Hey, Big Spender!

All these jokers, how I hate them With their groping, grabbing, clutching, clinching, Strangling, handling, bumbling, pinching
There's gotta be some life cleaner than this.

There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This
- Sweet Charity, 1966

If news that Donald Trump - The Musical didn't sour your dreams of hoofing it on The Great White Way, news that Neil Simon is rewriting Sweet Charity to accommodate a corporate sponsor & advertiser should come as no surprise, either. Consider this, as well: for the current revival, he re-wrote his bittersweet, cynical 1966 ending. The original version ended with a message of insincere, artistically-void corporate manipulation.

NEW YORK (Adage.com) -- As part of a product placement campaign in Broadway's Sweet Charity, playwright Neil Simon approved a script change to promote Gran Centenario tequila, according to the deal makers.

In addition to having the Gran Centenario mention written into the script, the tequila’s logos are integrated into the show’s set in one scene, and the product has been the drink of choice at Gran Centenario-sponsored parties thrown during the pre-Broadway shows as well as its New York opening, all attended by the cast, their friends and a select group of invitees. Specialty cocktails featuring Gran Centenario created by well-known bartender Dale deGroff are featured at those fests as well as in the Al Hirschfeld Theatre where Sweet Charity plays and at nearby bars.

Posted May 23, 2005 08:44 AM