Sweet Charity Begins In The 2016 Port Summer Show

The Port Summer Show has rounded up a who’s who of Broadway legends for its 44th annual production, Sweet Charity. Bob Fosse came up with the premise, Neil Simon wrote the script, and Great American Songbook giants Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields composed the music.
Performing the 1966 musical is the opportunity of a lifetime for 40 of Port’s most talented kids, ranging from middle schoolers to graduating seniors. The show is the tuneful, hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking saga of Charity Hope Valentine (played by Alexandra DeAngelis), a dance hall hostess looking for love in 1960s New York City, but who always picks the wrong guy
despite the advice of her best friends Helene (Sarah DeMarino), Nickie (Julia Gurlitz) and Carmen (Bridget Doherty).
In her quest, which takes her all over the Big Apple, from Central Park to Coney Island,
Charity encounters an international film star (Christian Hill), a hip guru (Ryan Tawil) and a shy accountant (Evan Gilmore), who falls head over heels for her.
Sweet Charity is also a trip back in time. “From a hippie-dippie church,” said director Jason Summers, “to a gyrating frug, we are immersed in the sixties. It got so psychedelic at one point that it prompted one actor to ask, ‘did people really dance like this?’ To which I replied, ‘Yes, Virginia, there really is a dance called the Watusi.’ We’ve had a blast recreating an era.”
Performances will be in the air-conditioned Schreiber High School auditorium from Thursday, Aug. 4, through Saturday, Aug. 6, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 7, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10; kids 12 and under, $5. Senior citizens will be admitted free on Thursday, Aug. 4.
Visit www.portsummershow.org for more information.