John mcmartin sweet charity
John McMartin
American actor (1929–2016)
For other people named John McMartin, see John McMartin (disambiguation).
John McMartin | |
|---|---|
McMartin in July 2011 | |
| Born | John Francis McMartin (1929-08-21)August 21, 1929 Warsaw, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | July 6, 2016(2016-07-06) (aged 86) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, singer |
| Years active | 1956–2015 |
| Spouse | Cynthia Baer (m. 1960; div. 1971) |
| Partner | Charlotte Moore |
| Children | 2 |
John Francis McMartin (August 21, 1929 – July 6, 2016) was an American actor of stage, film and television.
Life and career
McMartin was born in Warsaw, Indiana, on August 21, 1929, and raised in St. Cloud, Minnesota. After graduating from high school, he joined the United States Army and became a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division. He attended Columbia College Chicago, but did not graduate and later attended college in New York. He made his off-Broadway debut in Little Mary Sunshine in 1959, opposite Eileen Brennan and Elmarie Wendel. He won a Theatre World Award for his role as Corporal Billy Jester, and married one of the show's producers, Cynthia Baer, in 1960; they divorced in 1971.
McMartin's first Broadway appearance was as Forrest Noble in The Conquering Hero in 1961, which was followed by Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole. He created the role of Oscar in Sweet Charity in 1966, opposite Gwen Verdon, garnering a Tony nomination, and played the role again in the 1969 film opposite Shirley MacLaine. He was reportedly cast in Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1962, but his role was cut before the show opened.
McMartin later starred in the original Broadway production of Sondheim's Follies opposite Alexis Smith in 1971 as Benjamin Stone, introducing the ballad "The Road You Didn't Take". His a
- Oscar Lindquist: Suppose you want a policy...
- Charity Hope Valentine: Yes, I want a policy. Go on.
- Oscar Lindquist: It's my job to study your particular situation... and then figure out the odds on your meeting with an unfortunate accident... like... like suffo... suff... suff... suffocating in an elevator.
- [He faints]
- Oscar Lindquist: [stuck in an elevator] Listen, I have an idea. What do you think of this? Climbing out the top of the elevator, shimmying up the cable, and then forcing the door open on the floor above.
- Charity Hope Valentine: Well, it might work, but gee, I do think it sounds a little dangerous.
- Oscar Lindquist: Then don't try it. Stay here with me.
- Oscar Lindquist: I'm a very calm, organized person. I want you to know that if-if-if-if if-if-if-if if-if-if-if it really comes down to it, you can depend on me. You understand that?
- Charity Hope Valentine: Yeah, I understand.
- Oscar Lindquist: Yeah. I just hope it doesn't come down to it.
- Oscar Lindquist: You know, working in a bank can be very dangerous, you know? In the greater New York area the odds are 1 in 75 that you will be held up at least once in any 12-month period.
- Charity Hope Valentine: Listen, just livin' is dangerous, right?
- Oscar Lindquist: Charity, I'd just about given up ever finding anybody like you. I mean, the world's gone crazy. Every - everything's all mixed up. I mean, the old standards of decency and - and morality, they don't seem to mean anything anymore. When I see the way the girls at the office are passed around, and - the jokes they tell about them are - well, I get sick, Charity. Most people would laugh if I told 'em that.
- Charity Hope Valentine: I'm not laughing, Oscar.
- Oscar Lindquist: [singing] Here was a man, With no dream and no plan, Then one lonely night, I found Sweet Charity, You make life fun for me...
- Oscar Lindquist: Charity, I was asleep when you called. I'
Sweet Charity
1966 American musical
This article is about the musical. For the film, see Sweet Charity (film).
Sweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and museGwen Verdon alongside John McMartin. It is based on the screenplay for the 1957 Italian film Nights of Cabiria. However, whereas Federico Fellini's black-and-white film concerns the romantic ups-and-downs of an ever-hopeful prostitute, in the musical the central character is a dancer-for-hire at a Times Squaredance hall. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1966, where it was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning the Tony Award for Best Choreography. The production also ran in the West End as well as having revivals and international productions.
The musical was adapted for the screen in 1969 with Shirley MacLaine as Charity and John McMartin recreating his Broadway role as Oscar Lindquist in Sweet Charity: The Adventures of a Girl Who Wanted to Be Loved. For Bob Fosse, who directed and choreographed, the film was his feature-film directorial debut.
Plot
Act I
The young woman Charity Hope Valentine is a taxi dancer at a dance hall called the Fandango Ballroom in New York City. With a shoulder bag and a heart tattooed on her left shoulder, Charity meets her boyfriend Charlie in Central Park. While Charlie silently preens himself, Charity speaks the pick-up lines she imagines him saying, and tells him how handsome he is ("You Should See Yourself"). Charlie then steals her handbag and pushes her into the lake (usually the orchestra pit) before running off. Passers-by discuss the apparent drowning but do nothing, until a young Spaniard finally rescues her. In the Hostess Room of the Fandango Ballroom, Charity tries to convince both herself and the other skeptical taxi dancers that Charlie tried to save her. Nickie, a fellow dancer, tells Charity
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- Sweet charity character breakdown