By James Scarborough for the Grunion Gazette
MTW's "Guys and Dolls" Shines

If you want to experience a rare phenomenon when script, cast and enactment meld to form a lustrous whole, get thee to the Carpenter Performing Arts Center to see Musical Theatre West's excellent song-studded production of Frank Loesser's "Guys and Dolls," directed by Nick DeGrucio.

The plot revolves around Miss Adelaide (Bets Malone), Hot Box danseuse, who has dated Nathan Detroit (Patrick De Santis), floating crap game organizer, for 14 years. She wants stability and respectability; he wants unhindered movement. They're nuts about each other.

The story opens as Nathan scrambles to find cash to finance a site for a crap game as he scrambles to find time to see Miss Adelaide. Helped by a charming coterie of riff-raff, including Nicely-Nicely Johnson (John Massey), Nathan finds himself in a bind.

An all-star team of high rollers has rolled into town. This includes Harry the Horse (Dan Conroy), all the way from Brooklyn, man mountain Big Jule (Herschel Sparber) from Chicago and Sky Masterson (Kevin Earley), lately from Las Vegas.

Nathan, not a gambling man himself, bets Sky a thousand potatoes (dollars) that he can't take Sarah Brown (Tami Tappan Damiano), a Salvation Army martyr, to dinner in Havana. Not only does Sky succeed, he and Sarah fall in love. He proves to be the salvation of the mission: he gets a throng of thugs to attend a service, he saves Sarah's good name, and the story ends with Sky and Nathan marrying their girls.

Not only is the story sweet and tight, the characters memorable, but the acting, the singing and, especially, the dancing were superb; and the sets were definitely something to write home about. The depiction of Sky's flight to Cuba alone was worth the price of admission.

The opening hustle-bustle choreography of Broadway sets the stage for an evening of rousing movement and stupendous songs. My favorite song, a tribute to Nathan's career longevity, was "The Oldest Established," sung by Nathan, Nicely-Nicely and the Gamblers, who were exuberant, high-spirited, proud, with an underworld pride: these were low-lifes, but my, did they have pizzazz. Frank Sinatra who?

Massey's Nicely-Nicely was light-footed and limber. When he ricocheted around the interior of the Mission belting out "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," I would have gladly asked to have all my sins forgiven as well.

Earley's Sky rose above the hoi polloi. He was classy and sophisticated; sure he gambled but he was also a gentleman and, to Sarah's delight, a biblical scholar.

De Santis's Nathan was adorable and single-minded, desperate and cuddly.

But I really liked Malone's Adelaide and Damiano's Sarah. Long-suffering, realizing, for the moment, that they can't change their men, they both take their own gamble on love. I especially like Damiano's delightful change from prim crusader to rum-swilling party girl.

7/16/2005

Prev Review | Next Review