"Do you wanna have fun?”
That’s the question you can hear echoing from the Fan-Dango Ballroom, the centre of action in the University of Melbourne Music Theatre Association’s new production of Sweet Charity.
To be staged at the University’s Union Theatre from October 15th – 19th, Sweet Charity is a super sixties sensation featuring a large cast, glittering chorus numbers, memorable music score, and a script brimming with wit, intelligence, and pathos.
Featuring such dynamic numbers as “Hey, Big Spender,” “If My Friends Could See Me Now” and “Rhythm of Life,” Sweet Charity is a stupendous musical spectacle!
The charming, naïve, unlucky-in-love taxi dancer Charity Hope Valentine is focus of the show. One of many girls employed at the euphemistically named Fan-Dango Ballroom, a dance hall in 1960s New York City, sweet Charity encounters love in all the wrong places, yet never yields her eternal optimism and hope for a better life.
Her adventures in a bustling metropolis bring her into contact with a fascinatingly diverse range of characters – the blithe passers-by of Central Park; the wonderfully tacky inhabitants of the Fan-Dango Ballroom; the chic and sparkling diners of the glamorous Pompeii Club; the carefree spirituality of the Rhythm of Life Church members; and the hustle and don’t-give-a-care bustle of Times Square crowds all come to play in Charity’s world.
It is this diverse range of people, settings and styles that gives Sweet Charity its distinctive flavour. Developed by Broadway master director and choreographer Bob Fosse, the show utilises each number of the wonderful Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields score to showcase a unique element of New York life in the dynamic, vibrant, and epochal 1960s. Exploding with the particular dynamism of the era, the joyous and exuberant songs provide an avenue to explore swinging life in the Big Apple.
From the open bawdiness of “Hey, Big Spender” to the quite intensity of “Too Many Tomorrows” and the razzle dazzle of “I’m a Brass Band,” Sweet Charity bristles with energy and vitality.
The many delights of UMMTA’s Sweet Charity shall be on display for all to see from Wednesday 15th – Saturday 18th October at 7.30pm, and Sunday 19th October at 5pm. Bookings are strongly advised – don’t miss this opportunity to see a classic Broadway musical given new zest and vigour for a modern audience. Guaranteed fun. And laughs. And good times.
UMMTA presents Sweet Charity
Book by Neil Simon, Music by Cy Coleman, Lyrics by Dorothy Fields.
Union Theatre, University of Melbourne from Wednesday 15th – Saturday 18th October at 7.30pm, and Sunday 19th October at 5pm.
Ticket prices: $18 – Full, $15 – Concession, $12 – Members, groups (10+) and all tickets for preview show [Wed 15th Oct].
