Content Advisory
SYNOPSIS: Charity Hope Valentine works as a dancehall girl. Men pay her to dance with them and she dreams of falling in love someday. The other dancehall girls have a cynical view of men and love, but Charity believes the man of her dreams is just around the corner. Over the course of the play, she meets everyone from an Italian movie star to ordinary Joes, but true love always seems to be just out of her reach. Sweet Charity was originally staged and choreographed by Bob Fosse and features some of the most memorable song-and-dance numbers in musical theatre, including “Hey, Big Spender” and “If My Friends Could See Me Now.”
LANGUAGE: None to speak of—a few “damns” and “For God’s sakes”—and a few slang expressions—“broad” (for women), and “ass.”
SMOKING AND DRINKING: Charity works in a dancehall, where both smoking and drinking occur.
SEX: There is no sex in the play, but Charity is a dancehall girl, and some of the other girls have more flexible moral standards than others. The girls’ dance numbers will certainly be sexy without being sexual. There are allusions to sex, but no explicit sexual activity.
VIOLENCE: None.
FOR WHICH AUDIENCES?: Sweet Charity is a musical that takes place in the slightly seamy dancehall world, but both the play and its heroine are from a more innocent time, and there is nothing in the play to discomfit general audiences, including children aged 12 and up. Pre-teens should attend at a parent’s discretion.
RATING: If it were a movie, Sweet Charity would be rated “PG-13.”