After the national tour of The Threepenny Opera, Chita headed out on the road again playing the title role Sweet Charity. She was subsequently cast as Nickie in the film version of show opposite Shirley MacLaine as Charity. During the filming, Chita decided that she wanted to raise her daughter, Lisa Mordente, in California. During this time, she maintained a busy schedule away from Broadway, appearing in Born Yesterday, The Rose Tattoo, Zorba with John Raitt, Kiss Me Kate, Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living in Paris, and Father's Day.
Based on Federico Fellini's Academy Award winning film, Le Notti Di Cabiria, Sweet Charity tells the story of Charity Hope Valentine, a dance hall hostess with a heart of gold and peculiarly bad luck with men. Bob Fosse has seen the Italian film in 1957, and immediately saw the potential for a Broadway show. He began to work on the libretto for a one-act show, but eventually asked Neil Simon to expand the original concept. Cy Coleman, with whom Fosse had collaborated on Little Me in 1962, joined the team as composer. Coleman recruited Dorothy Fields to write the lyrics. Fields had already worked with Fosse and his wife Gwen Verdon in the 1959 show Redhead for which all three had won Tony Awards. Verdon would play Charity in the original Broadway production. Fosse relocated the original Fellini story from Rome to New York, and sanitized the details - at least on the surface -- whereas Cabiria is clearly a prostitute, Charity's profession as a dance hall hostess leaves things more ambiguous.
Act One
1: The Park by the Lake
2: Hostess Room of the Fandango Ballroom
3: Fandango Ballroom
4: New York Street and Canopy in front of the Pompeii Club
5: Interior of the Pompeii Club
6: Vittorio Vidal's Apartment
6A: The Same
7: The Hostess Room
8: The 92nd Street "Y" Information Booth and Elevator
Act Two
1: The 92nd Street "Y" Elevator
2: Rhythm of Life Church
3: Going Crosstown (Limbo then in Subway)
4: Charity's Apartment
5: Coney Island
6: Fandango Ballroom
7: Times Square
8: Barney's Chile Hacienda
9: "I'm a Brass Band"
10: Fandango Ballroom
11: The Park
The Plot
The audience is first introduced to Charity Hope Valentine on a date with her boyfriend Charlie. We soon gather that the relationship is totally one-sided. Charlie never says a word, but Charity is smitten and slaves away in the seedy Fandango Ballroom to support him. A total louse, Charlie snatches Charity's dowry, pushes her in the lake in Central Park, and runs off, never to be seen again. Charity resolves never to be so stupid again ("Charity's Soliloquy").
Back at the Fandango Ballroom "Big Spender," where her official job title is 'social consultant', Charity resolves never to be hurt again.On her way home, outside the exclusive Pompeii Club, Charity runs into the film star, Vittorio Vidal, who is arguing with his beautiful girlfriend, Ursula. To spite Ursula, Vittorio whisks Charity into the club. The clientele inside the club is self-consciously sophisticated and aloof. The dance the Fosse classic, "Rich Man's Frug." Vittorio asks Charity to dance. In her excitement, she steps on his foot and collapses into his arms. Vittorio does not know what to do, so Charity helpfully suggests that he let her lie down - in his apartment where Charity asks for an autographed picture and souvenirs to show the girls back at the Fandango ballroom. Vittorio gives her his top hat and cane. She sings "If My Friends Could See Me Now." Ursula returns and Charity obligingly hides in the closet where she witnesses their reunion through the keyhole. ("Too Many Tomorrows") In a brilliant comic scene, Charity smokes a cigarette in the closet and conceals the smoke by blowing it into a garment bag. Back at the Fandango Ballroom, Charity and the girls decide that there must be a better way to make a living. Charity visits goes to the 92nd Street YMCA in an attempt to find culture and refinement and to meet new people. At the 'Y', she gets stuck in on the elevator with a claustrophobic accountant named Oscar while on her way to a lecture on "Free Thought in Active Society". Charity helps Oscar through his claustrophobic ordeal, which lasts through the intermission ("Bravest Individual") After they escape from the elevator, Oscar invites Charity to a meeting at the Rhythm of Life church, which he has found through his membership in the church of the month. Charity decides that for a weirdo, Oscar is quite nice. Her chums, Helene and Nickie, have seen this dream before ("Baby, Dream Your Dream").
Charity's relationship with Oscar progresses.
For their next date Charity and Oscar go to Coney Island where they get stuck in the parachute. Now Charity is scared and Oscar is dependable and protective (Sweet Charity). Realizing that the relationship has become serious, Charity worries that she will lose Oscar if he ever finds out what she really does for a living. He thinks she works in a bank. ("Where Am I Going?")
As it happens, when Charity confesses the truth, Oscar reveals that he knew where she worked all the time, and that he wants to marry her (I'm a Brass Band). Charity says good-bye to Nickie and her Fandango friends, and they give her a tearful send-off (I Love to Cry at Weddings). Confronted with the reality of Charity's life as a "dance hall hostess," Oscar abruptly runs out on her. Eternally optimistic, Charity is thankful that Oscar did not steal her money and she didn't get a new tattoo. She resolves to continue to live in hope.
SWEET CHARITY AS A BOB FOSSE FILM
1969
Screenplay - Peter Stone
Director/Choreographer Bob Fosse
Produced -Robert Arthur
Charity Hope Valentine - Shirley MacLaine
Oscar Lindquist - John McMartin
Nickie - Chita Rivera
Helene - Paula Kelly
Vittorio Vidal - Ricardo Montalban
Big Daddy - Sammy Davis, Jr.
Major musical numbers:
Overture -- Orchestra
You Should See Yourself -- Charity
Big Spender -- Nickie, Helene and Girls
Charity's Soliloquy -- Charity
Rich Man's Frug -- Orchestra
If My Friends Could See Me Now -- Charity
Too Many Tomorrows -- Vidal
There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This -- Nickie, Helene and Charity
Bravest Individual -- Charity and Oscar
Entr'acte -- Orchestra
Rhythm of Life -- Daddy Brubeck and Chorus
Baby Dream Your Dream -- Nickie and Helene
Sweet Charity -- Oscar and Chorus
Where Am I Going? -- Charity
I'm A Brass Band -- Charity and Chorus
I Love To Cry At Weddings -- Herman, Nickie, Rosie, Helene, Solo Tenor and Chorus
