Ruby Day Photo by Dave Lepori

But more importantly, The Stage has pulled out all the stops to ensure that this Sweet Charity is the sweetest it can possibly be with a cast that soars and sizzles, choreography that is electrically exciting, projections that are mind-bogglingly fun and innovative, costumes that elicit both guffaws and wows, a band that plays the hell out of the score–and did I mention the lighting, the sound effects, the props? Any way you look at it, The Stage's Sweet Charity under the inspired and creative direction of Kenneth Kelleher is San Jose's must-see of the summer.

Initial projections announce that we are about to experience "The Adventures of Charity, The Story of a Girl Who Wanted to Be LOVED." But even in capital letters, love is a destination a young dance hall hostess in a seedy part of 1960s New York has trouble finding, especially when she always seems to look in the wrong places.

With a name like Charity Hope Valentine, is there any wonder that this is a sweet girl who is an easy pushover for almost any guy who bats his big eyes while dancing with her at the Fandango Ballroom? As one of her co-hostesses tells her, "You run your heart like a hotel, pushing guys in and out."

After her latest dumping by a guy (literally in a lake this time) who also makes off with her pocketbook, she sings in "Charity's Soliloquy," "Now hear this ... This big fat heart ain't gonna be torn apart ever, ever again!" Somehow, we just know this is not the case. After all, this is a girl whose favorite line from the movies she so loves to watch is "Without love, life has no purpose."

With a voice capable of big booming and heartfelt crooning, Ruby Day knocks it out of the park vocally time and again. Her Charity absolutely shines in the joy and exuberance that she exudes as a young woman who springs hope eternal even when adversity hits her from every angle. Day also has the ability to be a clown (e.g., singing with her head looking out from under her spread legs and below her butt) as well as a dancer extraordinaire. While singing with full pizzazz and power "If They Could See Me Now," she becomes a one-person, dance revue, filling the full stage with dance moves and styles seemingly by the dozens while also coordinating small, sudden movements of the hands, hips, or whatever in a quick musical duet with one of the band instruments' clever sound effects. The talented moves and antics of Ruby Day's Charity never take a moment's rest since she rarely leaves the stage during the two hour, thirty-minute production; but neither is there a recess from her succeeding in winning our hearts and admiration with wholehearted spunk and spirit.

When the handsomely debonair and rich movie star Vittorio Vidal (Noel Anthony, with dreamily smooth and rich vocals) has a flair-up with his starlet girlfriend, Ursula March (a snappy, sassy Adria Swan), Charity suddenly finds herself swooped up in an uptown, snazzy nightclub–a nightclub that comes to life through the lighting design genius of Maurice Vercoutere as the stage floor becomes swirling, dancing black-and-white tiles that complement the rich patrons' same-hued, costumes (Bethany Deal, designer).

We soon get one of many demonstrations of Monica Moe's eye-popping, multi-faceted choreography. The stage fills with dancers and their quick pops and turns of heads, hands and torsos along with robotic-like moves both standing and lying on the floor–all followed by.a vibrant tour of '60s dance moves (swim, frug, twist, etc.) as their voices rise in "Rich Man's Frug."

Fosse hands, Latin dance moves, ballet spins, and even vaudeville-reminiscent dances all become part of delightful number by Charity and two of her besties from the dance club as they all bring fierce, forceful vocal and dance abilities to "There's Gotta Be Something Better than This." Nickie (Erin Rose Solorio) and Helene (Jacqueline Neeley) are each a welcomed bonus when they are onstage with their wonderfully comic expressions and fabulous voices that bring much zest and zeal to their numbers, including a duet of "Baby, Dream Your Dream."

Charity's unlucky string of losers appears to take a turn for the better when she finds herself stuck in a YMCA elevator with a shy, but definitely cute, Charity-boyfriend possibility, Oscar Lindquist. In an elevator defined only by a square of white light on the stage floor, Jeffery Brian Adams is a laugh-out-loud, nervous ninny with his over-the-top panic attacks. He finally calms as he adds his pleasantly intoned, easy-to-enjoy vocals to those of Charity in "I'm the Bravest Individual." As the elevator moves and they emerge, their locked eyes hint loudly that, for Charity, this might finally be the one.

When weeks pass and the two find themselves stuck again–this time on a ride high above Coney Island–Oscar woos and wins both Charity and us singing "Sweet Charity." As nuptials finally seem inevitable, a rousing send-off party at the Fandango soon has the girls and the grimy "patrons" in their habitual grungy overcoats hilariously dancing Jewish horas. All the while, their cigar-smoking, gruff-voiced boss, Herman (Nick Mandracchia), sings "I Love to Cry at Weddings" with a voice that goes back-and-forth from a thundering boom to a tiny falsetto, including a hilarious, high-voiced duet with ensemble member Kristopher Williams.

From a stuck elevator's panel to a movie star's museum-quality paintings, an amusement park's sky-high ride, and ongoing "chapter" titles announcing scene shifts, the projections on several, various-sized screens as designed by Erik Scanlon are a major highlight of the production. That is especially true when the Charity on stage shares the projected Charity on screen with scenes of herself parading and marching through New York as she sings "I'm A Brass Band" with an ensemble's knee-high boots stepping and kicking both live and on screen.

Further kudos go most deservedly to the sound design of Steve Schoenbeck with exacting crispness given to each note sung and a memory-lane array of '60s hits to welcome an entering audience. The same is true for the scenic design of Christopher Fitzer, with continuous tongue-in-cheek touches like colorful boxes used for seats and decorated in detergent logos of the '60s. Jenn Trampenau's properties add to the many funny scenes, including a bombardment of street people soliciting Charity's coins for the likes of unwed mothers and whooping cough, all carrying collection boxes marked "SOS." Finally, impressive to the hilt is the music direction by Gus Kambeitz along with the stellar playing by the remotely located band of seven.

So, is Charity finally a bride? That you need to see for yourself, but one thing for sure: our Charity is the epitome of what it means to be a strong and independent woman, men be damned. And as she reflectively sings her finale question of "Where Am I Going,?" Sweet Charity ends with a shrug and a bit of a carefree answer, "You tell me."

Sweet Charity runs through June 29, 2025, at San Jose Stage Company, 490 South 1st Street, San Jose CA. For tickets and information, please visit www.thestage.org or call 408-283-7142.