Sweet Charity (1966) is one of those musical plays that whilst you may not remember the title, I bet you recognise at least four of the songs and can sing one pretty much all the way through. The play's music was created by Cy Coleman, with Dorothy Fields's lyrics and a Neil Simon book. The play would go on to be made into a successful movie, starring Shirley MacLaine and pick up a whole bunch of awards along the way.

Transferring content from stage to screen was nothing new; Adolph Zukor had started doing this as early as 1912 with his filming of Queen Elizabeth, he saw that transferring the theatre into cinema would elevate the movies away from the penny arcades and start to create a true new medium of entertainment. He could not have been too wrong in his vision as he went on to found Paramount Pictures. Charity went from film to play and back to film.

The play's story was based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria (1957), with surprisingly few changes. There is one major one. In the original film, Cabiria Ceccarelli, played by Giulietta Masina, is a prostitute, which makes her predicament all the more understandable. For Sweet Charity, Charity makes her living dancing with strangers, which wasn’t even racy in the 1960’s.

Censorship did exist in the theatre, although both there and in the cinema, more plays and films were defying the various codes. Censorship in British theatre finally came to an end in 1968, just about the time the Hay’s production code became unworkable in America. The changes may have been made for cultural reasons. Europe had a more mature art scene less likely to be offended by the thoughts of the odd breast or a story about a prostitute.

In France Serge Gainsbourg was wining, dining and bedding, whilst singing about it, and Britain had Ken Russell’s Women in Love (1969) which broke the taboo about showing male genitalia. This all conspired to make Sweet Charity feel as if it had been created unnecessarily twee.

The play opens with the ‘Overture’ (3 min, 15 sec) and immediately you will recognise a number of the main tunes. Charity gets paid to dance with men, but today she is off to Central Park to meet with her boyfriend, Charlie, and imagines what she will say to him ‘You Should See Yourself’ (2 min, 29 sec) but before she has the chance to verbally demonstrate her love, he steals her money and throws her in the lake. Back at the dancehall Charity tries to convince the other girls that Charlie was really trying to look after her. Unconvinced, the girls return to work with 'Big Spender' (3 min, 53 sec).

When work finishes, Charity goes out on the street. As she approaches the Pompeii Club she witnesses the film star Vittorio Vidal chasing after his mistress, who refuses to return with him. Spying Charity, Vittorio takes Charity to the club where the guests are dancing the latest craze, the ‘Rich Man’s Frug’ (2 min, 28 sec). After an evening on the town Vittorio takes Charity back to his apartment, a place so lavish that its turns her head, ‘If They Could See Me Now’ (3 min, 20 sec). Unfortunately, his mistress returns and charity is hidden in a closet until the morning, when Vittorio lets her out, ‘There’s Gotta Be Something Better than This’ (6 min, 09 sec).

The first act ends and the second open with ‘Charity’s Theme’ (1 min, 14 sec), by this time Charity has met Oscar while stuck in a lift and sees a future with him, although he does not know what she does for a living. Oscar offers to take her to a religious gathering, which turns out to be a thin veneer for hippies ‘The Rhythm of Life’ (3 min, 42 sec). Her co-workers see that Charity is falling in love and Nickie and Helene sing ‘Baby Dream Your Dream’ (3 min, 37 sec), even Oscar seems smitten and renames her as ‘Sweet Charity’ (2 min, 24 sec).

With their relationship based on Charity lying about what she does for a job, she mulls over whether to tell Oscar the truth, ‘Where am I going’ (2 min, 25 sec). Asking Oscar to meet her finally reveals what she does. He is not taken aback having followed her to work one night and he says he does not care. Charity races home to pack a bag, to start a new life with Oscar, 'I’m a Brass Band’ (3 min, 19 sec), and says her goodbyes to the girls, ‘ I Love to Cry at Weddings’ (4 min, 18 sec). All seems set for a happy ending when Oscar and Charity are walking in the park, he declares that as she can’t stop thinking about other men he cannot marry her, so, like Charlie before, he pushes her into the lake, only he does not steal her money. Charity picks herself up and leaves, ‘Finale’ (1 min, 44 sec).

The change from prostitute to dance partner makes the show feel a little odd, a feeling which will only get worse as the years go on. I’m not sure that this was a particularly racy profession, unless it was a front for prostitution, but you can bet that the direction and choreography by Fosse certainly left little to the imagination as to what most of these ladies were offering, so why bother to make the change?

The show was originally staged on Broadway in 1966 with Bob Fosse directing and his wife in the starring role. Of course it was a smash hit and so it came to London. In October '67 the show opened in the West End staring Juliet Prowse (1936 – 1996), who had a successful film and television career. By the time of the London run, both the arrangements and Fosse’s direction were indelibly imprinted on the show.

Most of the tracks work well without the visuals; the only exception is 'Rich Man’s Frug', which was designed as a dance number, which now sounds like an outtake from The Munsters. Other than that, the cast do a very good rendition of the show. Prowse has the suitable range for the part of Charity, whether she is belting out, 'If They Could See me Now', or dealing with some of the more subtle numbers. One of the strengths of the show, apart from creating a number of standards, is how well the songs flow with the story, creating one seamless almost wish fulfillment dream sequence for Charity.

The recording, like the others in the series, are remarkably clean and clear given their age. The set comes with a small informative booklet.

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Charles Packer