Charity (Nancy Seeman) is one of these new-age liberated women. She is a good girl who makes some pretty horrific choices in men. The play opens as her boyfriend "du jour" dumps her in favor of his current wife. He dumps her (literally) in a lake. Most of the first scene is about who (out of a number bystanders) is going to fish poor Charity out of the drink.

We follow Charity to her place of employment, the Fandango Ballroom. She has worked at the Ballroom (temporally) for the last eight years. We meet her co-workers. They perform the show's more memorable scene and song "Big Spender."

After work, Charity makes her way to an exclusive nightclub where she is picked up by a romantic Italian film star (Scott Kruse) who has quarreled with his flashy girlfriend. They end up at his apartment, but Charity thoughtfully hides when the girlfriend re-appears and then steps aside.

Downtrodden, Charity returns to the Ballroom. She and her friends Nickie (Pancha Brown) and Helene (Brenna McConaughey) ruminate "There Has Gotta Be Something Better Than This." Charity resolves to better herself. While trying to join a betterment class, she meets Oscar (Jamie Copaken). Oscar (a neurotic, nebbishy CPA) and Charity get stuck in an elevator. After they are rescued, a bond forms.

We believe Charity may have found a way out of the Ballroom with Oscar, but it is sadly not to be. He dumps her just before the wedding and Charity's search for a better life continues on.

"Sweet Charity" is a really tough show mainly because it leads so heavily on its leading lady. She is the only character that is developed in any real sense. The show has a weak ending. We had hoped that Charity would find her happy ending.

The cast gamely soldiers on, but this fatal flaw hurts the overall impression even for a top quality community theater production.

The remaining cast members are Kourteney Halksworth, Tyler Harper, Hewleek McKoy, Jessica Pelski, Sarah Bezek, Ryan Stevens, Nathaniel Thomas, and Kyle Tichenor. Many cast members are double cast. There is a seven piece live orchestra. JC Dresslaer provides choreography. The director is Kip Simmons.

The original production was performed 608 times in 1966 and 1967. Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse divorced after ten years, but they never escaped the other's lives. Twenty years later, Verdon and Fosse collaborated on a revival of "Sweet Charity" then in previews at Washington's National Theater. They were walking between the Willard Hotel and the theater when Fosse collapsed from a massive heart attack. He died on the sidewalk in Verdon's arms.

"Sweet Charity" at the Johnson County Heritage Center continues until October 27. Tickets are available at www.theatreinthepark.org or by telephone at 913.826.3012.

Photo's courtesy of Theater In The Park

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