Musical Theatre / Sweet Charity. At The Q, Queanbeyan, until May 18. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Sweet Charity is a musical inspired by the 1957 Federico Fellini film, Nights of Cabiria. The film follows the adventures of an ever-hopeful sex worker.

Broadway choreographer and director Bob Fosse re-imagined the film as a musical to showcase the talents of his wife, dancer Gwen Verdon, setting it in a dance hall with the central character a dancer-for-hire named Charity Hope Valentine.

Sweet Charity premiered on Broadway in 1966 with a book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. 

JC Williamson brought the musical to Australia in 1967, with Fosse’s choreography reproduced by Betty Pounder and Nancye Hayes, long-time artistic patron of Free Rain Theatre, achieving star status with her incandescent performance as Charity Hope Valentine.

Other notable Australian artists who have played this role in various iterations of Sweet Charity include Kelley Abbey, Sharon Millerchip and Verity Hunt-Ballard. Locally, Janie Lawson starred in a production by the Canberra Philharmonic Society in 2000. 

Now, almost 60 years after Hayes’ legendary performance, Free Rain Theatre is presenting its own Sweet Charity, in a vastly different production to that in which Hayes dazzled Australia. 

For this version director Joel Horwood has assembled an outstanding cast headed by Amy Orman as Charity Hope Valentine. Orman brings impressive overseas professional experience to the role, which demands triple threat expertise to capture the vulnerability and indomitable spirit of the girl who, in her search for love, wears her heart on her sleeve, quite literally, in the form of a love-heart tattoo. 

Orman has these qualities in spades, which she demonstrates in a star performance, singing and dancing up a storm in If My Friends Could See Me Now and I’m a Brass Band and breaking hearts with Where am I Going? 

Her performance will be even more impressive when she overcomes her tendency to pull faces, rather than trust the material to work for her, as she does so effectively in the wardrobe scene in Victor Vidal’s bedroom and the stalled-lift scene with Oscar Lindquist. 

Orman’s is not the only star performance in this production. Vanessa Valois, unrecognisable as Charity’s friend Nickie, and Joshua Kirk as Charity’s neurotic beau, Oscar, both offer pitch-perfect characterisations, with strong performances coming from Kristy Griffin as Helene, Alissa Pearson as Herman, Stephanie Bailey as Betsy and Eamon McCaughan as Vittorio Vidal in a show rich in cameo opportunities. 

Among many outstanding features of Horwood’s production are the superb orchestra under the musical direction of Callum Tolhurst-Close, and Chris Zuber’s striking stripped-back setting, which initially threatened drabness. 

However, as the show progresses Zuber’s design reveals its virtues in the way it allows Horwood to achieve seamless scene transitions; lighting designer, Zac Harvey to highlight Fiona Leach’s colourful costumes; and choreographer James Tolhurst-Close the space to create a series of spectacular production numbers that cleverly respect the original Fosse legacy of the show while stamping them with his own creativity. 

With this innovative realisation of a challenging musical, Free Rain Theatre has achieved a production that is not only entertaining, but also an exciting showcase for the depth of musical theatre talent currently on show in the Canberra region. 

Sweet Amy’s been dreaming of playing Charity