Ringwald's back, and all grown up

When it comes to musical theater, Molly Ringwald has specialized in playing perky waifs. "I was in 'Annie' when I was 10," she says. "I was one of the orphans."

And now Ringwald is touring in a production of "Sweet Charity," the 1966 musical about a plucky adult urchin.

Of course between "Annie" and "Charity" there were the "brat pack" years. Ringwald was one of the teens-and-twenties cohort that included fellow Hollywood fortunates Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Dillon, Ally Sheedy, Sean Penn and Tom Cruise. She is still best known for the 1980s John Hughes movies "The Breakfast Club," "Sixteen Candles" and "Pretty in Pink."

Twenty years ago, she was on the cover of Time, touted as one of year's most promising young actors.

Then came some stage work. Then came some years in France, where she made movies and married and divorced a French novelist. "I knew French because I went to Le Lycee Francais in Los Angeles," she explains.

Now she's back in the States, touring with her 3-year-old daughter, Mathilda Ereni, and her partner, writer Panio Ginopoulos.

She was recruited for "Charity" partly because of show biz strategy. It pays to cast well-known names.

A "Charity" revival opened last spring in New York with Christina Applegate in the title role. It ran eight months. The current tour, which plays the Paramount Theatre starting Tuesday, began last month and will be trouping around the country at least through August 2007.

I talked to Ringwald by phone last week. She was in Los Angeles and already had done a dozen interviews that day by the time I called. Mine was the last.

"It's grueling," she said. "I kind of go on automatic pilot. It's hard to stay alert when you're asked the same questions a million times." OK, 1 million and one times can't make that much difference.

Ringwald says she first saw "Sweet Charity" when she was 10 years old. That was the 1969 movie starring Shirley MacLaine.

The "Charity" story is based on the 1957 Federico Fellini film "Nights of Cabiria," which won a Best Foreign Film Oscar. Cabiria was a prostitute, a profession that just would not do for a Broadway musical comedy 40 years ago. Changes were made.

The American adaptation revolves around Charity Hope Valentine. She is a woman to whom things happen. As a pay-for-a-dance hostess at the Fandango Ballroom, she has lots of opportunities to meet ungallant men. And she does. But, as you see at the beginning of the show, she wears her heart on her sleeve. Actually, she has a heart-shaped tattoo on her arm. Despite bad luck, she embodies the Christian virtues: strength, hope and charity.

Strength, physical strength, was a challenge to Ringwald when she took on the role. "I have lots of acting and singing experience," she says. "But dance? I needed some coaching. And I had to work on stamina, plenty of running on the treadmill at the gym. The thing is to run and talk at the same time. That helps build the stamina that you need to sing and dance and act and not get winded. It's a real cardio push.

"They say that the best exercise is doing something that you love. And I love performing."

That love affair has gone on since Ringwald played her first waif role. "I was 6 or 7," she recalls. "I was the dormouse in a children's production of 'Alice in Wonderland.' "

Ringwald is 38. She finds performing in "Sweet Charity" aerobic. "I've lost weight," she says. "I've gone down one dress size. And I expect to go down another size before I'm done."

This being the last interview of the day, now what? "I'll spend some time with my daughter," she says. "I'm not sure what we'll do. I let her decide."

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