Sweet Charity

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In the aftermath of the election, much that I have treasured now has a bitter taste. Even escapist entertainment seems to contain commentary on lost ideals. I’m working on the lessons learned. We’re all different, and we’re all the same. What is it we all want? To be heard and treated with dignity and respect.

Well, not Charity. Sweet Charity will sacrifice anything for love–most definitely her dignity and self respect.
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But I’m sure your heart will break as mine did when you hear Sutton Foster sing about it. And you’ll get to see her triple threat in a small off Broadway house. Hard to believe but true.
 
I kept hearing metaphors in everything she sang. The endless optimism and “she’s a brass band” — so all American.
 
So when she’s kicked in the chin one more time at the end, what does Charity Hope Valentine sing?
Looking inside me, what do I see?
Anger and hope and doubt
What am I all about?
And where am I going?
You tell me!
 
For the first time, she sounds bitter.
 
I resonated with her despair, which I’ve been feeling since the election. I remember Charity as indomitable, but in this production, even she is left alone to make sense of a cruel world. 
 
And America is stumbling badly, too. Just like Charity. Where are we going?
 
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Is this what protest will look like, as it did in the ’60s?

 

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