Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
#1Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 11:53amI've been listening to the Sweet Charity 2005 Revival Cast Recording lately and was wondering what you guys thought of it. Did anybody see it?
#2Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 12:01pm
I liked it, but it was my first Charity.
More info here: https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1036539#4195492
bobs3
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/8/12
#2Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 12:09pm
It was okay but there was nothing exceptional about it. Christina Applegate was good -- I was actually surprised -- this is the girl from MARRIED WITH CHILDREN? (But a lot of the actors from MWC later proved themselves to be better than the material they had to work with on that series.) After SWEET CHARITY she did the tv series SAMANTHA WHO? but her medical problems and mediocre ratings led to its cancellation after two seasons. Maybe she will return to Broadway one day but she has said that her foot injury during the show left her unable to dance.
IMO Denis O'Hare was miscast as Oscar.
Updated On: 3/2/14 at 12:09 PM
#3Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 1:41pmCommunity theatre on Broadway.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#4Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 2:14pm
I didn't see it on Broadway but I saw the National Tour with Molly Ringwald, and I also thought it was like a community theater production. On a side note the audience audibly laughed when Molly Ringwald mentioned she was 115lb.
I did meet Christina when she was in the show though. Doug Caldwell was choreographing a dance I was in and she came in to see him. They were flying to the Hamptons after her show that night, and my friend and I went to TKTS to get last minute tickets for that night, but when we got to the booth we decided to see Movin' Out again for the nth time instead.
#5Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 2:15pmprobably some of the worst choreography ever to grace a Broadway stage.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
#6Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 3:27pm
"I didn't see it on Broadway but I saw the National Tour with Molly Ringwald, and I also thought it was like a community theater production. On a side note the audience audibly laughed when Molly Ringwald mentioned she was 115lb."
This.
#7Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 3:52pmI saw the tour too and I thought it was charming. I loved the scenery, costumes and revised ending. I agree the choreography was terrible though. People were criticizing Molly as a dancer, but actually I think it was just the steps she was given that were the problem.
#8Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 4:05pmI saw the tour in Los Angeles and remember being impressed by the set, but thought Molly Ringwald was a mess.
"I saw Pavarotti play Rodolfo on stage and with his girth I thought he was about to eat the whole table at the Cafe Momus." - Dollypop
#9Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 4:09pmI saw Paige Davis, luckily. She was absolutely perfect. I enjoyed the tour quite a bit even though the sets were cheap cheap cheap.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
#10Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 4:11pm
Curious--When someone writes 'this' does it mean you agree with the above post?
Also--when someones' comment is followed by a 'blank' post-what does that mean?
I'm still learning.
#11Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 4:16pmThat was actually my first Broadway show ever! And I don't remember a single thing except that I was freezing the entire time.
#12Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 4:36pm
I actually thought the scenery for the tour was pretty impressive. It was minimal, bit up close the detail work was impressive. I liked the long red couch which seemed to go on forever and the ferris wheel.
I also loved the elevator scene because the actor playing Oscar was so great in it. I forget his name, but he was the best thing about that tour.
#13Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 4:42pmI don't envy any choreographer trying to do a new Rich Man's Frug. So why bother? Of course I feel the same way about Turkey Lurkey Time, and they didn't use the original in the Promises, Promises revival either...
#14Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 4:45pmThe word that came to mind for Cilento's Charity choreography was spastic.
#15Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/2/14 at 4:52pmSpeaking only for myself, my usage of "This" was to signify that I was thoroughly amused and enjoyed that terribly offensive comment.
#16Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/3/14 at 9:09pmChristina was quite good in the role, but a lot of other aspects were a mess.
#18Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/3/14 at 10:59pm
In the original Oscar pushes Charity into the lake again and a good fairy appears and says "Tonight, it will all happen tonight." Charity takes it as some sort of sign that things are going to get better, but the fairy turns her back and the audience sees an advertisement for a CBS show called "The Good Fairy." She's a walking advertisement -- not a sign of hope.
In the revival Oscar didn't push Charity into the lake and there was no good fairy. Charity actually breaks up with Oscar telling him "up yours" and after he leaves she speaks directly to the audience echoing her sentiment from the top of the show and asking "Did you ever have one of those days that was perfect?" She says, for her, this wasn't it but that there's always tomorrow and sings a reprise of "I'm the Bravest Individual."
Updated On: 3/3/14 at 10:59 PM
#19Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/3/14 at 11:13pmThe revised ending was also written by Neil Simon. I thought it worked nicely.
#20Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/3/14 at 11:22pm^I've always wondered if he wrote it. If you look at the original libretto there are actually a ton of little changes to the book that were made for the revival and I've wondered if Neil Simon did them himself.
#21Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/4/14 at 12:08amThanks! Never knew about the original "fairy" bit, actually...not in the film or any production I've seen.
#22Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/4/14 at 12:15am
Yup, he did revise it.
The revival will feature a revised book by Neil Simon as well as one new song added to the classic Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields score.
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/86992-Sweet-Charity-Shifts-Broadway-Opening-to-April-21-MN-Tryout-is-at-Orpheum
#23Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/4/14 at 10:19amI hated every second of it. Pedestrian doesn't even begin to describe this mess of a revival. The cast recording is atrocious. They succeeded in massacring a classic.
#24Sweet Charity 2005 Revival
Posted: 3/4/14 at 10:31amTiny-cheap orchestrations, ugly-cheap design, dull-amateur choreography, a lightweight-bland leading lady - there was nothing special about this revival; it was summer stock on Broadway.
