****Give your money to a "Sweet Charity"

If you haven't already booked your seats I suggest you do so right away or you will miss a great show! The whole impact of the show was great. The director and his team did an excellent job on casting, costuming, set design, musical direction and choreography. Vicki Kirkman as Sweet Charity shone through in a very challenging and exhausting role. She dances and sings well and was ably supported by the rest of the cast. I enjoyed the scene with Vittorio immensely in his apartment, and thought the scene in the elevator was hillarious. The installation of new lighting at Stirling helped create a great atmosphere with the ability to backlight the stage for the first time. The sleazy scene in the ballroom with the girls singing to Hey big spender was a show highlight and looked very atmospheric with the girls sillhoutted in the front. The standout number was of course "The Rhythm of Life" featuring the charismatic Tyler Jones as Daddy Bruebeck. This number was so intricate in its vocal arrangement and stage movement, that it was over far too soon! Overall, I would say this was a very tight, well paced production full of energy and emotion. Congratulations to everyone involved and well worth a visit.

I unfortunately found this show lacking. While the technical elements of it were good and the show ran very smoothly, it in no way made up for the lack of enthusiasm from the cast. Unfortunately, a show like Sweet Charity requires a lead who genuinely wants to be performing, and that is not the impression I got from the girl playing Charity in this show. It wasn't down to lack of talent, just lack of enthusiasm. She rarely looked up from the floor at the audience, stepped out of character a lot, fudged dance moves, and sang like she was afraid people would hear her. The biggest shame is that she's obviously a very talented girl, but her lacklustre performance left the audience with an unconvincing character for the show to be based around! Someone needs to tell her to look up from the floor, fast. In general the supporting roles stood out more. Helena and Daddy were awesome: really convincing and energetic. Some however, not so much...the nameless fourth character who they put into "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This" did not really appear to know the dance moves. Oscar gave a committed and entertaining, if not a little one-dimensional, performance. The over-choreographed movements did nothing to help the show's genuinity; nor did the Australian accents and poorly thought out costuming. It wasn't just that the majority of the costume were historically incorrect; it was also the fact that a lot of them just made it hard for the girls to dance in. I cannot understand the decision to eliminate American accents from this show. It actually mystified me. I found it really detracted from the show. And some of the lines made no sense beacsue of it! There were disappointing house elements as well- such as during intermission when the actors could be seen hanging out of the stage door, in costume, smoking. I hate to sound harsh, but in my opinion there's no excuse for an unenthused cast. If you're not doing the show because you love performing, then why bother with amateur theatre?

I unfortunately found this

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