A girl who wanted to be loved

If you were an avid theater-goer in the middle of the 20th century, you probably wanted a formulaic, feel-good plot to entertain you from the stage. Girl and guy meet, they sing about it for a while, something happens and they split up. They sing about that some more, and then they realize they were meant for each other and they get back together. Then they sing about it.\nPractically everything Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together followed that plot with little variation. Frank Loesser did the same. One of the few playwrights audiences could count on to give them something different was Neil Simon. His bittersweet works were often unpredictable and didn't necessarily have an "everybody gets married" ending. "The Odd Couple" and his New York Trilogies are proof of this.\n"Sweet Charity" seems to be an exception to the rule as far as those sorts of musicals go, however. Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields wrote the book, music and lyrics, respectively, as an adaptation of "Nights of Cabiria," a film by Federico Fellini. First opening January 29, 1966, at the Palace Theatre in New York, it is a Gershwin-esque musical about a girl named Charity Heart Valentine who is -- get this -- a taxi dancer with a heart of gold. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and because of that, she is dumped on by every guy with whom she has a relationship. Finally, she meets Oscar, a claustrophobic accountant. They hit it off, and, well, more singing.\nIU's own Department of Theatre and Drama is performing "Sweet Charity" at the Ruth N. Halls Theatre at the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center starting April 16 and running through April 24.\nHannah Catherine Willman was in the role of Charity, an eternal optimist stuck in a rut at her place of employment, the Fan-Dango Club. Willman looks and smiles remarkably like a younger, thinner Bette Midler. Her singing voice isn't bad, either.\nVittorio Vidal, an Italian movie star, was one of the three roles played by Colin Donnell. He also played Charity's ex-boyfriend, Charlie, and Daddy, the jazz-singing leader of Oscar's church. Vittorio was the best out of three, however, a suave rich actor whose famous line, "Without love, life has no purpose!" melts Charity. Donnell pulled this role off with skill and managed to hit his high notes well.\nFinally, Tom Hershner played the male lead, Oscar Lindquist, with a Woody Allen-like approach. His neurotic quirkiness, yet great ability for sweetness, made the audience develop an affection for him.\nTwo great songs spawned from this show, and they were both in the first Act. "Hey Big Spender" is sung near the top of the show at the Fan-Dango Club. A fascinating hydraulic system set up under the stage lifted several poles through the floor for the women's chorus to dance with seductively. (Technical Director Robert Bovard and his crew are to be commended for the silent and unobtrusive lift.)\nAnother wonderful song was a music and dance number called "The Rich Man's Frug" and was sort of a cross between the dance number at the beginning of "Austin Powers" and a Bob Fosse number, which indeed it was -- Fosse conceived the staging and choreography for the original Broadway show and 1969 movie starring Shirley MacLaine.\nSo what is wrong with the show? The only time it didn't seem to flow smoothly was during scene changes. It is true these things can vary from performance to performance, but in one night, there were three successive times when the lights came up and the scene change wasn't finished.\nThe ending would have made Richard Rodgers shake his head and say "tsk tsk tsk," but in 1966, it was a step in the right direction for a break in the formulaic musicals. \nCheck out the play yourself. For ticket information, call 855-1103.\nBe prepared to not take it seriously, but remember -- Neil Simon won't let you down.