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Synopsis Charity Hope Valentine - with her heart not only on her sleeve but tattooed on her arm - is a New York dance hostess at the Fandango Ballroom. She's a disaster zone when it comes to relationships - first she gets involved with an Italian movie star, quickly followed by the charming Oscar Lindquist who asks Charity to be his wife. But things are not quite as straight forward as they many seem.... Includes "Hey Big Spender", "If My Friends Could See Me Now" and "Rhythm of Life".
The Menier Chocolate Factory is serving up a sugary treat for Christmas, with a revival of 1966 Broadway classic Sweet Charity, which opened at the Southwark venue last week (2 December 2009, previews from 21 November).
Sweet Charity - which has music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and a book by Neil Simon, with original direction and choreography by Bob Fosse - takes a look at the seedy underbelly of 1960s New York. The gullible, enchanting heroine Charity Hope Valentine dances, laughs and cries her way through a series of whirlwind romances to show-stopping numbers including “Rhythm of Life”, “If My Friends Could See Me Now” and “Hey Big Spender”.
Charity was originally played by Gwen Verdon on Broadway, Juliet Prowse in the West End (in 1967) and was immortalised in the 1969 film version by Shirley MacLaine. The musical was last revived in the West End in a 1998 production at the Victoria Palace starring Bonnie Langford.
The phrase “Christmas cracker” was used more than once as critics sang the praises of the latest Broadway revival from the “Menier musicals machine”. There was not complete consensus, with Charles Spencer of the Daily Telegraph suggesting it will struggle to match previous Christmas successes such as La Cage Aux Folles and A Little Night Music. But others raved, particularly Whatsonstage.com's Michael Coveney, who found Outhwaite a “revelation” amid a “truly dynamic ensemble”. Special mentions also went to the “sizzling” choreography of Stephen Mear and the “freshness” of Nigel Lilley's musical supervision.
Michael Coveney in Whatsonstage.com (five stars) – “The Menier’s revival of the 1966 Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields’ New York musical is a Christmas cracker … Matthew White’s production, brilliantly choreographed by Stephen Mear as a series of Sixties pop art tableaux vivants … pins down the smart, sassy sentimentality of the musical with a vengeance.Outhwaite’s a revelation. A proven dramatic actress on stage and screen, she has a blistering musical comedy presence, and athleticism, that makes you forget you’re sorry you’re not watching Shirley MacLaine in the movie after about ten seconds. And she’s backed by a cast of hand-picked high-energy soloists who meld into a truly dynamic ensemble … With its surprise, bitter sweet ending … great libretto and string of knock-out songs.”
Michael Billington in The Guardian (four stars) – “The real motor for this production is the choreography of Stephen Mear, which frees itself from the Bob Fosse stage and screen prototypes … Tamzin Outhwaite makes the role of Charity her own. Instead of seeking to imitate the kookiness of Shirley MacLaine in the film, she radiates a sunny, cheerful innocence, and … Outhwaite dances with a whirling energy that becomes the outward expression of the character's essential purity. She is well supported by Mark Umbers as both the preening movie idol and the panic-stricken Oscar, and Matthew White's strongly cast production boasts two striking cameos from Tiffany Graves and Josefina Gabrielle, wistfully dreaming of the glamour of the secretarial life. Under Nigel Lilley's musical supervision, a half-forgotten 1960s show is dusted down and given a captivating vitality and freshness.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (four stars) – “We’ve a Sweet Charity well worth transferring to the West End. For me, that was evident the moment that Matthew White’s production switched to the Fan-Dango Ballroom and Charity’s fellow taxi-dancers launched into ‘Hey, Big Spender’. Things turned sleazy and balletically slinky as they crowded round an unsmiling punter in a hat, pouting, scowling and turning invitations to ‘laugh, laugh, laugh’ and have ‘fun, fun, fun’ into a sung-through cross between a snarl and an exhausted sneer. The point about Charity is that, though she has known plenty of men, she lacks her chums’ cynicism. For Outhwaite this presents quite a challenge. She must be used yet fresh, knowing yet ditsily innocent. All this Outhwaite embraces with maybe too many big, bright smiles but loads of energy and charm … The show’s one failing is a rather sudden ending that would seem unsatisfactory whether it was happy or not.”
Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph (three stars) - “Fine show though it is, however, I can't see this revival of Sweet Charity matching the Menier's previous successes … Unfortunately Tamzin Outhwaite … lacks the class of her illustrious predecessors. She almost entirely fails to penetrate to the heart of the central character, Charity, a dance-hall hostess. Outhwaite lacks both the vulnerability and the charm the character requires ... She isn't a total disaster – her acting during a chaste night with a hilariously self-regarding Italian film star, is genuinely funny … There are good things elsewhere. The Fan-Dango Ballroom where the hostesses promise fun, laughs and a good time to the sleazeball punters in the drained voices of the living dead during the show's most famous song, ‘Big Spender’, is superbly evoked.”
Paul Taylor in The Independent (four stars) – “Sweet Charity – the punchy-tune-packed Broadway musical … is so blithe in its mid-Sixties happy, hip worldliness that watching it is a bit like being backed into a corner at a party by a beautiful, mini-skirted girl who insists on face-painting you in bright poster colours ... Tamzin Outhwaite makes up in blonde, bobbed personableness what she lacks in vocal variety … Mark Umbers is one of those lucky men who manage to convert extreme good looks into an ongoing funny event. He's a delight as the uptight tax accountant who gets to crunch the odd number with Charity … It's like an affectionate spoof of an affectionate spoof … The Menier ought to watch out that the spirit of Forbidden Broadway doesn't become their default disposition.”
Fiona Mountford in the Evening Standard (four stars) – “The magic Menier musicals machine is at it again … Outhwaite dances well and sings with gusto in Matthew White’s slick production, revelling particularly in ‘If My Friends Could See Me Now’… There’s nothing lacking in Stephen Mear’s sizzling choreography, which makes the most of every precious inch of space on the small stage. The best … comes … with ‘Big Spender’ … The way they writhe languidly on their bar stools, managing to exude come-hither allure from behind expressions that are deader than deadpan, is a joy to behold. Josefina Gabrielle and Tiffany Graves also supply Charity with ample, sometimes bracing, doses of dressing-room camaraderie.”
Ian Shuttleworth in the Financial Times (four stars) – “Another Christmas cracker from the Chocolate Factory. The show itself isn’t in the same league as some earlier musical successes here, but Matthew White’s production is superb … Tamzin Outhwaite, as Charity, is a revelation. She can sing, she can dance and she makes Charity perky, lovable and vulnerable … She is ideally matched by the dashing Mark Umbers, who plays one caddish leading man after another and is perfectly pitched as the geeky Oscar … But this is really an ensemble show and the ensemble delivers tremendously … A few quibbles: the story itself remains pretty thin and the production, compensating perhaps, is a notch too loud and strenuous. But this is a toothsome, bitter-sweet confection for Christmas.”
Last season’s Christmas cracker at the Menier Chocolate Factory has become this year’s summer’s showdown at the Haymarket, as the girls in the Fan-Dango Ballroom defend themselves to music and Charity Hope Valentine tries to get up and go and find something better than this.
I feared that Matthew White’s hard-boiled and raucous revival might not survive the switch. After all, the Menier musicals always operate on a surprise basis of overcoming the odds stacked against them.
I should have known better. Just as La Cage aux Folles preserved its sleazy backstage authenticity at the Playhouse, and A Little Night Music shimmered just the same at the Garrick, so Sweet Charity socks it to us big time at the Haymarket, with the band upstage behind a slightly larger backdrop on Coney Island and Tamzin Outhwaite moving up a gear with no trouble.
Hers was always a beautifully resourceful, touching and funny performance, but she’s added not only steel and volume but also a sense of walking straight into things without realising the consequences. She’s open-hearted and goofy at the same time.
And while Outhwaite may not be a virtuoso dancer in the role like Gwen Verdon or Juliet Prowse – this shows up in the difficult “If My Friends Could See Me Now” in the film star’s bedroom, which sags a bit – she compensates with a spirit the size of the Jersey tunnel.
It’s a bonus that Mark Umbers plays all the men (not) in her life; not just the preening film star Vittorio Vidal and the nervy tax accountant Oscar Lindquist, but also the jerk who pushes her in the lake in the first scene and the handsome GI who offers her a light in the last.
Umbers is the real deal, our best new leading musicals man for a long time, John Barrowman with chest hair, and his triumph at the Haymarket is the match of Outhwaite’s.
Renewed bravoes, too, for Josefina Gabrielle (doubling the most cynical slapper with Vidal’s screeching diva girlfriend) and Tiffany Graves, whose elevation and extension – I think these are technical terms – are a thing of wonder; she’s got a great ass, too.
Stephen Mear’s choreography is a jitterbug-based series of robotic limb movements, faintly indebted to Bob Fosse, but wittily “period” in its own right, especially in the nightclub scene (where Ebony Molina is a silver sensation) and the Rhythm of Life Church, where the congregation is a stoned hippie-Hair-style snake dance.
