Artistry is beginning their 2025 season in a similar fashion as
their fantastic 2024 season: a classic musical staged almost like a concert with a full orchestra on stage, and fabulous dancing in front of it. The 1966 Broadway musical
Sweet Charity, adapted into a movie in 1969 starring Shirley MacLaine, is an excellent choice for this type of treatment; it almost feels like a series of vignettes about a NYC dance hall hostess in the '60s, rather than one continuous story with beginning, middle, and end. The strengths of this Bob Fosse show truly are the music and dancing, with a story about a "dance hall girl" looking for love in all the wrong places and continually being rejected that feels a little dated. So why not put the focus on the music, dancing, and performances of this terrific cast? The result is an absolutely smashing production that soars with one big music-and-dance number after another.
Sweet Charity continues at the Bloomington Center for the Arts through February 16.
