It is based on the screenplay for the Italian film Nights of Cabiria. However, whereas Federico Fellini 's black-and-white film concerns the romantic ups-and-downs of an ever-hopeful prostitute, in the musical the central character is a dancer-for-hire at a Times Square dance hall. The production also ran in the West End as well as having revivals and international productions.
For Bob Fosse, who directed and choreographed, the film was his feature-film directorial debut. With a shoulder bag and a heart tattooed on her left shoulder, Charity meets her boyfriend Charlie in Central Park.
While Charlie silently preens himself, Charity speaks the pick-up lines she imagines him saying, and tells him how handsome he is "You Should See Yourself".
Charlie then steals her handbag and pushes her into the lake usually the orchestra pit before running off. Passers-by discuss the apparent drowning but do nothing, until a young Spaniard finally rescues her. In the Hostess Room of the Fandango Ballroom, Charity tries to convince both herself and the other skeptical taxi dancers that Charlie tried to save her.
The manager, Herman, arrives to tell them it is time for work. The hostess dancers proposition the audience in the front room of the Fandango Ballroom " Big Spender ". On the street, after work, Charity gives to every beggar who approaches her until she realizes she has no money. Just then, film star Vittorio Vidal rushes out of the smart Pompeii Club, in pursuit of his beautiful mistress, Ursula. Ursula refuses to go back inside with Vittorio, who promptly takes the only-too-willing Charity instead.
