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Former movie teen queen resuscitates

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Naomi Pfefferman
Special to the Jewish News

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56

April 26 • 2007

iN

wanted to do next, she immediately
picked Sweet Charity. Federico Fellini's
Nights of Cabiria, the film upon
t was kind of a surprise for
which the 1966 show was based, had
people to see me in a teddy:'
immensely moved her, and she had
Molly Ringwald says. "It's, um,
loved the movie version of the musical,
not exactly the kind of thing I'm most
starring Shirley MacLaine.
associated with!'
Ringwald plays Charity Hope
If theatergoers were surprised by
Valentine, a nice but tarnished rent-a-
her turn as a debauched showgirl in
girl who remains optimistic despite a
Cabaret — by the Jewish creative team series of humiliating misadventures.
of Joe Masteroff (book), Fred Ebb (lyr- As the show opens, the "boyfriend" she
ics) and John Kander (music) — a
has financially supported steals her
few years ago, they may be equally
purse and throws her into a lake. She
startled when she plays a dance hall
meets a movie star, only to have his
hostess — in more cleavage-spilling
friends dub her "cheap"; she attempts
attire — in the musical Sweet Charity, to better herself with "cul-chah" at
running May 1-20 at Detroit's Fisher
the 92nd Street Y, but gets stuck in an
Theatre. Instrumental in Charity's suc- elevator with a claustrophobic.
cess is another trio of Jewish creators:
All the while, she yearns to escape
book writer Neil Simon, composer Cy
her sleazy job at the Fandango
Coleman and lyricist Dorothy Fields.
Ballroom — drinking and dancing
Ringwald is most associated with
with "jokers" who engage in "groping,
the 1980s John Hughes (he's a Lansing grabbing, clutching, clinching, stran-
native) teenage melodramas that
gling, handling, fumbling."
crowned her the princess of whole-
Ringwald also felt she might have
some adolescent angst and made
a unique take on the heroine, who is
her "cultural shorthand for a certain
often portrayed as a witless bimbo.
kind of innocence the Los Angeles
"I like to play her a little bit wiser
Times said in 1999. Paying homage
and to emphasize that she's not stupid;
were thousands of female groupies,
she's been around the block and has a
a.k.a. "Ringlets," who dyed their hair
lot of street smarts:' the actress said.
Ringwald-orange and copied the
The character is a far cry from
actress' famous pout and thrift-shop
Candles' virginal Samantha, who is
threads.
mortified when her grandmother
The so-called "Molly Trilogy"
proudly (and publicly) remarks upon
(Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club,
her growing chest. Yet observers say
Pretty in Pink) remains so iconic that
the vulnerable aura Ringwald still
VH1 recently named Ringwald the No. radiates has enriched the often-flawed
1 teen star of all time. Last year, People characters she has portrayed since
magazine feted her in a story cel-
reinventing herself as a theater actress
ebrating Pink's 20th anniversary, and
around 1999.
Paramount released a well-received
"Molly has a history of playing
DVD of that film.
these sensitive characters, so ... she
"John's movies were the first in a
has a great understanding of someone
while to accurately reflect the eternal
who longs for somebody or longs to
high school concerns: feeling mis-
be loved;' said Charity director Scott
understood, out of place, invisible
Faris.
Ringwald said. As for why the actress
Ringwald says she was drawn to the
herself was widely considered the
role because she, too, has hit bottom
emotional core of those films: "I'm
and re-emerged, personally and pro-
an emotional person, and any time
fessionally.
I just think anything it immediately
"I just love what a survivor Charity
shows on my face." That kind of open- is, and how nothing can get her down:'
ness earned Ringwald great reviews
she said.
(and box office) for Cabaret. When
After the "Molly Trilogy:' Ringwald
the thrilled producers asked what she
found she was no longer in the

