Boca Raton Theatre Guild: Sweet Charity (reviews)

The Boca Raton Theatre Guild opened its production of Sweet Charity on March 2, 2012.

The company doesn't have a statement about the show on their website, but Christine Dolen's lede in the Miami Herald sums it up well:

In 1966, composer Cy Coleman, lyricist Dorothy Fields and playwright Neil Simon turned Federico Fellini’s black-and-white movie Nights of Cabiria into the colorful, safe-for-Broadway musical Sweet Charity. Fellini’s clever prostitute became a Times Square dance hall worker, the sunniest sort of optimist and a gal who’s certain true love is just around the corner.

Keith Garson directed a cast that included Margot Moreland, Jeffrey Bruce, Justin Schneyer, Jeanne McKinnon, Alexander Kathryn Dow, and R. Kent Wilson.

Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:

Moreland is, far and away, the best thing about the Boca Raton Theatre Guild’s new production of Sweet Charity. She lights up the stage of the little Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park, belting Charity’s numbers, hoofing with style, bringing a bubbly attitude to Charity’s encounters with everyone from an Italian movie star to the claustrophobic accountant who steals her heart.

Director Keith Garsson has a tougher time getting a decent Sweet Charity to coalesce around his star. As a group, the cast sounds fine backed by musical director Roger Blankenship and four other musicians, but except for Moreland and Justin Schneyer as movie star Vittorio Vidal, the standout voices aren’t there.

Stacey Einhorn’s choreography occasionally echoes the style of the original by Bob Fosse, particularly when the dance hall gals are delivering their come-on number Big Spender. But the footlights at the front of Sean McClelland’s groovy ‘60s set often obscure the dancers’ feet. Not sweet, or impressive, at all.

The Boca Raton Theatre Guild production of Sweet Charity plays at The Willow Theatre through March 18, 2012.