Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage to June 30, 2024
Tickets from $39 at 604-687-1644 or www.artsclub.com
Posted May 24, 2024
Guys and Dolls is an oldie going all the way back to a couple of short stories, specifically The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown written in 1933 by American writer Damon Runyon. Using New York street vernacular, Runyon built his reputation on stories about gangsters and gamblers and the colourful people on the periphery of the New York underworld: perfect fare for a Broadway musical. With music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, Guys and Dolls opened on Broadway in 1950 and was a smash hit sweeping the 1951 Tony Awards with Best Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Choreography and Best Direction of a Musical. Subsequent revivals on Broadway, in London and elsewhere garnered all the major awards. The film version came out in 1955 starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine and Jean Simmons.
So, it’s an oldie but a goodie given new life, new title (Guys & Dolls) by director Ashlie Corcoran and a super-talented ensemble of some two dozen singers and dancers plus live music under the direction of Ken Cormier. From set designer Scott Penner’s 3000-4000 lightbulbs that light up the Stanley stage, to the swinging overture, you know you’re in for a really big show.
Two romantic pairings run parallel through the plot: Sky Masterson, bigtime gambler who blows into town for a high stakes crap game and pretty Miss Sarah Brown, a sergeant in the Salvation Army’s Save-A-Soul Mission. The other pair is Nathan Detroit, incorrigible organizer of the “oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York” and Hot Box entertainer Miss Adelaide who has been engaged to Nathan for fourteen long years.
When Nathan can’t come up with the money required to rent a place for the big crap game that brings Sky and Chicago’s notorious Big Jule to town, he makes a crazy bet with Sky: for a thousand bucks, Nathan bets that Sky can’t get Miss Sarah Brown to go to Havana for dinner. “She’s not the kinda doll that goes to Havana”, crows an overly confident Nathan to a pal. But we all know where this is going and it’s Havana.
Act One feels long but blows wide open late in the act with the Havana club scene’s hot, hot colours, sexy Cuban rhythms and choreography (Shelley Stewart Hunt). Pert and increasingly tipsy Miss Sarah is drinking “Cuban milkshakes” laced with Bacardi while an amused Sky keeps her glass constantly topped up.
It’s a silly story but it’s well told and Act Two, especially, comes alive with choreography that’s not 30s and not exactly 50s but is, somehow, innocent in a way that the 50s were. In the Hot Box, the dancers strip off their gowns (designed by costume designer Christine Reimer), but they’re still dressed underneath. The gamblers wear suits, ties and fedoras and don’t have guns (with one exception) underneath their suit jackets. And when Sky surprises Sarah with a kiss, she hits him. There’s a sweetness and innocence about it all.
Director Corcoran brings togethert together some spectacular performers: Jonathan Winsby makes a smooth, handsome Sky in impeccably tailored, light-coloured suits, dark shirts and light coloured ties. His Sky is gentlemanly and decent and with Winsby’s warm and lovely tenor voice he makes magic out of “My Time of Day” and “I’ve Never Been in Love Before.” Chelsea Rose, in the role of Miss Sarah Brown, has obvious chemistry with Winsby; in real life Rose and Winsby are engaged. I especially loved Rose singing “Marry the Man Today” with Madeleine Suddaby who plays Adelaide. Suddaby brings the house down every time she opens her mouth. “Take Back Your Mink”, with Reimer’s stunning black and white gowns, long strands of pearls (or “poils” rhyming with “goils”) and fluffy white mink stoles, is a showstopper as is “Adelaide’s Lament”. Because the original Broadway cast featured Sam Levene (who apparently did not have a great voice) as Nathan, only one song (“Sue Me”) was given to that character. That’s a pity because Josh Epstein, who plays Nathan in this Arts Club production, has a terrific voice.
The big treat of opening night was Tenaj Williams as Nicely-Nicely Johnson. Prolonged applause greeted his “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat”. He seemed genuinely surprised by the audience’s reaction which only added to his charm. And Tom Pickett just gets better and better with age; his “More I Cannot Wish You” is soft and sweet and gently moving.
Romantic. Innocent. Singable, memorable songs. Enthusiastic choreography. And, at the end, a touch of reality or more likely, wishful thinking on the part of Miss Sarah Brown and Miss Adelaide: “Marry the Man Today” – “and change his ways tomorrow”. Only in a musical, dolls!