Sweet Charity transfers to the West End
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
MATTHEW White’s production of Sweet Charity, which ends its sell-out run at the Menier Chocolate Factory on March 7, will transfer to the Theatre Royal Haymarket where it opens on May 4, 2010 (previews from April 23).
Tamzin Outhwaite will reprise her role as Charity Hope Valentine. Further casting will be announced shortly.
Sweet Charity follows the romantic misadventures of the gullible and guileless Charity Hope Valentine, a woman who always gives her heart and her dreams to the wrong man. With a score by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, it features hits such as Hey, Big Spender, If My Friends Could See Me Now and The Rhythm of Life.
Although Tamzin Outhwaite is probably best known for her television roles – in EastEnders, Red Cap, Hustle, Frances Tuesday, Hotel Babylon and The Fixer – she has appeared on stage in Breathing Corpses, Flesh Wound and the West End revival of Boeing-Boeing (Comedy Theatre).
Originally directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, Sweet Charity premiered on Broadway in 1966, where it ran for over 600 performances. The production was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, winning Best Choreography in 1966.
It transferred to the West End a year later with Juliet Prowse in the title role and in 1969, a film version starred Shirley MacLaine and John McMartin. Since then, there have been two Broadway revivals: the first in 1986 when it won four Tony Awards; the second in 2005 when it starred Christina Applegate.
Sweet Charity has a book by Neil Simon whose career has spanned more than five decades, during which time he has written over 30 plays and 20 screenplays. His first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn, opened in 1961 and shortly after, his second production, Little Me, earned him his first Tony Award nomination.
In 1966, he had four shows running on Broadway at the same time – Sweet Charity, The Star-Spangled Girl, The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park.
He has won three Tony Awards – Best Author for The Odd Couple and Best Play for Biloxi Blues and Lost in Yonkers and been nominated for seventeen. He has also won an Evening Standard Award for Barefoot in the Park, a Golden Globe for Best Motion Screenplay for The Goodbye Girl and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Lost In Yonkers.
Cy Coleman (1929 – 2004) is the only composer to win consecutive Tony Awards for Best Score for musicals which also took the Best Musical Award: City of Angels (1990) and The Will Rogers Follies (1991). He won a third Tony for Best Original Score for On the Twentieth Century. His other awards include two Emmys and two Grammys. He was the last major contributor to the Great American Songbook.
Dorothy Fields (1905 – 1974) work includes I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby, Exactly Like You and On the Sunny Side of the Street (with Jimmy McHugh); the film Swing Time with its Academy Award-winning song The Way You Look Tonight (with Jerome Kern); and books for three Cole Porter shows and Annie Get Your Gun (with Herbert Fields). And as well as Sweet Charity, she collaborated with Cy Coleman on Seesaw.
Sweet Charity, which is based on the original screenplay for Nights of Cabiria by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Plaiano, has choreography by Stephen Mear, set design by Tim Shortall, costume design by Matthew Wright, musical supervision and direction by Nigel Lilley, orchestrations by Chris Walker, lighting by David Howe and sound design by Gareth Owen.
It is produced in the West End by Chocolate Factory Productions, David Ian Productions, the Theatre Royal Haymarket Productions and David Mirvish.
Sweet Charity is initially booking until January 8, 2011.
Waiting for Godot continues at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until April 3, 2010.