Sweet Charity review

[burntcopper]

Saw Sweet Charity last night at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Tamzin Outhwaite, Mark Umber, Josefina Gabrielle. AKA the musical that 'Hey Big Spender', 'Rhythm of Life' and 'If My Friends Could See Me Now' come from. And if, like me, you only know those numbers, the musical is *so* not what you'd expect.


right. Taxi dancer in the 60s, easy touch, constantly falling hard and getting dumped by men who frequently take advantage of her with a permanently sunny and optimistic disposition. Never sees it coming. Starts off with her being dumped by Charlie (her usual chancer type of boyfriend), goes through her job at a crappy dance hall, meets a film star by chance, then runs into a complete neurotic bloke she falls for.

The Sixties setting really adds to it - the job she's got was going out at the time, and a good third of the musical is dance sequences of awesome. Several of which are pure, pure sixties detailed posing. Then there's the classic hoofing numbers (and yes, one does involve a top hat and cane) and the ones set in the dancehall. They didn't go with the Fosse style that normally characterises things like 'Hey Big Spender', but you can see touches of it. Special mention to 'Hey Big Spender', because oh lord that number's depressing - you get the contrast of the girls talking and bouncing in the dressing rooms, but the instant they go out on the dancefloor to attract the men, they become these dead-eyed automatons.

Aside from the dancehall numbers, overall this is an adorable, sunny, witty musical. Most of the audience couldn't stop giggling and grinning in the bar after the first act. The acting is stunning, the singing's great, and the dancing is amazing. Entire cast are geniuses with comic timing. It bounces along happily, there's no slow moments, and sometimes it cuts you to the quick. Tamzin Outhwaite can *really* sing and dance - several of the numbers are her alone on the stage, and if she was even a couple of notches less talented, those would fall flat on their face. Mark Umber plays Charlie the smooth tosser, the Italian film star who picks her up one night (vain, self-obsessed, but basically quite a nice person ), and Oscar the neurotic she starts dating. All completely different characters, and apparently they're normally played by different actors. Having them played by the same actor adds a really nice touch as though it's 'same basic person she's attracted to, just different versions' even though each character looks *nothing* alike in mannerisms, look, etc. Same actor playing different/au versions carries through on Josefina Gabrielle who plays one of Charity's fellow taxi dancers and the italian actor's actress girlfriend.

Scary warning : Josefina Gabrielle looks so much like a younger version of Josie Lawrence you'd swear she was her sister or daughter. And the bloke who does 'Rhythm of Life' is a dead ringer for Sammy Davis Jr, who does it in the film version.

in conclusion : you want a fun night out? Go see.


In other news, was poking a few reviews and pondering : Given the sometimes massive disconnect between 'official' reviewers and the public's opinion, whose opinion do you trust because they're most likely to dovetail with your likes/dislikes?

myself, if it's film, Empire every time. Theatre - normally the West End Whingers.

Comments

[xenaclone.livejournal.com]

Was in an am/dram version of this once. So Much Fun :-)

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Pete Bradshaw in the Guardian when it comes to film.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

I saw it at the Menier and it was fantastic. Bit thrown by you describing it as adorable and sunny though given the whole point is that its meant to be a dark fairytale - a quite misanthropic version of Cinderella with an incredibly downbeat ending of her getting chucked by Mr Perfect because she's a prostitute (I know they fudge that but she is).

Don't see the Josie Lawrence similiarity with Josefina Gabrielle who is a 1000 times better looking but she is absolutely amazing - loved her as the Italian diva. And Tamzin Outhwaite is fab.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

? thought they made pretty distinct the fact that though some taxi dancers/dance hall hostesses are prostitutes, not all of them are.

It's one of those that though the theme matter's dark, she's so bouncy that it doesn't come off as such.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

In the Menier version I saw she specifically tells the new bloke shes not a prostitute even though she clearly is. Thought it was generally accepted that the character is a hooker.