Book
by Neil Simon, Music by Cy Coleman, Lyrics by Dorothy Fields
Playhouse, Arts Centre
Melbourne, until 7 March, 2015
Reviewer: Kate Herbert on 26 Feb 2015
Stars: 4 & 1/2
Full review also in Herald Sun online on 27 Feb 2015 and in print. KH
Photo Jeff Busby
Verity
Hunt-Ballard is irrepressible, funny and vulnerable as Charity Valentine and
Dean Bryant’s inventive production of Sweet Charity provides a star vehicle for
her myriad talents.
As
Charity, Hunt-Ballard is the polar opposite of her other award-winning role as the
prim, perfect Mary Poppins, but we again witness her impeccable comic timing,
vibrant dance, nuanced characterisation and full-bodied singing.
She
totally inhabits Charity, bringing to life this optimistic, naive, unschooled
“dance hostess” in a performance that is feisty, funny, fanciful, melodramatic
and, finally, tragic.
Her
rendition of If My Friends Could See Me Now is electrifying and her final scenes
and snatches of her signature song, I’m The Bravest Individual, are
heart-breaking.
Charity
is a dreamer, a fantasist who hopes to be rescued by a man – any man who will
marry her - from her dreary, tacky life as a hostess (read prostitute) at the
Fandango Ballroom – a misnomer for this dank, trashy nightclub.
