Last Saturday Mer and I got to go see Porthouse Theater’s production of a musical I knew almost nothing about: Sweet Charity. The only thing I knew going into the play was that it had the song “Hey, Big Spender,” which Meredith likes to sing to me from time to time (based on the fact that I have a spendthrift tendency). We got free tickets to go see the show when our aunt’s coworker had tickets he could not use. Granted, the tickets were in the second-to-last row, and were extreme stage-left, but we still could see 97% of the play and we could hear everything. AND, they were free, which is one of the only ways we can afford to still go out while we still have two houses.

The play was fun – it was mostly funny (it had a few poignant moments), and it was very modern in that the ending was not a typical musical ending. The music was great, and the dancing was very good as well. For me, the best part of the show was the actress playing the lead, Charity; she was a high-energy actress named MaryAnn Black. She had a small-part Hollywood life in the 70s and 80s, but whatever Hollywood thought of her, she was fantastic as Charity. She had lots of enthusiasm, lots of energy, her singing was great, her dancing was fine, and her sense of comedy was perfect. I was really enthralled by her role.

It turns out that I did know one other song, “If My Friends Could See Me Now.” I did not know anything else about the production – the plot was new to me (although it is based on a Neil Simon book).

The only part of the play that I was disappointed in was a musical moment (something musicals do from time to time). I think (my opinion) that sometimes the authors have “such a great song” or “such a great dance” that they shove in scenes that make no sense and are actually distracting or confusing. It *may* be that Neil Simon wrote the episode into his book, but I thought “The Rhythm of Life” song and dance scene was tied to the rest of the play by non-existent ties (and this is from someone who buys anything a musical throws my way).

Porthouse Theater is similar to Ravinia (for my Chicago readers); it is always nice to see theater in an “auditorium” that is open to the outside air, especially when the evening is a pleasant one like we had last Saturday.
That made three weekends in a row for theater that was either free or where someone generously bought/gave us tickets (500 Clown, Richard III, and then Sweet Charity). We are being blessed with much good theater!