Pulitzers Equal Prizes? Or Just The Inability to Write a Good Musical Book?

Neil Simon- Pulitzer Prize Winner, creator of shallow male leads

 Another day, another piece to the Sweet Charity review, and also my birthday (where were all my musical theatre themed presents people? Ok, I did get my second copy of the Hair vinyl- this time the full version not the highlights). Today we move on to the book of Sweet Charity. Neil Simon is possibly one of the most famous American comedic playwrights, writing such classics as Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple and also (coincidence?) Little Me. It was only the other night that I was discussing with a friend how similar Little Me and Sweet Charity were, well now I know why- THEY'RE EXACTLY THE SAME.

The storyline itself is pretty non-existent with very little actually happening in the show. Charity starts the show jilted, forlorn but hopeful and ends the show jilted, forlorn but hopeful- whats the bloody point? All that happens in the show is that she learns that even accountants can be creeps which I guess most of us already knew. So if the storyline is rubbish then surely the character development must be so amazing that we don't care about the lack of a plot. Charity is probably one of the nicest parts an Alto can get. When played right she has the combination of vulnerability, brassiness and general whore with a heart type character that all musical theatre heroines strive for. Well of course she would be, when you're writing a part for the boss's wife it's got to be perfect.

Nicki and Helene aren't too bad as supporting roles go, although even their characters are the two obvious sidekick types: tough/motherly and ditsy/dreamy. From here on the characterisation goes down hill. The rest of the dance hall hostesses don't really have an amazing amount to do and the one that does is badly written. Unfortunately I played her. Carmen, as written by Neil Simon is basically a schizophrenic- she starts the play a tough bitch who belittles Charity's romantic decisions and ends it getting all soppy over the prospect of a wedding.

The male characters, like their songs, are pretty bad and at the stage of stereotype that could have easily been bordering on clever parody but aren't. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, its not exactly Marguerite stereotyping bad I just expected more from someone with a Pulitzer prize. So I guess if the book isn't great and some of the songs are a little shite, Sweet Charity is one of those shows that relies on an awesome cast and some inspired choreography which I hope we had. Old people seem to like it too.

General Update. And then onto something theatrey

Can you guess what the Summer show is?

So "A Funny Thing Happened on The Way To The Forum" is finally over and I can catch up with things before the next show. What did I learn from Forum? Well 1) I miss being on stage, 2) Never do publicity, especially if you are juggling it with something else, 3) I HATE BUILDERS and 4) I actually enjoyed doing the costumes although its one of those jobs you get little gratitude for but by the end of the week, after seeing the costumes on stage I felt a bit better.

Our next show is "Sweet Charity" but you'll have to go to Budleigh Salterton to see it. Every year MTSoc becomes ICOS tour and puts on 10 performances in the village hall in Budleigh. Their village hall is massive, especially for the size of the village. Tour, although it sounds awful, is an unbelievable amount of fun, I did West Side Story in my first year and a typical day went as follows: 12pm Wake up, have brunch, go to the beach, have dinner, do the show, go to the pub, go party in the scout hut, 3am bed. Repeat.

Yes we use a dilapidated scout hut as our party venue, the toilet fell down 3 years ago, the ceiling rafters are a tad unstable, the walls are graffitied and is home to about 1000 plastic ducks but it is also home to some amazing parties and general funness.

Yay! Whores!

As already announced this years show is "Sweet Charity" and I'm actually genuinely excited which I haven't been since Batboy (my first show, and first and only lead!). I'm playing Carmen, one of the dance hall girls and a kind of middling sized role plus I finally get to play a grown up! And a slut at that...YAY! Technically its the fourth biggest female role and was even on the audition sheet! Its a nice size role considering that, yes, I'm also designing the costumes again! I was actually asked to do them (although the person that would usually do them may be in labour just around tour time) and the director thought I did a great job in Forum which is possibly one of the first compliments I've had about the Forum costumes which made me feel good. Plus I've had lots of people offering to help who, for some reason. weren't prepared to help for Forum but hey any help is good. It should be a lot more fun this time- I've got more time to do them, the builders hopefully won't be pissing me off, I've got a HUGE budget and the option of hiring some costumes. Plus I get to make myself a costume, hopefully the one I designed for Kate in The Wild Party, its a really pretty number and could probably work with a few alterations. I'd like to base the dancers' costumes around leotards a la Strictly Come Dancing just so they can be skimpy but with enough support. We'll see what the director says. Also, most of the Charitys I've seen have horrible clothes, well that won't be the case here!