Christina Applegate Calls Ben Brantley’s NYT Review of Her Tony-Nominated Performance ‘Horribly Brutal’

Christina Applegate feels that some critics weren’t kind during her star turn as Charity Hope Valentine on Broadway. 

Though the actress, 54, was Tony-nominated for her performance in the 2005 Broadway revival of Sweet Charity, she said she can’t forget about what then-New York Times chief theater critic Ben Brantley wrote in his May 5 review. 

At the time, Applegate was still on the mend from a broken fifth metatarsal in her foot that she sustained during the production’s out-of-town run in Chicago. Still, Brantley called her the “underequipped star of the lukewarm revival.” 

Applegate looked back on her tumultuous road to Broadway in her new memoir You with the Sad Eyes: A Memoir (out now), recalling how breaking her foot before making it to New York was “the most devastating thing I’ve ever been through — and yes, I can say that even knowing everything else I’ve been through.” 

Though doctors expected it would take 12 weeks for her foot to heal, Applegate did not give up hope and was determined to be dancing again in six. 

“I did everything I could to get better faster,” she wrote in You with the Sad Eyes. “I would swim with my bad foot up above the water — next time you get in a pool, try to swim breaststroke with one leg held out of the water. I needed to keep my lungs going, my body fit, because it’s such a challenging role. I was determined to do whatever it took, even if I had to learn to swim with one leg sticking up out of the pool.”

“While the previews were in Boston, I was heading to Harvard every day to use their special machines, probes, and tech,” she continued. “I’d meditate constantly, too, setting my intention that this bone would heal in six weeks, not twelve.”

Applegate’s health improved, but ticket sales declined — and producers eventually announced that the show would not move to Broadway. 

The Married... with Children alum revealed that she put up $500,000 to ensure that the production would still make its Main Stem debut, and she even danced through the entire thing in front of the creative team to prove she was ready. 

“I knew that for me to be there on opening night, I needed to skip one particularly balletic scene filled with leaps,” she explained. “By that time everyone in New York — even the sad little New York Times critic who panned me — knew about my broken foot. It was the talk of the town.” 

The musical — featuring music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and a book by Neil Simon — officially opened on May 4, 2005. 

“Even though Ben Brantley at the New York Times didn’t like what I did — his comment ‘While she executes her steps with care and precision, dance is not a transcendent form of self-expression for Ms. Applegate’ was horribly brutal about a person basically dancing on one foot — enough folks did,” Applegate wrote. 

She went on to receive a 2005 Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. 

“My foot never quite healed correctly because I danced on it for the entire run,” she said. “Back then, I displayed a grit that I sometimes worry I don’t have anymore. But I’ve always been a survivor that way.” 

You with the Sad Eyes: A Memoir is currently available.