When Frank Loesser Realized He Was Supposed to Write 16 Songs and Four Orchestral Interludes

Dese ‘Guys and Dolls’ provide a dose of pleasure
By Lawrence Toppman
The Charlotte Observer
June 18, 2012

When Frank Loesser realized he was supposed to write 16 songs and four orchestral interludes for “Guys and Dolls,” he hinted to director George S. Kaufman that he’d like to cut a corner by reprising the best tunes. Sure, Kaufman replied – if Loesser would let playwright Abe Burrows reprise the best jokes. The composer took the hint and polished the score until there wasn’t one mediocre number, creating what some folks consider the greatest of all Broadway musicals.

That kind of craftsmanship ensured that the show still plays well today, 61 years after it won five Tonys. Damon Runyon’s garrulous guys and delectable dolls can no longer be seen along Broadway, and his stories have receded into the mists of history. But this show made him immortal, and CPCC Summer Theatre has given it a vivacious production.

CPCC uses mostly college students, who give the characters vitality in place of street-won wisdom. Salvation Army recruiter Sarah Brown (Haley Henderson) has the naïve conviction of a woman who sets out to save other souls before fully looking into her own. Gambler Sky Masterson (Ross Neal) can afford to be cavalier about life’s hard knocks, because he’s felt few of them so far. Their romance catches them by surprise, because neither is jaded or cynical yet.

You can buy into them more easily than crap game sponsor Nathan Detroit (Michael Moore) and Hot Box dancer Adelaide (Charity Ruth Haskins), because that pair has to have been engaged for 14 years. Yet even there, youth is on their side a bit: A woman of 30 bemoaning her long-unmarried state is funnier and less pathetic than a woman of 45.

The show makes its strongest impression with bodies in full voice and full-out motion: The male chorus sings especially well, and choreographer Eddie Mabry has found dancers who really could be showgirls and given them the right snazzy steps. (“Take Back Your Mink” becomes a highlight.)

Director Tom Hollis also benefits from polished supporting performances: an urbane Nicely-Nicely Johnson (Beau Stroupe), an ebullient Benny Southstreet (Mitchell Dudas), an Arvide (Robert Taylor) who exudes warmth toward granddaughter Sarah.

Yet the show needs fine-tuning in ways to make it faster and slower: Certain dialogue exchanges should be snappier, and music director Drina Keen drives song tempos with even, consistent speeds on the rapid side. (The conductor on the original cast album slows ballads down near their endings, to greater emotional effect.)

The young singers have resonant and attractive voices but don’t always project with clear diction, and the acoustics of Halton Theater are unhelpful to them. Haskins is a delightfully chirpy Adelaide, but when her voice rises in outrage, she becomes all but incomprehensible for a moment.

Gary Sivak’s lighting is sometimes complimentary to the stars, sometimes cruel. (White spotlights for solos, used here in show after show, arrive with startling abruptness and wander before settling.) But Jamey Varnadore’s bright, multi-hued costumes couldn’t be improved; they almost made me wish I still lived in an era when a guy looked snazzy rather than silly in a red-and-white checkered suit.

'Guys and Dolls' deserves another trip to the theaterBy KATIE WINKLERFor Halifax Media GroupAugust 3, 2012

When “Guys and Dolls,” Flat Rock Playhouse's main stage production, directed by Vincent Marini, premiered at New York's 46th Street Theater on Nov. 25, 1950, it was an instant success, winning five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Its popularity has never waned.

Enjoying repeated Broadway revivals and frequently produced by many community theaters, high schools, colleges and universities, many people can say they've enjoyed seeing at least one, and very likely more, productions of this iconic show. Because of its frequent production, some might be tempted to skip yet another production of “Guys and Dolls.”

I say, resist that temptation.

No matter how many times you've seen this show, you will not want to miss FRP's superb production. Like a locomotive carrying newlyweds from Brooklyn to Niagara Falls, the show starts out slowly but sweetly, soon running full tilt into an explosion of entertainment. With music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Joe Swerling and Abe Burrows, the play is based on two short stories by Damon Runyon, “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown” and “Blood Pressure,” that celebrate the lives of Broadway's “lovable” gamblers and hustlers, along with their strong, long-suffering “dolls.”

It seems that the hustler Nathan Detroit (played with zest by John Plumpis), hounded by the ever vigilant cop Lt. Brannigan (Michael MacCauley), needs a new place for his floating craps game but must come up with the dough. He bets high roller Sky Masterson (Jarrod Emick) that he will not be able to convince the straight-laced dame Sarah Brown (Garrett Long) to go to Havana with him. The bet is made, but Sky does not count on falling in love, and Nathan does not realize the sleeping dragon he will awake in his sweet fiancée of 14 years, Adelaide (Leslie McKinnell). Complicate the story with the arrival of Big Jule (Herschel Sparber) from Chicago as well as the pressures and pleasures of small-time gangster life, and you're in for a rollicking good ride.

In a frenetic opening, we are introduced to the fantastical world of “Runyonland,” somewhat reminiscent of New York (in a delightfully abstract way) and populated by characters with colorful personalities, costumes and monikers to match — characters such as Benny Southwest (Michael Marotta), Rusty Charlie (Preston Dyar) and Nicely-Nicely Johnson (Wayne W. Pretlow), who delightfully serenade us with the “Fugue for Tinhorns,” or more recognizably, “I've Got Your Horse Right Here.” With this number Pretlow establishes himself as one of the finest actors I've ever seen take on the role of the loveable, bumbling Nicely-Nicely. When joined with an incredible full chorus for that venerable show stopper “Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat,” Pretlow definitely rocks The Rock. The complete chorus shines throughout the show, especially in “Havana,” but the male chorus deserves special praise for “The Oldest Established” and “Luck Be a Lady” — one of the most beloved songs in all of American musical theater.

Music, lyrics, acting, singing, especially by Jarrod Emick as Sky, and phenomenal dancing, also in the preliminary “Crapshooters Dance,” make this No. 1 of the highlights of the show.

But don't forget the dolls! The performances of the women's chorus, especially in “Bushel and a Peck” and “Take Back Your Mink,” are charming. In addition, the principal female performers, Garrett Long as Sarah Brown and Lesley McKinnell as Adelaide, particularly in “Adelaide's Lament,” are nothing to be sneezed at (my apologies to Miss Adelaide).

Fine acting by John Plumpis as Nathan Detroit, Stephen Ware as Arvide Abernathy, and Scott Cote as Harry the Horse, along with more wonderful acting, singing and dancing than I have room to mention in one short review, make a night at The Rock with “Guys and Dolls” the perfect way to spend a summer evening in beautiful Western North Carolina.

Katie Winkler teaches English composition, British literature and creative writing at Blue Ridge Community College and is active in the drama department there as a writer, director and actor.