I saw the musical ”Sweet Charity”  at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts last Saturday night. This was a special occasion for several reasons. My first and only visit to this venue was over 30 years ago on a third-grade field trip to watch the San Jose Taiko (Japanese drums) perform. The other reason is that Molly Ringwald is playing the main character. The last time I saw her was in ”Sixteen Candles” on television since I didn’t watch any of her movies while growing up as a teenager in the 1980’s.

Since my friend and I went for the cheap seats (which weren’t so cheap after paying the extra $7.00 USD fee for ordering the tickets ahead of time), we sat in the third floor balcony looking down on the stage from the back wall. A pair of mini binoculars is almost a requirement.

Ringwald plays a dance hall hostess named Charity who has an unfortunate string of boyfriends that went nowhere, starting off with her current boyfriend dumping her into the lake to steal her purse, hiding out in a closet when the movie actor’s girlfriend appears unannounced at his apartment, and almost getting married to a nervous who gets cold feet after realizing just how many guys she slept with before him.

If you were madly in love with Ringwald as a teenager, you will love her performance in this play as sings and dances almost non-stop.