Based on a movie staring Shirley McLean, Charity Hope Valentine is the girl, or more accurately the woman, employed as a hostess at a New York dance hall in the late 1960s.

Inside the Fan-Dango Ballroom, Charity is companioned with streetwise hostesses who often share their cynical advice about love and occasionally their long abandoned dreams while Herman (the dance-hall manager the girls affectionately refer to as 'Der Fuhrer') makes sure the customers get what they've paid for.

Outside the dance hall, Charity's innocent vulnerability is repeatedly taken advantage of by con artists, panhandlers, and even a boyfriend who pushes her into a lake while stealing her life's savings. But our heroine does manage a fleeting glimpse of fame (If They Could See Me Now) when she unexpectedly spends the night in the closet of the Italian screen idol, Vittorio Vidal while he reconciles with his beautiful jet-set girlfriend.

Charity's 'real' chance for happiness comes when the fickle finger of fate traps her in an elevator with a claustrophobic tax accountant (Oscar Lindquist) who also seems to be in search of... 'something'. Charity joins Oscar as he attends a service at the Rhythm of Life Church led by the Reverend Daddy Brubeck, the spiritual leader of a former San Francisco jazz group turned religious cult. Romance ensues only to falter when Oscar discovers Charity's true occupation and dating history.

Through trials and tribulations, sweet Charity continues searching for love, wide-eyed and hopeful.

This is a musical in every sense of the word —Cy Coleman has captured the rhythms and sounds, and Dorothy Fields the vernacular and fun, of present day New York. It's a dancing show, too, with great opportunity for use of dramatic movement. There's one of the all-time show-stopping numbers when Charity's dance hall colleagues sing Hey, Big Spender.

Sweet Charity will be on stage at The Maltings Arts Centre, Berwick, from March 31 to April 4, 2009. If you are interested in joining the society for this or other productions, please contact secretary, Denise Clarke on (01668) 281049 (evenings) or email berwickopera@yahoo.co.uk for further information.