Sweet Charity was overall cute and decent. It was well worth the free ticket, and it would be worth it if you got the ticket half-off. Not too sure about full price. Christina Applegate was charming, cute, had tons of energy, and seemed really excited to be performing on Broadway. However, Charity isn't a cute character; yes, she's a character filled with hope, but she's also white trash. From Ms. Applegate's decade on Married with Children, you'd think she'd be excellent at playing a woman who sells her body. Nonetheless, she played it cute and clean and had perfectly dyed and coiffed hair (unlike her photo in Playbill, where she sports the roots look, and if kept, would have made her more believable).

This is nothing compared to the great Shirley MacLaine in the 1969 movie version directed by Bob Fosse (which, by the way, was his directorial debut and flopped in the theaters, and the second movie of his was Cabaret a few years later). While Shirley MacLaine was tough and hopeful, Christina Applegate was cute and sweet. That's not the same. Another plug for the movie was Sammy Davis, Jr.'s Daddy Johann Sebastian Brubeck. You really can't find that kind of singing and dancing anywhere.

In the play, towards the end of the first half, Denis O'Hare played an amazing Oscar in the elevator scene. While the show was lagging, O'Hare picked it up and made us laugh. While he was a little off-key at times (we were debating whether this was intentional, given Oscar's character), O'Hare was excellent, until the very end when he broke up with Charity. Then, O'Hare was actually laughing while he was delivering the lines and pretending to cry. That didn't make any sense, and that brought us right to the end of the show, which sucked. While we were hoping Charity's heart wouldn't be broken, Charity got out of the heartbreak too quickly, one song later. We left the theater disturbed. Our heartbreak hadn't ended, so why did Charity's? This is in stark contrast to the movie, which took about 25 minutes and a couple of flower children for Charity to hope again.

A note on the Al Hirshfeld Theatre: The theater, formerly known as the Martin Beck Theatre, changed its name on June 23, 2003, in honor of the 100th birthday of the late Mr. Hirschfeld. Mr. Beck, a vaudeville guy, built the theater in 1924. The theater is the only theater in America designed in the Byzantine style. It is also a very comfortable theater.