NEW YORK—Charity Hope Valentine, the dance hall girl with the heart of gold, and one tattooed on her forearm, will make a return to Broadway this spring. The 1966 classic Sweet Charity is being remounted with songs that were cut from the original production, as well as additional songs by Cy Coleman.

The Starring role will be played by Christina Applegate, best know for her ten year stint as the ditzy daughter on the Fox series Married with Children. She also won an Emmy for her recurring guest role as Jennifer Aniston’s sister on NBC’s Friends and garnered a Golden Globe nomination for her NBC series Jesse.

Ms. Applegate’s career has moved from the small screen to the big screen in recent years with roles in half a dozen films, working along side Hollywood heavy hitters Ben Affleck in Surviving Christmas and Cameron Diaz in The Sweetest Thing. Sweet Charity is Ms. Applegate’s first turn as a Broadway star.

At an open press rehearsal last week, Ms. Applegate gushed about the opportunity to work on Broadway. “It’s great, I love it, I love the challenge— as an actor, a dancer, an artist.” She has been preparing for a year, taking dance classes and voice lessons.

“It’s very intense,” conceded the slightly fatigued Applegate, “The hardest part is the rehearsal process; the best part is being on stage.”

Applegate is stepping into some pretty big dancing shoes. The original Broadway production, starring Gwen Verdon and directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, was nominated for 12 Tony Awards. The book by Neil Simon was based on a Frederico Fellini film about an optimistic young woman with a habit of choosing the wrong guy. The music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields spawned several classic tunes like Hey Big Spender, and If My Friends Could See Me Now.

Sweet Charity was made into film in 1969, starring Shirley MacLaine, and was also directed by Fosse. A 1986 Broadway revival of Sweet Charity was also a great success, winning four Tony awards— one for “Best Revival.”

“It really is a dream,” said Applegate, “A childhood dream that I had let go of a long time ago. I stopped dancing ten years ago— but when I heard about the auditions for Sweet Charity I almost dropped the phone.”

Sweet Charity will play three pre-Broadway engagements in Minneapolis, Chicago and Boston, prior to its April arrival at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in New York. The box office for Sweet Charity will open, appropriately enough, on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day.