"Sweet Charity" at Artistry

Artistry is beginning their 2025 season in a similar fashion as their fantastic 2024 season: a classic musical staged almost like a concert with a full orchestra on stage, and fabulous dancing in front of it. The 1966 Broadway musical Sweet Charity, adapted into a movie in 1969 starring Shirley MacLaine, is an excellent choice for this type of treatment; it almost feels like a series of vignettes about a NYC dance hall hostess in the '60s, rather than one continuous story with beginning, middle, and end. The strengths of this Bob Fosse show truly are the music and dancing, with a story about a "dance hall girl" looking for love in all the wrong places and continually being rejected that feels a little dated. So why not put the focus on the music, dancing, and performances of this terrific cast? The result is an absolutely smashing production that soars with one big music-and-dance number after another. Sweet Charity continues at the Bloomington Center for the Arts through February 16.

I'd actually only seen this show once before, when Artistry (then called Bloomington Civic Theatre) did it in 2011. If you're as unfamiliar with the show as I am, here's a brief plot summary. The titular character is a dance hall girl (i.e., she gets paid to talk, flirt, and dance with men, and maybe more) in NYC in the late 1960s. She believes in love, even though she doesn't have much reason to. In the beginning of the show her boyfriend steals her purse and pushes her into the lake. But Charity gets right up again, and makes friends with an international movie star who's in love with someone else. Determined to improve her life, she meets the sweet awkward Oscar when she decides to take a class at the local community center. It seems as if she's found what she's been dreaming of - someone to love her. But it turns out he's not worthy of our sweet Charity, so she keeps looking.

Shinah Hey and Armando Ronconi, Aliya Grace
and the ensemble (photos by Dan Norman)

The staging of this show is so smart, and the look of it is so sharp. Anita Ruth's 19-piece orchestra takes center stage, as it should! It's so thrilling to not only hear the full rich sound of an orchestra this size (a rarity these days) but to be able to watch them playing. Director Laura Leffler stages the show around the orchestra, with most scenes taking place in front of them, but some also on an elevated platform above them, and sometimes characters walk through the orchestra and acknowledge their presence. Each vignette or anecdote in Charity's life is presented like a little story unto itself, strung together with fabulous music and dancing. 

Whether or not you know the show, you will know at least a couple of songs in this score, namely "Big Spender" and "If My Friends Could See Me Now." It's a great collection of songs, some jazzy, some brassy, some hippie, some rhythmic, some melodic. Abby Magalee's Fosse-inspired choreography is fan-freakin-tastic, gorgeously performed by the talented ensemble. A highlight is a music-only number called "Rich Man's Frug," performed by the ensemble and showcasing the moves of Aliya Grace whipping her long ponytail around (I love some good hairography!). The whole number feels like something out of Laugh-In, especially at the end when scenes of Charity and her movie star friend are interspersed with short bursts of movement. It's just all so mod and fab.

Shinah Hey as Charity (with Adan Varela and
Brendan Nelson Finn, photos by Dan Norman)

Leading the talented cast is Shinah Hey, perfectly cast as Charity. I'd say she's a natural in the role, but that belies what I'm sure is an incredible amount of effort and practice to look this effortless. She makes Charity so endearing (despite her questionable choices and priorities), funny and awkward one moment, earnest and graceful the next. Her vocals and dance skills are off-the-charts, but even more important is the heart, humor, and vulnerability she brings to the role. Just to name a few highlights in this ensemble, Jaclyn McDonald and Hope Nordquist are great as Charity's jaded dance hall friends, Adan Varela sings beautifully as the international movie star, and Brendan Nelson Finn (Twin Cities Theater Bloggers' favorite comedic performance by an individual in 2023 for Artistry's Spelling Bee) as Oscar wins the audience's hearts as well as Charity's, until he does her wrong.

The design of the show is simple and elegant. Going with the staged concert theme, the costumes are not authentic period costumes, but rather basic black with a few accessories added. The ensemble is impossibly chic in black mini-dresses of varying styles and boots for the women, black suits for the men, with Charity a standout in a bold red mini-dress with nude-colored boots (and a great classic trench). A few simple set pieces are rolled on and off stage when needed, but it's very bare bones to let the dancing shine. Completing the look are the pop art style captions in a small bubble on stage to tell us the setting or scene (costume coordinator Britt Hilton, props design and scenic concept by Katee Phillips, projection design by Adan Varela).

This is a brilliant way to stage a classic musical that may be a little outdated - rather than try to realistically portray the story, put the focus on the fantastic score, the fabulous dancing, and the incredible performances of the cast. Click here for info and tickets.