Sweet Charity is not at all saccharine

The issue really is that this is iconic material that needs to be lived up to, and not one to take lightly. As luck would have it, at the time I was watching Sweet Charity I had yet to get a hold of its original soundtrack, and had no sense of the singing that was there. Actually, as Nikki Gil’s luck would have it. Because do not be misled by the concept of a single woman named Charity Hope Valentine; don’t even think that a musicale about her will be nothing but painfully saccharine sweet, all about being stupid in love, and failing miserably at saying no to it. Hold on, it is almost all of that. Almost. Charity is a girl after all who creates happy endings out of nothing: that is, the nothingness of uninterested boyfriends, sometimes even the dire lack of a man in her life. Charity will move from one love to the next, thinking it will be different every time even as she has proven otherwise. After all she’s been called sweet Charity, and that must count for something. But this is 1960s America, and life in general is more complicated for Charity. Money’s hard, and she works as a taxi dancer at the Fandango Ballroom. Amongst her jaded co-workers, her hopes and aspirations are fodder for humor and laughter: poor Charity’s stupid about the world, poor Charity’s got nothing other than optimism. And in the context of these girls’ sexy “work" outfits, on the competitive stage that is the Fandango Ballroom, Charity’s optimism had no place. They were all stuck, they were all trapped in this lack of choices. That this kind of entrapment for women resonates across the years might be precisely the reason why Sweet Charity remains worth staging four decades since its first run.

Because it is also ultimately about being freed, about freeing ourselves from that which has pinned us to the ground. And it might have been a boy who got Charity out the ballroom’s door, but when in the end all she needed was a song and herself to finally walk away no matter how uncertain her destination was, right there was power she could claim. It was sad though that it was in this final song that an amount of power was missing in Nikki’s Charity. There had to be more than just hitting the high note at this point, and more than anything a scream, a shout! for finally being free! It didn’t help Nikki any that Kris Lawrence’s Oscar lacked some luster and charm, the only two things really that could’ve worked to this character’s advantage. But between fumbling his lines and just missing on some comic timing, this Oscar was no match for the spritely happy sweet Charity that Nikki had down pat and perfectly. Luckily for the audience, this was an ensemble cast that wasn’t just always about hitting the right notes. The moment the girls of the Fandango Ballroom did the first company song “Big Spender," it became clear it was a cast to reckon with – doing Bob Fosse’s choreography, working within a Neil Simon original. Timing was perfect, choreography flawless but not rigid, singing en pointe. With legs on rails, no body too thin for comfort, every woman onstage obviously working with each other, it was difficult not to throw a hoot in their direction. By the time the whole company was onstage doing the “Rich Man’s Frug" and “The Rhythm of Life" it was easy to be overwhelmed by the breadth of talent here. Between the synchrony the former required and the seeming disorder of the latter, given especially OJ Mariano’s unbelievable singing of “The Rhythm of Life," it was clear that here was an ensemble to beat, one that wasn’t just talented – as there are many of that in this country – but one that had the capacity to deal with such difficult choreography (and difficult singing), one that had the guts and the bravado for it, too. And just the right amount of … libog. And then there was comic timing as well, one that was there especially when girlfriends Helene (Ciara Sotto), Nickie (Sheila Valderrama-Martinez) and Carmen (Sheree) couldn’t keep from ribbing Charity about her romantic notions of love and life. It was ribbing that was funny but also premised on the sadness of being trapped not just literally, but figuratively, where dreams are tied down to one space that is familiar. These exchanges were done so well amongst the four that by the time they get carried away with the thought of freedom in “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This" there is a sense of courage and dreaming in the face of uncertainty. Yet there is also a sense that what they’re articulating through these dreams are their own sadnesses: these girls are most probably the ones who will stay, because the difference between Charity’s optimism and their jadedness is precisely the difference between freedom and entrapment. Meanwhile there was nothing here that would leave the audience jaded or trapped, albeit allowing just the right amount of freedom. The costumes were wonderfully contemporary, bringing it to the present even as it can only really be a text from the past. At the same time, there’s always something painful about watching something from four decades ago, about women’s bodies and the ideologies that keep them tied down, and find that it still applies to the present. And in the hands of Charity, and given this ensemble cast, that includes love – and libog – and everything in between. - YA, GMA News Sweet Charity is a 9 Works Theatrical production, directed by Robbie Guevarra with dance staging by Deana Aquino.