10 Things You May Not Know About Sweet Charity

hey big spenders welcome to broadway by ghost light i'm mark bonnani and today i thought we'd take a look at a classic musical from the 1960s and explore some fun behind the curtain trivia you may not know or maybe you do i don't know your life you don't know anything about me we're talking today about sweet charity ah sweet charity subtitled the story of a girl who wanted to be loved sweet charity follows the misadventures of the aptly named charity hope valentine a taxi dancer who was [Music] in new york city during the course of the musical with a book by neil simon music by psy coleman and lyrics by dorothy fields charity finds herself in a lake in central park literally a seedy dance hall an uber swanky nightclub the apartment of an italian movie star trapped in an elevator at the 92nd street y a hippie church under the manhattan bridge stuck on a ride at coney island and back again to central park it's one of my favorites the original production was of course directed and choreographed by the one and only bob fosse he conceived the show as a vehicle for his equally talented wife and muse broadway megawatt star gwen verdin sweet charity opened at the palace theater on january 29 1966 a modest hit by today's standards it would place 608 performances closing on july 15 1967. a movie version in 1969 broadway revivals in 1986 and 2005 and off-broadway revival in 2016 starring sutton foster not to mention numerous regional and high school productions have kept this show alive in the hearts of musical lovers everywhere [Music] but while we all know the songs and the dances there's some great facts about this beloved show to explore so without further ado let's swing by the fandango ballroom and buy a ticket for some fun last good time with 10 things you may not know about the musical sweet charity number one it's based on a film while so many theatergoers today bemoan the fact that so many new musicals are based on movies this is hardly a new trend most of the great writers or writing teams have adapted movies for the stage including jerry herman aarons and flaherty maury yesten strousen adams kander and ebb lin-manuel miranda and even steven sondheim twice twice twice two times sweet charity is based on famed italian director frederico fellini's academy award-winning 1957 film knights of kiberia while many of the sequences from the film appear in the musical there are some big differences besides the obvious major change of resetting the story from rome to new york the biggest change is kiberia slash charity's occupation kiberia is a prostitute a hooker with a heart of gold this had to be softened for american audiences in 1966 so charity works as a taxi dancer at the fandango ballroom sidebar what the heck is a taxi dancer in the early 20th century men could go to dance halls and pay to dance a single dance with a woman of their choice hitting its stride in the 1920s taxi dance halls were hugely popular and totally above board men would buy dance tickets usually for 10 cents each thus the famous rogers and heart song 10 cents a dance big boy 10 cent sedan they would give their ticket to the taxi dancer who would usually earn about half the ticket cost the more they danced the more they made by the 1960s however taxi dancing was not nearly as common and it suggested at least in sweet charity that most of the women who were still taxi dancers at the time were willing to do a lot more than dance if the price is right other changes in the transition from kiberia to charity include omitting a scene where the heroine is hypnotized by a magician and humiliated in front of an audience and a serious scene involving the catholic church became lighthearted with charity visiting big daddy brubeck's church of the rhythm of life my personal favorite number in the show love babies it's no wonder that fosse seen the film starring fellini's wife and muse julietta messina as kiberia would attempt to do the same with verdin it would be verdan's return to the broadway stage after a six-year absence six years number two it was originally going to be a one act it was initially reported in 1964 that fosse and vernon were working on a new show consisting of two one acts to possibly be called two choruses of melancholy baby i somehow can't imagine that title up on a broadway marquee at least not for long oh snap or the other title in mind was hearts and flowers besides the fellini adaptation the other one act was going to be an original straight play written by elaine may initially titled the larger world of faith and then retitled robbers and cops verdin was to play a cat burglar who robbed apartments by wearing suction cups on her hands and feet and climbing straight up the building walls by the summer of 1965 however it was reported that the elaine mayplay had been dropped robert fryer one of the producers of the now titled sweet charity gave the explanation that the fellini piece had organically grown into a full night's entertainment and roberts and cops have been dropped to pursue that instead elaine may however said that her play too closely resembled another musical in development the short-lived drat the cat about a female socialite turned cat burglar drat the cat is another show i would love to break down so if you'd like to see me break down drat the cat let me know in the comments that would be a fun one to tackle break it down anyway may hoped to turn her one act into a movie one day but that of course never came to fruition number three book by martin charnin never mind in 1962 and fosse couldn't acquire the rights to chicago from playwright maureen dallas watkins he would after her death in 1969 obviously he was searching for another vehicle for his new wife gwen verdin it was suggested that he see knights of kiberia which fossee immediately connected with and wanted to make into a musical fosse wrote a nine-page outline of his proposed adaptation and took it to producers robert fryer and lawrence carr though friar and carr weren't convinced at first neither was gwen verdin for that matter once fosse got the idea of charity working as a taxi dancer everyone finally got on board fosse knew he needed a collaborator to help write the book and he turned to martin charnin martin charnon would of course go on to immense fame having written annie among many other shows chernin fosse turned out a 60-page first draft for their one-act musical and then according to charnon he never heard from fosse again on advice from his lawyer charnin attended opening night of sweet charity with a stenographer the stenographer wrote down every word of the show as it was being said so that charnin could compare the finished script with the original first draft however charnin eventually decided against any legal action i would love to see those comparisons you and me both number four book by neil simon please once it was decided to develop sweet charity into a full evening fosse wrote a draft of the new script by himself knowing he needed help he begged friend and author neil simon to help him and sent him the script simon made a few notes but said he wasn't able to help him out any more than that because he was currently in rome for the filming of his screenplay after the fox and writing the screenplay adaptation for his play barefoot in the park at the same time but after reading simon's notes fosse wouldn't take no for an answer he immediately flew out to rome to try to convince simon and his wife as