- Michael Coveney
NOTE: The following FIVE STAR review dates from December 2009, and this production's premiere at the Menier Chocolate Factory
The minute you walk in the joint, you can see the Menier’s revival of the 1966 Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields New York musical is a Christmas cracker.
The trumpets blare out the opening notes of a brassy summons to the Manhattan skyline on a platform above the stage. Tamzin Outhwaite’s unhappy hooker with a heart of gold falls in the Central Park lake.
She’s fished out and heads for work in the dance-hall, where the girls line up with the Bob Fosse-style spread-eagled, over-made-up ferocity of a bunch of drag queens. Fun, laughs, good times: that’s what’s on offer, and you’d better believe it.
It’s ten years since Bonnie Langford gamely strutted her stuff through a woefully cheapskate, provincial West End revival, so the time might be right for this one. And Matthew White’s production, brilliantly choreographed by Stephen Mear as a series of Sixties pop art tableaux vivants - “The Rhythm of Life” is a stoned, snake-like hilarious hippie send up of Hair - pins down the smart, sassy sentimentality of the musical with a vengeance.
Outhwaite’s a revelation. A proven dramatic actress on stage and screen, she has a blistering musical comedy presence, and athleticism, that makes you forget you’re sorry you’re not watching Shirley MacLaine in the movie after about ten seconds. And she’s backed by a cast of hand-picked high-energy soloists who meld into a truly dynamic ensemble.
Best of all there’s Mark Umbers (once the definitive Freddie Eynsford-Hill) as the nervy tax accountant Oscar - love strikes in the first and only Broadway Act One closer set in a jammed elevator, played here like a snappy Mike Nichols and Elaine May sketch - and Josefina Gabrielle as the most cynically world weary prostitute.
These two, in a stroke of genius, are doubled with the vain movie star and his irate leading lady in the black and white bust-up, Outhwaite smuggled into the star’s transparent wardrobe to witness their carnal reconciliation. But the whole cast kicks, from Tiffany Graves’ sexily astrin-gent Helene and Annalisa Rossi’s smoky-voiced Carmen right through to Paul J Medford’s Afro-bobbing Daddy and Jack Edwards’ nightclub owner.
Tim Shortall’s witty sets leave a clear stage when needed and Nigel Lilley’s musical direction makes hay with Chris Walker’s new orchestrations. With its surprise, bitter sweet ending (incorporating the truth of the Fellini film source), great libretto and string of knock-out songs - “I’m a Brass Band” is an ensemble item of genius to convey Charity’s lit up emotional state - you can turn up, sit back and enjoy the top treat in town this holiday season.
Just seen matinee preview following transfer to the Haymarket. Totally in awe of Tamzin Outhwaite's energy as she is practically on stage the whole time. Thoroughly enjoyed the show. Very witty especially the first act. Anyone remember Kelvin from Eastenders? Take a closer look at Daddy! A great supporting cast / ensemble. Gets the thumbs up from me. - TERRY
24 Apr 10
I have always loved this musical but never been able to see a profesional stage production. well it was worth the wait this is by far the best musical currently in london and the best the chocolate factory has put out so far. The entire cast the set the direction the choreograpy everything was absolutely amazing i will definately be booking tickets for the transfer i reccomend this production to everyone I dont have a bad word to say about it. - Joshua Bird
26 Feb 10
Wow. Just home from seeing the show and still got a big smile on my face. This was another Menier hit - how do they keep doing it?? The cast were without exception superb, led by the wonderful Tamzin Outhwaite. What ever she's on I want some; her performance was intoxicating. I think I'm in love ;-) The perfect feel good show. A West End transfer must be on the cards. I NEED to she this show again!! - Paul Wallis
22 Jan 10
Well, the Menier have done it again. This is a brilliant revival of a show packed with great numbers - Big spender, If my friend's could see me now, Rhythm of life - with a real big band sound in this tiny theatre. The dance hall girls are as brassy as the band, as they should be, with Tiffany Graves and Josefina Gabrielle providing terrific support to the sensational Tasmin Outhwaite. Mark Umbers is great as all three men. Paul J Medford led a wonderfully choreographed Rhythm of life which brought the house down; in fact, all of the choreography was superb. My only regret is that the run is sold out so i can't go again! - Gareth James
09 Jan 10
It was my first theatre visit of 2010. Now, after Sweet Charity, the only way is down. This show is absolute perfection. - Job
03 Jan 10
