Guys and Dolls

The popularity of and enduring affection for Frank Loesser’s “Guys and Dolls” is easily seen in its award history. It swept the Tonys in 1951, the year it opened on Broadway (where it ran for 1,200 performances), winning not only “Best Musical,” but also awards for Best Actor, Actress, Director and Choreographer.

It had nominations again for Best Actor (Jerry Orbach) in 1965, and was nominated in 1977 for Best Revival of a Musical.

In 1992 it again won an award for Best Revival of a Musical, as well as awards for Director, Choreographer and Actress, with four additional nominations for the revival. In 2009 it was again nominated for Best Revival.

Various productions also hold Drama Desk awards, Olivier awards and Helpmann awards.

Often called “the perfect Broadway Musical,” “Guys and Dolls” is a perennial favorite for community theater. The Davis Musical Theatre Company last presented the musical in 2004 and is now reviving it for a limited run at the Hoblit Performing Arts Center under the direction of Jan Isaacson.

The book, by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, is based on two short stories by Damon Runyon, “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown” and “Blood Pressure,” and also borrows characters from other Runyon stories.

Burrows’ book actually won the Pulitzer Prize in letters in 1951, but because of the author’s problems with the House Un-American Activities committee, the prize was never awarded and instead no prize for letters was given that year.

It is the story of good and evil clashing in the bustling streets of New York City, only the good isn’t always completely likable and the evil is often endearing.

Steve Isaacson is reprising his 2004 role as Nathan Detroit, who runs the “oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York.” Giving Isaacson the role of a wise-cracking New Yorker is like casting Stallone as a not-too-bright fighter. Isaacson fits the role perfectly and you know you’re in good hands whenever he is on stage.

At the start of the show, Detroit is looking for a place to hold his nightly game because Lt Brannigan (Mike Ball) is hot on his tail and all of his usual locations have refused to let him set up there. This game is particularly important because Harry the Horse (Giorgio Selvaggio) is in town and has brought high roller “Big Jule” (Spencer Johnson), who has lots of big bucks and is eager to earn more.

In the meantime, Detroit’s fiancée of 14 years, Miss Adelaide (Brittany Bickel), a dancer at the Hotsy Totsy Club, is getting tired of waiting for Nathan to set the date (“Adelaide’s Lament”).

Nathan learns he can use the Biltmore Garage for his game, but must pay $1,000, which he does not have. He tries to borrow the money from Skye Masterson (Travis Nagler), a gambler known to bet on anything. Nathan bets that Skye can’t convince Salvation Army missionary Sarah Brown (Laura Wardrip) to accompany him to Cuba.

While lacking the pizzazz of Isaason’s performance, Nagler looks every bit what one would expect from a New York gambler. And while Wardrip, despite being sabotaged by a terrible wig, had some vocal problems early in the show, she managed to come into her own in her duet with Adelaide (“Marry the Man Today”).

A very sweet moment was the song Sarah’s father (Dave Isaacson — no relation to Steve) sang to his daughter (“More I Cannot Wish You”).

Masterson delivers a group of sinners to the mission in an effort to help save it, as “General Cartwright” (Mary Young) feels that it has been a dismal failure and is ready to shut it down. The song “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat” from that service is always the high point of the show, and Kyle Hadley as Nicely-Nicely Johnson continued the tradition and did not disappoint.

“Guys and Dolls” is a big, brassy musical that suffers a bit in this production from the muffled sound of the DMTC orchestra, but it still manages to persevere and left the audience applauding enthusiastically at the end.

Guys and Dolls

Fifteen years have passed since 'Guys and Dolls' appeared on the Music Circus stage.

After seeing director Marcia Milgrom Dodge's sparkling new production, it's hard to understand why the show stayed away so long.

This musical by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows - based on short stories by Damon Runyon, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser - is set on the streets of New York in the 1950s, and the characters are so stereotypically delicious that we can't help falling in love with them.

These are the low-lifes, gamblers, showgirls and gangsters, and the Salvation Army-like missionaries who try to save their souls. And Dodge secured an all star cast to portray them.

Tony Award-winner Gary Beach ('The Producers') is two-bit shyster Nathan Detroit, who runs 'the oldest established floating crap game in New York.' Don't look for the image of a young Sinatra, who played the role in the 1955 film adaptation; Beach's Detroit has been in business a long time, and is a wise-cracking, take-charge guy.

Detroit has been engaged for 14 years (!) to the long-suffering Miss Adelaide (Heather Lee), a singer and dancer at The Hot Box; she's beginning to worry that they'll never get married. Lee, who played this role in the show's Broadway revival, is a gem: a bleached blonde with a Betty Rubble giggle, who dreams of settling down in a real home with Nathan.

Their duet, 'Sue Me,' is a true crowd-pleaser.

Matthew Ashford - known to daytime soap opera fans as Jack Devereaux, from 'Days of our Lives' - is the high-rolling Sky Masterson. He's in town to pick up a few bucks at the crap game, but he picks up more than he bargained for; He falls in love with a straight-laced missionary, Sarah Brown (Montego Glover), when Nathan bets that Sky can't get her to go on an overnight trip to Havana with him.

Sarah, joined by her grandfather and others in their small band of missionaries, attempts (unsuccessfully) to bring God to the people of lower Manhattan. She dreams of romance ('I'll Know') but realizes that Masterson isn't 'it.'

