{"id":6969,"date":"2017-01-10T14:20:55","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T13:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969"},"modified":"2017-01-10T14:21:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T13:21:06","slug":"sweet-charity-the-royal-exchange-reviewed-by-peter-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969","title":{"rendered":"<em>Sweet Charity<\/em>, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Peter Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><em>Sweet Charity<\/em>, by Neil Simon, directed by Derek Bond; The Royal Exchange, January 6 2017.<\/h5>\n<p>It took about five years for the word \u2018screwball\u2019 to shift from baseball slang (1928) to the way in which a certain kind of comedy was viewed (some wag used the word to describe a Carol Lombard film back in 1933). For a decade or so, any slightly frenetic comedy featuring a battle of the sexes, farcical situations, giddy repartee and social classes in conflict was classed as screwball (so think: <em>It Happened One Night<\/em>, <em>Bringing up Baby<\/em>, <em>Some Like It Hot<\/em>). What does this have to do with <em>Sweet Charity<\/em>, the revival of Neil Simon\u2019s 60s musical at the Royal Exchange? Well <em>Sweet Charity<\/em> is about as screwball as screwball gets. <\/p>\n<p>A lot of this is down to Kaisa Hammarlund\u2019s performance as Charity. She channels Irene Dunne and Katherine Hepburn and Claudette Colbert and Jean Arthur and every lovable ditz you ever saw to create a sweet, gutsy New York heroine, who picks herself up when she\u2019s down (within minutes of meeting her, the latest in what we assume is a long line of gents pushes her into the drink in Central Park and steals her dough), whose glass is usually half full (a night in a film star\u2019s apartment as said film star beds another woman is merely an opportunity to share a rousing rendition of <em>If My Friends Could See Me Now<\/em>) and whose friends rally round whenever a pick-me-up is called for (Cat Simmons and Holly Dale Spencer\u2019s take on <em>Baby Dream Your Dream<\/em> is a highlight). <\/p>\n<p>At its heart, <em>Sweet Charity<\/em> is an unlikely love story as Charity finds herself sharing a broken elevator with an uptight accountant sort who mistakes her for someone who works in a bank (rather than someone who dances in a nightclub). They share a handful of moments (a lovely scene in which the pair are trapped in a hot air balloon managed to combine the joyfully na\u00efve comedy of <em>Father Ted<\/em> with the kind of skewed visual laughs you\u2019d more typically get in Reeves and Mortimer), that will have you thinking we\u2019re in standard rom-com territory \u2013 but you\u2019ll be surprised again by the climax. <\/p>\n<p>In lots of ways it\u2019s the almost perfect antidote to the gloomy, soon to be Trumped world in which we live. There are moments in Derek Bond\u2019s production that recall <em>Austin Powers<\/em> (the Royal Exchange is a surprisingly good venue that has you thinking all musicals should be performed in the round), sassy back-and-forths that are straight out of <em>Rowan &#038; Martin\u2019s Laugh-In<\/em> and enough hinted-at seedy underbelly to tip a wink in the direction of Cabaret (although Neil Simon could never embrace the darkness as well as Bob Fosse). <em>Sweet Charity<\/em> is a confection, however bright and bubbly, but maybe the times call for exactly this kind of light distraction. <\/p>\n<h5>At <a href=\"https:\/\/www.royalexchange.co.uk\/whats-on-and-tickets\/sweet-charity\">The Royal Exchange<\/a> until January 28. Box office: 0161 833 9833.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sweet Charity, by Neil Simon, directed by Derek Bond; The Royal Exchange, January 6 2017. It took about five years for the word \u2018screwball\u2019 to shift from baseball slang (1928) to the way in which a certain kind of comedy was viewed (some wag used the word to describe a Carol Lombard film back in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[283,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sweet Charity, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Peter Wild - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sweet Charity, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Peter Wild - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sweet Charity, by Neil Simon, directed by Derek Bond; The Royal Exchange, January 6 2017. It took about five years for the word \u2018screwball\u2019 to shift from baseball slang (1928) to the way in which a certain kind of comedy was viewed (some wag used the word to describe a Carol Lombard film back in [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-10T13:20:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-10T13:21:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969\",\"name\":\"Sweet Charity, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Peter Wild - The Manchester Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-10T13:20:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-10T13:21:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sweet Charity, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Peter Wild\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"description\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"caption\":\"The Manchester Review\"},\"description\":\"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sweet Charity, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Peter Wild - The Manchester Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sweet Charity, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Peter Wild - The Manchester Review","og_description":"Sweet Charity, by Neil Simon, directed by Derek Bond; The Royal Exchange, January 6 2017. It took about five years for the word \u2018screwball\u2019 to shift from baseball slang (1928) to the way in which a certain kind of comedy was viewed (some wag used the word to describe a Carol Lombard film back in [&hellip;]","og_url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969","og_site_name":"The Manchester Review","article_published_time":"2017-01-10T13:20:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-10T13:21:06+00:00","author":"The Manchester Review","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Manchester Review","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969","name":"Sweet Charity, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Peter Wild - The Manchester Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-01-10T13:20:55+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-10T13:21:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=6969#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sweet Charity, The Royal Exchange, reviewed by Peter Wild"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/","name":"The Manchester Review","description":"The Manchester Review","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc","name":"The Manchester Review","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","caption":"The Manchester Review"},"description":"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2PuXo-1Op","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6969"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6972,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6969\/revisions\/6972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}