fosse began to explain the show in detail he played a recording of one of the songs for the new show called big spender [Music] simon and his wife were immediately hooked and simon agreed to write the book then and there okay i'll do it number five book by bert lewis if you happen to look at an early piece of sheet music for sweet charity you might be surprised to find that the book's author is listed as bert lewis so who the heck is bert lewis well because neil simon came aboard so late in fact rehearsals were to begin only a few weeks after simon agreed to write the book that early sheet music had to be printed with bob fosse still listed as book writer though by pen name bert lewis a play on his full name robert louis fosse i'll be using a gnome diploma number six sweet charity opened at the palace and vice versa the palace on broadway and 47th street right in the middle of times square is a legendary theater to say the least it was once the be all end-all for the vaudeville circuit there was no greater honor than getting to play the palace the likes of charlie chaplin fanny bryce the marx brothers webber and fields and so many other grace the stage of the palace unless you might as well be dead over the years vaudeville started to die out and as many theaters did it began showing movies in poor upkeep and waning interest the nederlanders bought the theater renovated it and reopened it as broadway's newest legitimate theater with the opening of sweet charity in 1966. i'm good enough to play the palace you're not good enough to clean the palace number seven talk about a boa constrictor during the show's pre-broadway engagement in philadelphia gwen verdin began to complain of a sore throat as she continued to perform the pain got worse and worse and she started having trouble breathing she was convinced something was stuck in her throat and as it turns out she was right verdan had in fact inhaled a feather from a prop feather boa and it was wrapped around the star's vocal cords vernon continued to perform until no sound would come out and the pain was just unbearable she took a week off from the show and had it surgically removed one week your majesty one week number eight check please late in the broadway run of sweet charity gwen verdin was starting to tire so to give herself a break if need be verdan would sometimes cut the act to ballad where am i going a song verdan had never liked singing in the first place at one performance a gentleman noticed that the song had been suddenly cut and he was not happy he wrote a letter to verdin complaining of the missing song claiming that he spent hard-earned money to see her perform and he felt cheated verdin decided to find out how long the song took to perform and factored that against the price of a ticket she sent the man a check for the pro-rated amount of money he'd lost a badass it is badass if anyone out there is a math whiz i would love to know what that figure is i don't think i could ever get close to solving a math problem like that but if you're a math whiz figure out that problem and uh i'll give you a huge shout out i'm right on top of that rose number nine a sad day indeed the 1986 revival of sweet charity had won four tony awards including best revival the national tour of the revival was set to launch in washington dc starring the donna mckechnie as charity after the final rehearsal fosse and when vernon decided to walk back to their hotel to change for opening night tragedy struck however when fosse collapsed on the sidewalk suffering from a heart attack fosse would die soon afterward at george washington university hospital with gwen by his side number ten seven charities for one revival the last broadway revival of sweet charity opened on may fourth 4th 2005 starring christina applegate but before then a slew of actresses would be named for the titular dance hall hostess with the mostess first in early 2000 it was rumored that paula abdul would be starring in a revival as well as choreographing the show can you imagine hey you know what it is what it is later when the weissler's got involved it was announced that jenna elfman of dharma and greg fame would star in the production aiming for spring of 2003. elfman backed out however and it was announced that academy award winner marissa tomei would make her broadway musical debut in the lead role marissa tome sadly the workshops had not been going well and tomei was told that she would not be continuing with the production the producers announced that workshops would continue now with jane krakowski who was hot off her tony win for the 2003 revival of nine things hit another roadblock though when krakowski wanted rewrites in a more modern approach to charity's characterization and majorly clashed with the book writer neil simon after another search christina applegate was announced and dates were set but things are never so easy oh brother the star broke a bone in her foot while performing the pre-broadway tryout in chicago her standby was well-loved broadway actress charlotte demboise and it was announced that she would open the show in the next tryout city of boston while the producers decided how to proceed it seemed like it might be a 1930s backstage movie come to life where the understudy was going to get to go on and for her big break but this is real life and the producers decided instead to simply close the show out of town well [ __ ] injured star christina applegate would not hear any of it she vowed to recover in time for opening night on broadway and having convinced the weisslers to proceed she delivered the casting rumors were not done however late in the broadway run a wild rumor spread through the theater world that applegate would be soon leaving and would be replaced by none other than pop icon britney spears shut up and take my money and it seemed like it actually might happen when playbill reported spears was indeed in negotiations to join the cast and move the show to the bigger hilton now lyric theater talks though fell through of course and the revival closed december 31st 2005. and that my friends is 10 things about the classic musical sweet charity that if you didn't know before you do now it's great to learn cause knowledge is power had you heard any of those stories before what classic musical would you like to know some more behind the scenes trivia about let me know down in the comments and i promise to reply to all of them i sincerely hope you enjoyed this video and learned a little something if you did hitting that like button would be oh so helpful sharing this with the musical fan in your life would be incredible and if you found this channel by the fickle finger of fingers fade fate finger face tickle fingers make sure to hit subscribe thanks for watching till the end you guys are my favorite this is broadway by ghost light i'm mark banani i'll see y'all next time

Channel: Broadway By Ghostlight

Views: 10,788

Keywords: things you didnt know, top 10, you may not know, broadway, broadway history, bob fosse sweet charity, bob fosse gwen verdon, bob fosse choreography, Fosse, Bob Fosse, Gwen Verdon, gwen verdon sweet charity, musical theatre, musical theater, musical theatre history, palace theater, broadway by ghostlight, britney spears, jenna elfman, marisa tomei, jane krakowski, charlotte d'amboise, hey big spender, paula abdul, fosse verdon, neil simon, nights of cabiria

Id: P4yRq07wFY8

Length: 16min 2sec (962 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 20 2022