Some of the songs from Sweet Charity are better known than the show itself - Big Spender, If They Could See Me Now and Rhythm of Life, which sounds like it should be from Hair. A brilliantly choreographed ensemble do well to breathe life into a piece which could appear terminally dated, never better than on a cynical and dead-eyed Big Spender, a song I usually detest. There is particularly good support from Josefina Gabrielle and Mark Umbers, who has previously impressed in varying roles from My Fair Lady to The Glass Menagerie. In the title role, Tamzin Outhwaite, unrecognisable from TV appearances, dances very well but her voice lacks light and shade. She captures Charity's naive sweetness but not her harder inner core and does not fully engage the audience's sympathy which neutralises the surprising ending. Sweet Charity represents another excellent Christmas revival for the Chocolate Factory but there are signs of complacency creeping in: the show is clearly designed for a larger proscenium theatre on the presumption of a West End transfer (it's already loud enough) and, although the 'Meal Deal' represents excellent value the food is now depressingly poor. - David Baxter
28 Dec 09
To be honest, the book is pretty week. When you reflect at the interval you realise that nothing much has really happened. So how on earth have the Menier managed to create such a fantastic and memorable night at the theatre ? The intimacy is unquestionably a key factor (its the first time I've been to this theatre, and I love the closeness to the action and of the audidence itself - it just adds to the atmosphere and performance), the sheer talent and energy of the cast is the other. Tamzin Outhwaite is a suprise as Charity. Her dancing and singing are a joy, and her comic timing sublime, and she proves herself more than capable of leading the cast. Charity is a very hard role to play - she's 'used-goods' in many ways but isn't cynical and must have a degree of innocence and vulnerability; this in addition to having excellent vocals and immecable comic timing and dancing, make it a challenge beyond many West End 'stars'. I think Outhwaite's just misses to convey the vulnerability of Charity (her continuous grim sometimes seems a little forced) however this is a minor quibble from an otherwise excellent performance. Josefina Gabriella is simply outstanding and arguably the pick of the performers; Mark Umnbers, who as the three lovers remind of us of the continuous circle of Charity's love life is also terrific with a sweet voice. However its wrong to single anyone out of such a strong ensemble. The direction and choreography in maximising the limited stage space is nothing short of a marvel. Sweet Charity will need to adapt if it's to survive a transfer, but at the Chocolate Factory you can go, sit back, and just love every minute of a show that will see you leaving the theatre with a grim from ear-to-ear having had a marvelous time. - Richard
15 Dec 09
Musical theatre simply doesn't get much better than this! Every single aspect of this production -direction, choreography, casting, design, lighting, orchestrations- is spot on; then on top of that there is the raw material itself: SC is undoubtedly one of the Broadway greats, with Cy Coleman's bouncy, brassy, enthralling score, Dorothy Field's tart yet heartfelt lyrics, and Neil Simon's pacy, witty script...and Matthew White has done it proud. Once again, Stephen Mear proves why he has now become a choreographer of international renown...his work here is absolutely thrilling. As for Tamsin Outhwaite, returning to musical theatre after some years, here is a genuine starry musical comedy turn that is by turns fun, heart-warming, deeply touching and sung & danced magnificently. It's a stunning performance, and one that could comfortably stand comparison with the best of Broadway. That the entire cast match her is an indication of just what a special night in the theatre this is: Mark Umbers is brilliant as Charity's hugely contrasting love interests, and Josefina Gabrielle and Tiffany Graves are sensational as C's dancehall sidekicks, Gabrielle also hilariously doubling as an overwrought Italian starlet. This whole show is a knockout, and if you can't get tickets for it here then be first in line to book it when it inevitably transfers. WOW! - ajh
08 Dec 09
Your reviewer is spot on! Cannot believe some of the newspaper theatre critics have only given this 3 stars! It was an absolute treat from start to finish! The whole cast are superb! Choreograghy perfect! Great simple sets, beautifully costumed and the orchestra magnificent! The whole cast and production team deserve huge praise for this revival! I cannot recommend it highly enough! - Steve Cornthwaite
08 Dec 09
I wholeheartedly agree with the main review....except for one point in the final sentence! The "sit back" bit!!
The Menier Chocolate Factory is a fringe theatre ('Off-Broadway' for our trans-Atlantic cousins) and the seating is dire! (Think 'sardine'). Narrow bench-seats with low backs at 90 degrees to the benches. You will get to know your neighbours very well as you are squashed in so tightly.
The MCF would be well advised to increase the ticket price and lose a few seats.
To enjoy the show in comfort wait for the inevitable (and much deserved) West End transfer.
Having said all of that...the show was definitely worth the pain!
- Peter Searle
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