Theaterweek	The Astonishing Molly Ringwald by Anthony Chase

Molly Ringwald is rather astonishing. I found it odd that she would be starring in the national tour of the Broadway musical Sweet Charity that rolls into Shea’s on Tuesday, but in a very cordial telephone conversation, Miss Ringwald makes it sound like the most logical thing in the world.

“I’d never toured before,” she says, “and while my daughter is young enough, I was interested to give it a try.”

I quickly realize that I know very little about Molly Ringwald, beyond her teenaged Pretty in Pink persona. I know the icon, not the actress. I did see her on Broadway, where she quite bowled me over with her nuanced performance in Enchanted April; and I was aware of her turn as Sally Bowles in the revival of Cabaret on Broadway, which I took to be a career anomaly. Not so, the star explains patiently.

“I started out in music and in theater,” she says. “My father was a jazz musician and I first performed with him, singing, when I was three and a half! Then, as a child, I played one of the orphans in the Los Angeles production of Annie for 15 months. I studied ballet, jazz and tap. I moved into films later.”

Ah, but the move into films was meteoric. Ringwald was internationally famous as a film star by the age of 13. In 1986 appeared on the cover of Time magazine: “Ain’t She Sweet—teen actress Molly Ringwald,” top young actress of the decade. She’d starred in a fast succession of blockbuster movies like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, making her the veritable Mary Pickford of her generation, a true American Sweetheart, and leader of the Brat Pack.

Other well-regarded films like The Pick Up Artist, Fresh Horses and Betsy’s Wedding followed, but in 1992 Ringwald made an unusual move. She took a break from Hollywood and moved to Paris for four years.

It seems that when Molly Ringwald yearns to try something, she just does. How many of us have fantasized about living in Paris for a while. She did.

“I loved living in Paris. And sometimes I really miss it! It is a beautiful city and there is always so much going on.”

Success followed Ringwald in Europe, or to be more precise, it preceded her. In 1987, Jean-Luc Godard, foremost filmmaker of the French New Wave, invited her to appear as Cordelia in his King Lear. Her other European films include Seven Sundays and Enfants de Salaud, in which she performed for the first time entirely in French.

In terms of classy offbeat work, Ringwald can also count a starring role opposite Jeanne Tripplehorn in Office Killer, the debut film of Cindy Sherman, leading post-modern photographer and co-founder of Buffalo’s Hallwalls.

In Sweet Charity, Ringwald will play Charity Hope Valentine, a dance-hall hostess with a heart of gold and a talent for finding really horrible men. The show was written by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields and features such Broadway greats as “If My Friends Could See Me Now” and “Big Spender.”

Again, Molly Ringwald seems an unlikely choice. This was a role created for the great Broadway dancer Gwen Verdon, who was succeeded in the role by a litany of great Broadway dancers, from Chita Rivera to Donna McKechnie to Debbie Allen to Ann Reinking to Shirley Maclaine who starred in the film.

“Dance is not my strength,” concedes Ringwald, who then trumps the discussion with her European background. “But when I think of Charity, I think of the real original, Giulietta Masina, who played the character in the Fellini film Nights of Cabiria on which the musical is based. That is one of my very favorite films. There are many different ways to approach the character.”

Life on the road has not been everything Ringwald expected.

“I imagined I would have longer stays in each city. I did not think I’d be moving every week. And I imagined the theaters as more intimate than they have been. These houses are really huge!”

Indeed, Ringwald will perform for mre than 3,000 people when she walks out onto the Shea’s stage. Nonetheless, a true theater trouper, she is glad for the experience and enjoys doing the show.

Molly Ringwald will appear as Charity at Shea’s Performing Arts Center for one week only, February 6-11. Performances are Tuesday to Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm and Sunday at 2pm and 7pm. Tickets are on sale by calling Ticketmaster at 852-5000, online at www.ticketmaster.com, at all Ticketmaster Outlet’s and at Shea’s Ticket Office.