“Sweet Charity” will be performed in the Vivia Locke Theatre from Friday through Sunday. The play is about Charity Valentine, a hopeless romantic willing to believe anything a man does or doesn’t say.
The OSU Theatre Department is ending its play season on a high note.
Quite a few of them, not to mention a multitude of dance numbers.
Bob Fosse’s musical comedy “Sweet Charity,” based on a book by Neil Simon, is running in the Vivia Locke Theatre in the Seretean Center through this weekend.
Veteran director and directing program head B. Peter Westerhoff, who has more than 60 plays at OSU under his belt, directing “Sweet Charity.”
“This one is primarily like a Bob Fosse dance concert with a Neil Simon comedy plopped down right into the middle of it,” he said.
The OSU orchestra accompanies “Sweet Charity” from the pit in front of the stage.
The play will not run tonight because of a Music Department event in which many of the cast members are participating, said public relations representative Willie McLafferty.
However, shows will continue Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and for a matinee finale Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Admission is $10 for OSU students and senior citizens and $12 for general admission. The box office will be open through Friday from 12 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. People can purchase tickets at the box office or at the door. For ticket information, please call (405)744-9208.
Theatre senior Katharyn Myers plays Charity Hope Valentine, a naïve outspoken hopeless romantic who, in search of the perfect relationship, is willing to believe anything any man says – or doesn’t say.
“Charity is a free spirit that is always looking for love,” says Westerhoff. “She’s in love with love. So, we see her kind of go through three different relationships throughout the musical.”
The play opens on Charity head-over-heels for vain Charlie, but coming up all wet, so to speak, in her quest for affection.
As a dance hall hostesses for the Fandango Ballroom, Charity and her two best friends, Nickie (Sarah Morey) and Helene (Juliana Potter) know there’s something better out there – they just don’t know how to get it.
“This is not a nice place, and I don’t want to spend another day of my life in not a nice place!” Charity vents to her friends.
The audience follows Charity through mishaps and adventures as she finds herself accidentally involved with foreign film star Vittorio Vidal (Brandon Wayne Moorhead), stuck in an elevator with claustrophobic Oscar, at a hippie “Rhythm of Life” church service with Big Daddy Brubeck (Gabe Whitehurst), and in several other compromising and sublimely entertaining situations.
Without giving a plot-spoiler, the ending is a bit of a head-scratcher, and bordering on disappointing as far as audience expectations for the leading lady. However, she manages to come out triumphant.
“Sweet Charity” will keep audience members laughing, sitting on the edge of their seats or trying their best not to dance in them at any given moment. At the very least, it warrants several hearty chuckles and some unavoidable toe-tapping.
The costumes are colorful, eye-catching and sometimes provocative, the wigs comical and the music and dance numbers are outstanding. The floating scenery makes transitions effortless and smooth, and the silhouette background is mesmerizing.
Also, theatre-goers won’t be able to keep from loving the unrefined-yet-spunky Charity.
Theatre senior and play veteran Ben Kirberger is genius as the neurotic, nervous nerd and love-interest Oscar Lindquist.
Theatre graduate teaching assistant Nathan Gwartney is Fandango owner Herman, with a hilarious hairstyle – think comb-over guy from the Pepsi Max commercial – and an unexpected solo toward the end of the play.
Also, be on the lookout for a large, suspiciously manly lady as a scene-stealing bystander in several scenes.
The cast of more than 20 plays almost 100 characters throughout the play, warranting 142 costumes and 46 wig changes, Westerhoff said.
Westerhoff said part of the variance in styles can be attributed to the time period in which the play is set.
“It takes place in 1968, the time of the mini skirt and the hippies, big hair and the Beatniks,” he said. “I guess you kind of have a contradiction between the big hair of the dance hall hostesses and the flat hair of the hippies.”
Also, because of the many setting and location changes and the space needed for larger dance numbers, the crew implemented a “floating” scenery set for “Sweet Charity,” which Westerhoff said was similar to what was used in his OSU “West Side Story” production.
“There’s a lot of dance in it, there’s a clear stage and the scenery flies in and out,” he said.
Locations throughout the play include the Fandango Ballroom and its dressing room, Times Square, the 92nd Street Y, the house of a famous foreign actor, Coney Island and Barney’s Chile Hacienda.
Getting the many dance sequences down has been an almost semester-long experience, McLafferty said, with rehearsals beginning in January.
“Sweet Charity” has many songs that audience members will probably recognize, Westerhoff said. These include “If They Could See Me Now” and “Big Spender,” as well as other varied-sounding tunes that may not be quite as recognizable but still undeniably catchy.
“(The play) should send them out of the theater humming the tunes, at least,” Westerhoff said.
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