[.ca] Sweet Charity A New Musical

From Amazon.com:
This document of Bob Fosse's 1966 Broadway production is almost enough to make one forget the dreadful and dated 1968 film version with Shirley MacLaine (who, though brilliant, never rose above the film's concessions to the era--who'll ever forget Sammy Davis Jr.'s "psychedelic" production number on "The Rhythm of Life"?). Ironically, it was the late, great Fosse's film debut. More's the pity he simply didn't just provide a visual document of his original Broadway show; after all, it was Fosse who'd conceived the notion of a musical comedy based on Fellini's 1957 film Nights of Cabiria as a vehicle for Broadway star Gwen Verdon (Mrs. Fosse at the time) and then put writer Neil Simon together with composer Cy Coleman and lyricist Dorothy Fields. Onstage, it simply worked great. The score produced two huge hit standards--"Big Spender" and "If My Friends Could See Me Now"--and proved that fantasies about hookers (even though Charity's called a "taxi dancer" here) with hearts of gold could provide mainstream entertainment years before Julia Roberts became Pretty Woman. Sony gives the rerelease its regular Broadway Masterworks series update treatment, with previously unreleased tracks, elongated songs (featuring material cut from the original album), interviews from opening night, and even composer Coleman performing three songs from the show with an orchestra for a long-unavailable album he cut in the late '60s. --Bill Holdship

the original and still the best; Gwen Verdon's greatest role:
SWEET CHARITY is one of the greatest of Broadway musicals. Very rarely has it been bettered than in the original 1966 cast album. Gwen Verdon found her greatest stage role in Charity Hope Valentine, the down-on-her-luck dancehall hostess with a heart of gold. Verdon's performance would have won her yet another Tony, but she lost to Angela Lansbury's equally-good performance in MAME. Verdon is joined by a dream cast including John McMartin (INTO THE WOODS), Helen Gallagher (NO NO NANETTE), Barbara Sharma, James Luisi, Ruth Buzzi, Thelma Oliver and Arnold Soboloff. Gwen Verdon belts out her numbers in her own trademark style. Verdon could sing out entries from a phonebook and stop the show. She's quite fetching in the quirky character pieces "You Should See Yourself" and the snappy wordplay of the clarifying "Charity's Soliloquy". She later brings down the house with the certifiable showstoppers "If My Friends Could See Me Now", "I'm a Brass Band", "Where Am I Going?" and "I'm the Bravest Individual". As Charity's two gal pals Nickie and Helene, Helen Gallagher and Thelma Oliver sing the caustic "Baby Dream Your Dream", and join Verdon for the showstopping "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This". An essential cast album in any collection, this reissue of SWEET CHARITY on the Columbia Broadway Masterworks label includes rare audio of Fred Robbins interviewing the cast at the opening-night party as well as a longer 'first release' version of "I Love to Cry at Weddings".

• Overture
• Charity's Theme - Fred Robbins
• You Should See Yourself
• Big Spender
• Charity's Soliloquy
• Rich Man's Frug \oExtended Version\c\o#\c
• If My Friends Could See Me Now
• Too Many Tomorrows
• There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This
• I'm the Bravest Individual - John McMartin, Gwen Verdon
• Rhythm of Life
• Baby Dream Your Dream - Helen Gallagher, Thelma Oliver
• Sweet Charity
• Where Am I Going? - Gwen Verdon
• I'm a Brass Band
• I Love to Cry at Weddings - Cy Coleman
• Finale: If My Friends Could See Me Now
• I Love to Cry at Weddings \oFirst Release\c\o#\c\o*\c - Cy Coleman
• You Wanna Bet \o*\c - Cy Coleman
• Where Am I Going? \o*\c
• If My Friends Could See Me Now \o*\c - Gwen Verdon
• Opening Night of "Sweet Charity" "Live" from the Palace Theatre ...
• Curtain Calls \oInterview\c\o*\c - Gwen Verdon
• Interviews from the Opening Night Party at the Skylight Roof of ...
• Ethel Merman \oInterview\c\o*\c - Gwen Verdon
• Helen Gallagher \oInterview\c\o*\c - James Luisi
• Neil Simon \oInterview\c\o*\c - Helen Gallagher, Thelma Oliver, Gwen Verdon
• Gwen Verdon \oInterview\c\o*\c