Once upon a time, there was a sweet little musical called Charlotte Sweet. With libretto by Michael Colby and music by Gerald Jay Markoe, the NY Times said that the show, “mixes the adorable and the strange, and it is delectable.” And it was.
It originally opened in the spring of 1982 at the ATA/Chernuchin Theatre where it had a brief run. The show reopened in the summer at the Westside Arts (now just the Westside) Theater.
The cast included the charming Christopher Seppe, who had just come off of a run as The Boy in The Fantastics, Polly Pen who would go on to write the musicals Christina Alberta's Father and Bed and Sofa and Mara Beckerman in the title role, who was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for this performance alongside Betty Buckley (for Cats) and Ellen Greene (for Little Shop of Horrors) - not bad!
The show itself was a looney, but oh-so-clever story of a music hall troupe whose members each had unique vocal abilities. And the talents of the creative team of Colby and Markoe were on full display. I saw this show at a fairly young age, but it set the bar rather high for the rest of my theater-going career.
If ever there was a show ripe for revival, it’s Charlotte Sweet!
You can read the original NY Times review: HERE
Info on the performance rights are: HERE
1 comment:
It's coming back to NYC this winter! http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Beautiful-Soup-Theater-Announces-2014-2015-Season-Featuring-THE-AUTUMN-GARDEN-CHARLOTTE-SWEET-GIGI-and-More-20140509
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