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Wednesday, March 21, 2007
‘Sweet Charity’ @ the Fox Theatre
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B
Casting former teen queen Molly Ringwald as the titular dance hall girl with the heart of gold in “Sweet Charity” isn’t as odd as it may sound.
In the Cy Coleman classic that opened Tuesday night at the Fox Theatre, Ringwald packages her incandescent personality and superb technical vocabulary to dazzling effect as the sweetly naive, haplessly romantic Charity Hope Valentine.
A brash, bouncy and inventive physical comedian, Ringwald will by evening’s end allow her character to crack wide open, exposing a vulnerable side that is sad and moving.
Stuck in a career that involves giving vicarious thrills to the patrons of the steamy Fandango Ballroom, where the theme song is “Big Spender,” Charity has gotten to know what she calls “the fickle finger of fate.”
She makes bad investments in men, becomes infatuated with a flamboyant Italian film star who catches her on the split-second rebound, then returns again and again to report her rosy version of reality to her cynical cohorts. In trying so hard to catch Mr. Right, Charity is perhaps making sure that she doesn’t. But when she gets stuck in an elevator with a twitchy claustrophobic named Oscar Lindquist (the excellent Guy Adkins), things start to look up.
Sort of.
Though “Sweet Charity” is just a little too long and convoluted for its own good, it doesn’t hurt one bit that it can claim a first-rate ensemble of hams and hoofers; the full-out, adrenalin-soaked choreography of Wayne Cilento (“Wicked,” “Aida”) and scandalous costumes by William Ivey Long (“Hairspray,” “The Producers”).
While Scott Faris technically assumes the mantle of director, you detect the louche, sexy imprint of Walter Bobbie, who directed this 2005 Broadway revival and is responsible for the New York run of “Chicago,” which is now going on 11.
Judging by the wiggy dance number “Rich Man’s Frug,” Edie Sedgewick and Andy Warhol would be right at home inside the psychedelic Club Pompeii, were fashionistas slither like lizards and Charity encounters the Latin lothario Vittorio Vidal (nicely played by Aaron Ramey). In the next scene, designer Scott Pask gets in a few laughs with his design of Vittorio’s molto mod bachelor pad, featuring an endless red couch reminiscent of an errogenous zone. This is the set-up for Charity’s “If My Friends Could See Me Now.”
As the daft heroine’s saucy sidekicks, Amanda Watkins (who played Eliza Doolittle at the Alliance Theatre in 2004) makes for a wonderfully sparky, brutally honest Nickie, and Francesca Harper’s Helene is a tall glass of attitude in a skimpy negligee. While Ramey delights in the pencil-thin stereotypes of his character, Jessica Leigh Brown, as Vittorio’s paramour Ursula, brings to mind the hauture of Maria Callas and Sophia Loren. What a pair.
Ringwald, who appears to have moved from the “16 Candles” to the “16 cakes” phase of her career, has a good time with the sandwich-chomping, beer-guzzling scene in Vittorio’s closet. In a form-fitting red Valentine of a dress, Ringwald often looks like a sweaty, kewpie-doll cross between Melanie Griffith and Shirley Temple. But she’s a terrific sport about it — and a seriously good singer and actress.
Likewise, we can’t say enough good things about Adkins, who turns the elevator scene into a spastic meltdown in which Oscar forgets his name and literally climbs the walls. It’s here that book writer Neil Simon’s comedic flourish gets its proper workout.
Charity: “What do you for a living, Oscar?”
Oscar: “I try to breathe.”
That reminds us. As you convulse with laughter over this delightful romp, don’t forget to take care of those lungs. Breathe deeply, and behold the unsinkable Molly Ringwald.
THE 411: 8 p.m. tonight-Saturday. 2 p.m. Saturday. 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday.Through Sunday. $19-$56. Broadway Across America - Atlanta, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-817-8700; ticketmaster.com
THE VERDICT: Spend a little time with Molly.
