by Peggy Lips-Kaz
I do love the live theater. This cabaret style theater is a delight, as is this production. They have a full bar, free parking and a view of the bay. It is fun to get there early and picnic in the adjacent park or walk along the landscaped bay front of Coronado.
It is based on a book by Neil Simon. It has great choreography and some favorite songs, like; “Big Spender”, “Rhythm of Life”, and “If they could see me now”.This play opened on January 18 and will continue until February 17, 2008.
This is a wonderful play to take your special gal to for Valentine’s day. They have some dinner shows also. It is not a sappy, girlie, story. It is a realistic story about a young working girl living in New York City, who happens to have a very positive outlook on life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. Her name is Charity Hope Valentine, what else could it be?The original Broadway production was nominated for 12 Tony awards in 1966, and Bob Fosse won the award for best choreography. It had a 1986 revival and won more awards, and here it is, right here in San Diego for you to enjoy.The cast and crew do a great job with this play. This stage is smaller, but you wouldn’t know it, they come across very big.
Chrissy Burns directs the play and a musical group provides the spirit for the songs and dances. This is a great show and very well done. You will walk out of the theater with a lighter step.The Coronado Eagle & Journal
You Just Want To Give The Girl Some Charity...
by Jared Cohen
The Coronado Playhouse's current production through Feb. 17 is quite simply “the story of a girl who wanted to be loved,” and one which has earned 12 Tony awards.
“Sweet Charity,” is a reference to Charity Hope Valentine, a truly hopeless romantic with a sugary moniker and an even sweeter heart. She is so sweet, in fact, that people walk all over her with no regrets and most of the time she doesn't seem to know the difference.
Valentine is played to a tee by Andrea Elam, who is believably cute and so smiley that she probably has to ice her face after each show. Poor Valentine has no luck in love, as the show opens with her hanging on the arm of a well-dressed but indifferent sort (Lonnie Ramirez.) She talks wedding plans, he pushes her into a well and steals her purse. Communication seems to be an issue in this relationship, but it doesn't get Valentine down. Dark humor pops up now and then, like when she is pulled out of the well by strangers; “She looks dead. Does she look dead to you?”
Soaking wet but still optimistic, Valentine shrugs off the well. She explains her philosophy later, to the famous actor Vittorio Vidal (Brett Daniels,) as he runs into her, literally, and the two hit it off. “So many things seem to happen to me and I don't know how or why,” she says. “The fickle finger of fate,” is her best explanation and she shares her wisdom with Vidal as they lounge in his bedroom drinking champagne and eating sandwiches, apparently enjoying each other's company. Vidal gives her a top hat and cane as a souvenir, and she executes a little dance number while alone in the room, somehow managing to jump off of the bed onto the bedroom floor in three-inch heels. Wow.
Unfortunately for Valentine, Vidal loves someone else, a rampaging empress by the name of Ursala March (Carolyn Stevenson.) They are on the outs, but March returns to Vidal's place while Valentine is there and Vidal asks Valentine to hide in the closet. In keeping with her character, she sweetly agrees. Vidal may be a hopeless romantic in his own right, but he's not a monster (he takes her a beer in the closet.)
The dance hall dressing room set is perfect. About a dozen women in miniskirts, heels and go go boots stand around complaining, spinning tales, fixing hair and taking shots at each other. They tell Valentine not to worry about the last guy, Charlie, who dumped her down the well. He had “a pound and a half of Vaseline in his hair,” said Helene (Aubrey Award-winning actress Katie Belcher,) one of the sassiest of the group.
The girls all give the big man, Herman (Rob Poisner,) a hard time for being a cigar-chomping sleaze, but his tender admission in one of the final numbers brought out the belly laughs in the audience.
The thing that is so endearing about Valentine is that she just wants to be loved. Right after getting paid one Friday, she promptly gives it all away in the spirit of her namesake to a host of charities like victims of whooping cough, unwed mothers and the put-a-gypsy-in-Congress fund.
The band, made up of Yoko Date (keyboard,) Chris Lapacik (drums,) Blair Nelson (bass) and Stefanie Schmitz (clarinet and tenor sax.) With just four pieces, the band puts out a dynamic performance with a respectable range.
The show flies through the age of tie-dye, pink tea shades, tassels and dance halls with fluid transitions that are quite entertaining. In the scene right before a chirpy new girl shows up at the dance hall, she clop-clop-clops across the stage in front of the closed curtain, fussing with hair, makeup, dangly earrings, dropping her things and squeaking nervously.
When the curtains open, she has just walked into the front door of the dance hall. Characters carry props and manipulate the set, giving life to the set changes.
San Diego Theare Scene
by Robert Hitchcox
Legs! Legs! Legs! All shapes and sizes, all high stepping and well practiced, and all triple threats. They dance, they sing, and they act . . . for they are all in Coronado Playhouse’s production of the perennially popular Bob Fosse hit Sweet Charity. This non-stop dancing and singing show, which turns 41 on January 29th, is a vital middle-ager under Chrissy Burns’ excellent direction.
Choreographer Trevor Peringer’s dance designs are wild and, at times, zany. Director Burns’ final touches give the numbers just the right edge. Musical Director Brian Hammond adds much to the mix. The director’s design includes keeping the show at full-throttle during scene changes. At times the scene is being shifted while action progressed in front of the stagehands. Other times the drawn show curtain hides the change while the action plays on the fore-stage. The cast is charged. It is a pleasure to watch their enthusiasm and talent.
The songs explode across the stage from Elam’s "You Should See Yourself" and Jeri Harms and Katie Belcher’s (Nickie and Helene) and the company’s "Big Spender" to Brett Daniel’s (Vittorio Vadal) rendition of "Too Many Tomorrows" and Rob Poisner’s (Herman) outstanding "I Love To Cry At Weddings." Ruben Mier (Oscar) solos with "Good Impression."
It is Andria Elam’s ditzy, put-upon, never totally understood Charity that steals the show. She is there almost every minute wowing us. The opening scene in Central Park has Charity meeting her boyfriend, chatting, being ignored, and finally being shoved into the lake by him. He then runs off with her money. Elam has a couple of bouts with the lake, each time properly wet and hair askew. She is singing and dancing much of the time. Elam is a power-house of talent.
For pure power and pizzazz Mitchell Wayne Hills, as Daddy Johann Sebastian Brubeck with his All-Girl Rhythm Choir, and finally the whole company really rock. He is a natural who commands the stage even as it is filled with almost every cast member. Carolyn Stevenson as Ursala March is excellent.
The supporting cast of eleven all had multiple roles. Sweet Charity is a true ensemble production. They contribute to the story of Ms. Valentine. They are her friends, her benefactors. They are also nemeses from time to time.
Alas, a couple of complaints. The first is that the venue, especially with a live band, cries out for everybody to project or get lost. The lovely lead, Andria Elam, didn’t belt it out in the first act. In the second act her lovely voice was heard throughout the hall. However, my major objection was not those on stage but those off . . . the audience. Except for some of the younger members and theatre folk in the audience, I felt that, especially in the first act, many of them were comatose. All of that talent, all those beautiful ladies and handsome men giving us a really good show . . . wake up ye of sleepy eyes.
This production of Sweet Charity is just plain fun. My complaints are minor except for tonight’s audience. The story of Ms. Valentine is both sweet and sad. We sympathize with her and want to give her a boost in the backside for being stepped-on so often. But one things is for sure, we all love her. Thanks to Chrissy Burns, her talented cast, and her creative production team for bringing us an enjoyable evening at the theatre.
