SWEET CHARITY
Six strong beats and you know exactly where you are. Noo York is where you are, and the rhythms are those of Sweet Charity’s best-known song, ‘Hey, Big Spender’. The beats tease and tempt but you don’t get the actual song straight away. Playing fast and loose with emotions is what our eponymous hero, Charity, has to suffer. She is a dance hostess in a sleazy Manhattan bar. Men have let her down as much as life itself. She yearns for more and has a good, but easily broken heart. Her journey to self-discovery and happiness, or not (no spoilers) is what this 1966 musical is all about.
The show is a real challenge for amateur companies. With choreography by Bob Fosse and some deftly witty lyrics by Dorothy Fields not to mention some jerky, off-beat music by Cy Coleman, the work is no push over. Cambridge University Music Theatre Society (CUMT) with barely a few weeks to rehearse, did a sterling job. Notwithstanding some rough edges (some off-key tuning in parts of the band for instance) the young cast gave their all to bring this classic musical to a new audience.
At the heart of the success of this production were some outstanding performances. Violette Chereau caught Charity’s brittle, over-trusting and vulnerable personality with aplomb. She has a great theatrical presence in the critical trio of vital talents: acting, dance and song. She was wonderfully supported by Daphne Stavridge and Em Sparkes as her dance-hostess mates, tough, world-wise and though at the bottom of the heap looking up into a feminist future. The three had great stage power and the ADC lit up whenever they were together.
Good too were the whole female chorus/dance troupe whose sultry ‘Big Spender’ routines certainly raised the temperature in the house. Two leading men, Wilf Offord as the fey movie heartthrob Vittorio, and Jacob Coughlan as Charity’s would-be suitor Oscar were convincing as spineless men. There was a particularly strong scene in which Charity and Oscar get stuck in a lift; he goes to pieces revealing his weak nature. She though is on a journey, though not up and down.
The second half opened with ‘Rhythm of Life’ – led with great force by Kate Woodman as a very 60s dope-smoking guru. It always surprises me that the show written by well-established artists should be so experimental. The book by Broadway legend Neil Simon is peppered with his signature wit (though some gags were thrown away). Dorothy Fields who supplied the edgy but always clever lyrics had been a giant of the 1930s musical writing for the likes of Irving Berlin. Yet here she is, in older age, taking on the radical Sixties.
With timeless songs such as ‘If They Could See Me Now’, this show is a must for lovers of music theatre. It is a show with heart but also guts. The unexpected end drew an audible gasp from the young audience. What began as six strong beats ends in silence.