Glover, last seen at the Music Circus in the title role in 'Aida,' made her Broadway debut as Celie in 'The Color Purple.' She has both a beautiful voice and the ability to play physical comedy as well, as evidenced by her antics while 'under the influence' in Havana.

If Sarah's grandfather Arvide Abernathy looks familiar, it's because the role is played by Conrad John Schuck, best known for his long-running role as Sgt. Enright in TV's 'McMillan and Wife.' Schuck, boasting a lengthy Broadway and TV résumé, has a wonderful voice; he also shows Arvide's deep love for his granddaughter.

The cast also includes a wonderful assortment of gangsters who speak in that unique mix of courtly formality and tough-guy vernacular: guys such as Nicely-Nicely Johnson (E.E. Bell), who got his nickname by answering 'nicely, nicely' whenever asked how he was doing. Bell brings down the house with his rousing rendition of 'Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat.'

Will Mann stands out in the small role of Harry the Horse, particularly in the 'Crapshooters Ballet,' danced by the male chorus in the underground location Detroit has found for his game.

P.L. Brown is also notable as Big Jule, who has traveled in from Chicago for the game. Big Jule is appropriately named, as he's large and menacing, and has a voice that could comfortably sing 'Asleep in the Deep.'

Local favorite Rodger Hoopman - founder/producer/artistic director of the 33-year-old Chautauqua Playhouse - has appeared in more than 25 Music Circus productions. He pops up here as Lt. Brannigan, charged with shutting down the crap game.

The right apparel is essential to any production of 'Guys and Dolls,' and Leon Wiebers is particularly successful at creating the male characters by their costumes alone: an assortment of padded shoulders and pin stripes that say 'gangsta' before anybody even opens his mouth.

Add Sky's over-the-top blue number, and the black suit for Big Jule, and it couldn't be more perfect.

'Guys and Dolls' is a delightful show, full of witty dialogue and lots of familiar tunes. This production is certain to satisfy just about everyone.

Guys and Dolls

It’s always good when you can walk out of a theatre thinking about something you’ve seen that really excites you. That “something” came in the person of Michael R.J. Campbell, Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Davis Musical Theatre Company’s production of “Guys and Dolls.” Campbell is a talented young man with a big voice and his “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat,” combined with Michael Miiller’s energetic choreograpy was easily the high point of this production.

“Guys and Dolls,” the 1952 award-winning musical by Frank Loesser, based on the book by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling (based on tales of Damon Runyon) is a light-hearted look at the darker side of 1940s New York, and the lovable gangsters who inhabit it.

Director Jan Isaacson has assembled a cast of remarkably strong singers. Without exception they give wonderful voice to every song. Some are better actors than others.

Steve Isaacson was born to play the lovable scoundrel Nathan Detroit, a wise-cracking wheeler-dealer who runs the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York. Detroit is faced with a problem. Lt. Brannigan (Michael Miiler) is cracking down and he can’t find a place to hold the evening’s game.

Detroit has been engaged for years to Miss Adelaide (“the famous fiancee”), a dancer at the Hotsy Totsy club. All Adelaide wants is to finally marry Nathan and live in a house “with a picket fence and bookends.” Lauren Miller is a delightful Adelaide and, second only to Campbell’s Nicely-Nicely, delivers some of the most memorable musical numbers in the show.

Brennen Cull plays Sky Masterson, a high roller who is one of Detroit's regulars. Nicole Burritt-Smith plays Sarah Brown, the dedicated Salvation Army worker who has chosen to live among the seamy characters off Times Square in an attempt to convert the sinners. A wager between Masterson and Detroit leads to an unlikely romance between Masterson and Brown.

Cull and Buritt-Smith are both newcomers to DMTC and add much vocally. If you close your eyes and listen to Burritt-Smith, you might think you were listening to a young Shirley Jones. It’s a delicious, clear sound. Cull has a strong baritone and he comes alive whenever he sings. Unfortunately, there is little chemistry between the two characters, which makes their passion unbelievable and gives little energy to most of their scenes.

Returning for a second time as Arvide Abernathy, grandfather to Sarah, Bob Eggert’s touching “More I Cannot Wish You” displayed an unexpectedly strong voice.

Others in the cast include Mike McElroy as Benny Southstreeet; Ryan Adame as Rusty Charlie, ; Ben Bruening as Harry the Horse; Heather Sheridan as General Cartwright and Michael Jones as Big Jule.

Dancing is sometimes one of the weak points in community theatre productions, whose members are often stronger actors than dancers. However, Michael Miiller does wonders with DMTC casts. He has created such tight dance numbers in this production that it’s difficult to tell who in the cast has dance training and who does not. Whether a small ensemble for Hotsy Totsy club performances or full cast living it up in Havana, each dance number is a gem.

Jean Henderson has done her usual competent job in the costume department, especially in the colorful ensemble for the Havana scene. However, perhaps her most striking visual is for the Hot Box dancers in “Take Back Your Mink.”

One tiny quibble – in a production where such attention has obviously been made to period, in costume and set design (by Jennifer Walley), it was surprising in the opening number to see a photographer holding a camera as if he were looking at the LCD screen of a digital camera, rather than through the eyepiece of a film camera. Disconcerting and distracting for an amateur photographer to watch.

Guys and Dolls has a number of familiar tunes (“I’ll Know,” “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” “If I were a Bell,” “Luck Be a Lady” as well as the title song). It would be surprising if the audience did not emerge humming one of them at the end of the evening.

The production runs through March 28th at the Varsity Theatre.