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Taxi dancer
Charity is sweet at Barrington Stage
BY STEVE VINEBERG
Sweet Charity
Book by Neil Simon. Music by Cy Coleman. Lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Based on the screenplay The Nights of Cabiria, by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, and Ennio Flaiano. Directed by Rob Ruggiero. Choreographed by Ralph Perkins. Musical direction by Michael Morris. Set by Michael Anania. Lighting by Tom Sturge. Costumes by Alejo Vietti. Sound by Randy Hansen. With Valerie Wright, Mary MacLeod, Kenya Massey, Karl Kenzler, Nat Chandler, and Gordon Stanley. Presented by Barrington Stage Company at the Consolati Performing Arts Center, Sheffield, through July 17.


In the 1966 musical comedy Sweet Charity, Neil Simon, composer Cy Coleman, and lyricist Dorothy Fields adapted the Fellini masterpiece Le notti di Cabiria, setting it in New York City rather than Rome and converting the heroine (played in the movie by Fellini’s wife, Giulietta Masina) from a hapless whore into a taxi dancer with the same penchant for falling in love with the wrong men. The softening of the material has always been the main rap against the show, but with its seedy dancehall scenes (defined by the most famous number, "Big Spender") and its weary, wisecracking hostesses, it’s solidly in the tradition of down-and-dirty musicals like Pal Joey, The Boys from Syracuse, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Its book may be both wilted and attenuated, and it has a bum ending. But it’s a raucous, energetic show, and Rob Ruggiero’s revival, the season opener at Barrington Stage, resurrects its spirit.

Sweet Charity was built — largely by director/choreographer Bob Fosse — around the talents of its star, Gwen Verdon (Fosse’s wife at the time), and if my teenage tastes and a 38-year-old memory are to be trusted, she was heavenly. The major problem with the 1969 movie version, which marked Fosse’s Hollywood debut, was that Shirley MacLaine, who inherited the role, couldn’t dance like Verdon, had a tiny, inexpressive singing voice, and relied heavily on the waif-like quality that had made her in a star in The Apartment. But Charity is a spiky, resilient pixie, and Valerie Wright, who has an elongated clown’s jaw (like Carol Burnett’s or Imogene Coca’s) and a voice like unrefined cotton, is right in Verdon’s line. She can dance, and adept as she is with comedy (especially playing scenes opposite the delightful Karl Kenzler, who as Charity’s nervous insurance-company lothario, Oscar, is a cross between Dick Van Dyke and Eddie Bracken), her best acting comes in her songs. She gives a throw-away number like "You Should See Yourself" dramatic shape and a driving ballad like "Where Am I Going?" genuine conviction.

When Wright is partnered with Mary MacLeod and Kenya Massey as Nickie and Helene, her Fandango Ballroom cronies, and the marvelous supporting crew of sarcastic, able-bodied dancers, with their shared fixed expression of exhausted incredulousness, the show rolls on all its cylinders. Well, nearly all: Ralph Perkins’s choreography is mostly just an abridged version of Fosse’s. (He comes up with his best ideas for the "Rhythm of Life" number that opens the second act.) "Big Spender" is as enlivening as ever, and the trio "There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This" is another highlight. Nickie and Helene are terrific second-banana roles; those who saw the movie when it came out probably retain a more vivid memory of Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly than of Shirley MacLaine. And MacLeod, who’s like a warmer version of Debi Mazar, and the elegantly sexy Massey do them justice. Gordon Stanley rounds out the enjoyable vulgarity of the Fandango scenes as the girls’ boss, Herman. Stanley is the show’s cheery factotum, playing so many bit parts that his rumpled appearance becomes a running gag. He finally gets to sing — with vaudeville brio — in the not-quite-finale, "I Love To Cry at Weddings."

Fosse’s production was quasi-Brechtian, with neon titles and a pared-down, emblematic design. The BSC revival doesn’t quite get that style (though set designer Michael Anania has a few clever ideas, like an Andy Warhol multi-frame painting in the bedroom of the Italian movie star played by Nat Chandler), so the remnants of it feel a little chintzy. When Charity’s brutish beau Charlie (Barry Brown), the unworthy subject of her adoring "You Should See Yourself" tune, shoves her into Central Park Lake, she comes out bone-dry, with prop seaweed sticking to her shoulders. And I wish Alejo Vietti, who did the costumes, had given Wright something else besides that black mini-skirt to wear — especially since the Fandango dolls are swathed in a Day-Glo variety. Fortunately, Wright carries her own rainbow around with her.


Issue Date: July 2 - 8, 2004
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