Artist: Sweet Charity
Genre: Broadway
Background: The well-known actor's mantra
to "break a leg" took on new meaning when Christina
Applegate ended Sweet Charity's Boston run by literally breaking
an ankle bone during one of her routines. If there were a
Tony for guts and determination, Applegate's can-do recovery
in time for the revival's official Broadway opening, would
surely win her a statue hands down.
Applegate best known for her roles in Married . . . With
Children and Friends, is as pretty and perky a Charity as
the role's originators (Gwen Verdon on stage, and Shirley
McLaine on screen). Even with the recently broken ankle,
cleverly supported by cast-like boots that blend with her
hoisery, she's also an energetic hoofer -- not great, but
better than adequate. Though her singing voice is on the
so-so side, she knows how to deliver a song and she is an
excellent comedienne and fully evokes the vulnerability
of a girl so desperate for love that she tends to stumble
into one deadend relationship after another. Above all,
she's extremely likable.
This is a big, magic marker bright production with plenty
of talent. Janine LaManna as the sardonic Nickie and Krya
DaCosta as Helene are well cast as Charity's best friends
at the Fandango. Then there's Denis O'Hare who looks a little
like a young Tony Randall in The Odd Couple as the full
of ticks anti-heroic Oscar. O'Hare isn't much of a singer
but his comic timing is superb. He's on the mark from the
moment the romantic sparks between him and Charity are ignited
in a stalled elevator to the bracingly feminist finale.
Paul Schoeffler brings the right touch of movie star flamboyance
to the hilarious scene in which Charity's happenstance meeting
with him lands her in the room-sized closet of his luxurious
apartment while he makes love to his jealous girl friend
Ursula (Shannon Lewis).
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