The show has been a big hit with audiences and critics alike. Tamzin Outhwaite’s outstanding performance in the title role has even been remarked on by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Sweet Charity will make a brilliant treat for theatre breaks fans. We follow Charity Hope Valentine as she travels a bumpy path in pursuit of love. Charity is a paradox, a scheming innocent, a dreamer who always gives her heart and her trust to the wrong man. She still travels hopefully and despite all her misadventures, or perhaps because of them, she still captures the audience’s heart along the way.
Sweet Charity has some favourite show stopping musical numbers that you will know the words to including If They Could See Me Now, (Hey) Big Spender! and The Rhythm of Life and some less familiar numbers that deserve to be better known.
The jazz dance style of the show is classic Fosse with those now familiar elements of bowler hatted dancers with lots of shoulder rolls, knees, elbows, and wrists bent at unlikely angles. Expect syncopated rhythms, lots of toe tapping, finger clicking and pelvic thrusts. This is the original that shows like Chicago built their dance style on. And this production really does it justice!
History of the Show
Sweet Charity is based on Federico Fellini’s screenplay for Nights of Cabiria. The show was choreographed and conceived by Bob Fosse, with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and book by Neil Simon. The original production directed by Fosse opened on January 29, 1966 on Broadway at the Palace Theatre, and ran for 608 performances. Nominated for 12 Tony Awards the show only won for Fosse’s choreography.The 1969 film version of Sweet Charity (which I love!) was also directed and choreographed by Fosse. It starred Shirley MacLaine as Charity Hope Valentine and until recently I thought hers was the definitive Charity. Tamzin Outhwaite does a brilliant job of making the part and especially If They Could See Me Now her own.
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