If My Friends Could See Me Now — Shirley MacLaine

Photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash

“If My Friends Could See Me Now” first featured in the 1966 Broadway musical “Sweet Charity”.

Before you rush to correct me, I realise Shirley MacLaine didn’t appear in the Broadway version of the musical — Gwen Verdon played the role of Charity on Broadway — but by the time the movie version was made in 1969, the studio considered Shirley MacLaine a more bankable star, so she was cast in the role of Charity for the movie.

Although nowadays “Sweet Charity” isn’t the best-known of stage musicals, it was blessed by having a number of excellent songs written for it. In fact, it could be said that the songs written for “Sweet Charity” outshone the musical itself —vastly more people know the songs from “Sweet Charity” than have ever seen it on stage or on film. Indeed many fans of the songs don’t even realise they first saw the light of day in a half-forgotten Broadway musical.

In addition to “If My Friends Could See Me Now”, “Big Spender”, a major hit for Shirley Bassey, and “The Rhythm Of Life”, one of Sammy Davis Jr’s most iconic songs, were all originally written for “Sweet Charity” by the songwriting team of Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields.

Cy Coleman was primarily a composer for Broadway musicals, winning five Tony Awards, three Emmys and two Grammys during his career.