Three-time Tony-winner Kathleen Marshall and Broadway’s original Elle Woods team up with some of L.A.’s finest musical theater talents as Reprise 2.0 treats audiences to Sweet Charity, both the 1966 Neil Simon-Cy Colemen-Dorothy Fields gem and the irrepressibly plucky title character brought to irresistible life by a sensational Laura Bell Bundy on the UCLA Freud Playhouse stage.

 A whimsical look at contemporary life in the Big Apple when it made its Broadway debut, Sweet Charity has in the intervening half-century become a nostalgic period-piece charmer, its bouncy, hummable Coleman-Field hits (“Big Spender,” “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” and “Where Am I Going?” among them) making it one of the Swinging Sixties’ most tuneful musicals, its delightful Neil Simon book, an Americanization of Federico Fellini’s Nights Of Cabiria, recounting the tale of New York City dance hall hostess Charity Hope Valentine and her ever hopeful search for true love despite more than a few bumps in the road.

 And what a bumpy road it is, since before we’ve even found out her name, poor sweet Charity (Bundy) has been robbed of her dowry and thrown into a Central Park lake by the self-absorbed hunk (Evan Strand as Charlie) she was planning to marry if only he had asked her.

 Fortunately for our plucky heroine, Italian film star Vittorio Vidal (Robert Mammana) soon enters her life, after which she finds herself trapped in an elevator with Oscar Lindquist (Barrett Foa), a claustrophobic tax accountant who might just have marriage on his mind.

Meanwhile, Charity’s two best buds, fellow dance hall girls Helene (Krystal Joy Brown) and Nickie (Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer) are there to offer Charity both hope and a shoulder to cry on.

 Also along for the ride are Vittorio’s on-again off-again girlfriend Ursula (Ashley Loren), hippie-dippy preacher “Daddy” Johann Sebastian Brubeck (Terron Brooks) of the psychedelic Rhythm Of Life Church, and Herman (Jon Jon Briones), Charity’s boss at the not-so-fabled Fandango Ballroom.

 Extended two-character scenes straight out of a Neil Simon comedy, a leading man who doesn’t make his first appearance until an hour in, great big production numbers that have the entire cast grooving to the ‘60s in moves originally choreographed by a Tony-winning Bob Fosse, and one of the greatest roles ever written for a female triple-threat are just four of the reasons Sweet Charity is a one-of-a-kind gem and the perfect return to original form for Marcia Seligson’s Reprise, once again giving rarely-produced Broadway gems the big-stage professional revivals they deserve but rarely get.

In Reprise 1.0 tradition, scenic designer Stephen Gifford keeps musical director extraordinaire Gerald Sternbach and the band onstage throughout, Gifford’s colorful projections suggesting each of the musical’s multiple locales as lighting designers Jared A. Sayeg and Brian Monahan fill in the blanks while adding color to flashier sequences.

Angela Balogh Calin’s ‘60s-perfect costumes, Judi Lewin’s just-as-groovy hair, wigs, and makeup along, and Jonathan Burke’s crystal-clear sound mix complete the distinctive Reprise mix.

 Most importantly, Broadway legend Marshall ensures Tony-caliber direction and dance all the way as Tony-nominated Legally Blonde star Bundy delivers the year’s all-around most spectacular lead performance in a musical, her Charity a complex bundle of not just “anger and hope and doubt” but charm and ditziness and vulnerability and bravado and the best dance moves in town, plus the gal can belt to the rafters.

Foa’s Oscar, as handsome as he is nerdy as he is needy as he is appealing, is everything any Charity could hope for in a boyfriend, with silver-throated vocals to match.

 Brown and Gonzalez-Nacer are sassy treats as Charity’s seen-it-all, done-it-all coworkers, selling “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” and “Baby Dream That Dream” like nobody’s business.

Mammana and Loren bring fire and ice to European heartthrob Vittorio and the va-va-voomy Ursula, Broadway-West End star Briones’s velvety tenor makes Herman’s confession that “I Love To Cry At Weddings” an Act Two show-stopper, and Brooks’ sexy, charismatic “Daddy Brubeck” leads his hippie church congregation in the super infectious “The Rhythm Of Life,” a veritable cornucopia of ‘60s psychedelics.

 Luscious, leggy dancehall girls Claudia Baffo, Gillian Bozajian, Catriona Fray, Bella Hicks, Lucia Joyce, Amber Liekhus, Ashley Matthews, and Angeline Mirenda combine deliciously deadpan vocals and their own signature poses to make “Big Spender” yet another standout song-and-dance sequence, with Fray’s eleventh-hour cameo as Rosie proving how quickly a good girl can go bad.

 Last but not least, there’s the iconic, ironic “Rich Man’s Frug,” a three-part, triple-ovation salute to the ‘60s as the rich and snooty might have danced it, the ladies joined this time by the equally phenomenal Ari Aaron, Justin Badding, Victor E. Chan, Jeffrey Landman, Grayson McGuire, Chuck Saculla, Strand, and Louis Williams, Jr.

Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA. Jack Lipson is assistant musical director and Rhonda Kohn is associate choreographer. Kevin Williams is properties designer, Ryan Marsh is associate projection designer, Shon LeBlanc is assistant costume designer, and Meghan Hong is assistant lighting designer.

Jessie Vacchiano is production stage manager. Kevin Bailey is executive producer and assistant stage manager. Matthew Hermann is general manager.

Broadway and off-Broadway may each have revived Sweet Charity within the past dozen years, but L.A. has not been nearly so lucky, that is until now. Reprise is back and if the return-season opener is any indication of what’s ahead with Victor/Victoria and Grand Hotel, there’s more than enough reason to celebrate Reprise 2.0.

Freud Playhouse, Macgowan Hall, 245 Charles E Young Dr E , Los Angeles.
www.reprise2.org

–Steven Stanley
June 20, 2018
Photos: Michael Lamont

Tags: Barrett Foa, Cy Coleman, Dorothy Field, Laura Bell Bundy, Los Angeles Theater Review, Neil Simon, Reprise 2.0