“Guys and Dolls”

Posted by Gail M. Burns - June 2011

“Every line in it is worth something. It means something; has impact. It has vitality. It has humor and charm and appropriateness. And I don’t know how you can get much better than that.”

– Fred Ebb on Adelaide’s Lament

That was NOT me seen dancing my way out of the BSC Main Stage yesterday afternoon shouting something semi-coherent about “Fun!”…well, okay, it was. I admit, I had a pile of fun at Guys and Dolls and while I know that, professionally, I shouldn’t be seen expressing an opinion in public, I couldn’t help myself. Fun is highly under-rated and often denigrated when applied to art, but having it is really vital to the living of a sane, healthy life. I was suffering from serious theatrical fun deprivation and went a little loopy after the near-overdose that Guys and Dolls provided.

But I was not the first person to utter the word “fun” in the theatre – BSC Artistic Director Julianne Boyd started it in her curtain speech when she said that sometimes you stage a show just because its fun to do, and that she and the company had had lots of fun putting this production together. So the fact that the end result was fun to watch is hardly surprising.

But if you don’t want to believe me and Julie Boyd, I give you the evidence of the audience with whom I attended – an audience laden with curmudgeonly critics, I might add – who twice stopped the show with their applause and gave a rousing standing ovation at the end. I know that standing O’s have been over-indulged in of late, but this one was the real McCoy. You could feel the energy building. I love that feeling.

And now could we please have another loud round of applause for Pat McCorkle, CSA, who is the casting agent for Barrington Stage? She and director John Rando have assembled the PERFECT – I’ll say it again – the PERFECT cast for this show. Michael Thomas Holmes is hilarious as Nathan Detroit, Morgan James’ Juiliard-trained voice soars as Sarah Brown, Leslie Kritzer brings a whole new meaning to the word ditzy as Miss Adelaide, and Matthew Risch is positively yummy as Sky Masterson. They can sing, they can act, they can dance – and they’re only the leads. EVERYONE in this cast is extraordinary, and Rando and choreographer Joshua Bergasse have found special moments for each of them to shine. For such a big musical, this is a very compact cast, which makes the rapid transitions of the minor characters – who are also the major dancers – all the more impressive.

The show opens with the wonderful sound of the eight piece pit band under the baton of Darren Cohen. Now I know how people felt about chocolate during rationing – having more than a piano and a synthesizer is such a treat, such an indulgence in these austere times, but such a wise investment here.

Then the lights come up on the first of many of Alexander Dodge’s cityscapes, and we are in Runyonland – a dance piece/overture combo which allows the boys and girls of the chorus to shine. May I just say “Wow”? These kids are great! I was unable to figure out which young man appeared as the Little Old Lady here an again in a Runyonland reprise towards the end, but from his first feather-light pratfall, I was hooked. As the show progresses the guys get to show off their acrobatic and dance skills more than the dolls, who mostly do a lot of hip-wiggling, but its all good and its all wonderful fun to watch.

Fugue for Tin Horns introduces us to the fine voices of Daniel Marcus (Nicely-Nicely Johnson), Timothy Shew (Benny Southstreet), and Correy West (Rusty Charlie). Did I mention Guys and Dolls is one of the great American musical comedies? I refer you back to the quotation from the late, great Fred Edd which opens this review. He is speaking specifically about Adelaide’s Lament but the comment applies to all of Frank Loesser’s brilliant score and lyrics.

When I first heard Adelaide’s Lament as a girl, I was astonished by the way it blended narrative with song. It obviously astonished people unfamiliar with it in yesterday’s audience because there were lots of laughs during the number, which proves how perfectly Kritzer sang it – every word crisp and clear despite Miss Adelaide’s distinctive New Yawk accent.

I have always been partial to the spunky, flamboyant Adelaide over that repressed goody-two-shoes Sarah Brown, but James and Risch changed my mind about her. Rando made sure that there was an almost instantaneous connection between the two performers, so that while the wonderfully fluid Havana number showed us Sarah’s defenses swiftly giving way to rum and rumba, we knew that she was stone cold sober when she fell for Sky, and vice versa. And who wouldn’t fall for the winningly handsome Risch? Every time they shared a scene Peggy Pharr Wilson, as the starchy and stalwart General Matilda B. Cartwright, allowed herself some small but remarkably raunchy reaction to Risch’s masculine pulchritude. Perhaps we enjoyed those warm good looks at the expense of some of Masterson’s toughness, but who the heck cares?

I particularly enjoyed James rendition of If I Were a Bell in which she was showed us physically and vocally just how drunk Sarah was without going overboard.

Holmes handled most of the masculine comedy, but in the final lines of Sue Me he let go vocally and morphed from a funny little man with a funny little voice to handsome hero with a very legit baritione.

Every number in this show is great, but for me Adelaide’s Lament in Act I and Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat in Act II are the peaks. The first defines character and the second is just pure rollicking musical fun. Marcus, who is not a slender fellow, suddenly developed wings on his feet like Mercury (wasn’t he also the god of mischief?) as he floated about the Save-A-Soul Mission selling his soul in song.

Guys and Dolls is based on a couple of Damon Runyon’s Broadway short stories. (Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling’s book for the show would have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama had Burrows not been in trouble with the House Un-American Activities Committee.) Runyon’s characters are the literary equivalent of comic strip characters – they are bigger, brighter, bolder, and more colorful than anyone who ever lived, and yet they perfectly capture the urban underworld in Prohibition era America. When we think of gangsters, we think of Big Jule, beautifully played here by Michael Nichols, who is certainly big, and also very, very funny.

I mentioned that Dodge’s set starts out slow but it has more surprises than a piñata as drops fly in and walls open up. The big requirement of the scenic designer of Guys and Dolls is the sewer set for Luck Be a Lady in Act II. It didn’t get a hand, but it sure wowed me as I watched Sky and Nicely-Nicely descend through a manhole and then watched the stage morph from above the street to below in a forced perspective look at the literal bowels of New York City.

Alejo Vietti has designed spiffy costumes, including some delicious “fascinators” for Adelaide and the Hot Box girls. Since the Royal Wedding these oddly shaped hats that perch vertiginously on the side of the head are all the rage. I know Princess Beatrice made a pile by auctioning off her wedding chapeau on E-bay. Perhaps BSC could line its coffers by doing likewise with these costume pieces once the run of the show is done? I have my eye on that hot pink one…

I know that there are parents who object to Guys and Dolls because its all about gambling and gangsters and getting drunk in Havana, and if these are things, even as presented here in a broadly comic manner, that you don’t want your children exposed to by all means stay home. I can’t imagine a childhood without the joy and fun of musical theatre like this, and the inspiration and wonder it still brings to me, and I consider Guys and Dolls a great show for the whole family. Tickets for Youth 18 and under or students with a valid ID are $15 all performances except Saturday evenings.

We all need our Fun Fix, and here it can be had for the price of a ticket. What are you waiting for??

Click HERE for a complete photo gallery for Guys and Dolls.

Guys and Dolls runs on the Barrington Stage Company Mainstage, 30 Union Street in Pittsfield, MA June 15-July 16. The show runs two hours and forty minutes with one intermission. Performance dates and times: Tuesday and Wednesday at 7pm, Thursday-Saturday at 8pm, Friday matinees at 2pm (excluding June 17), Sunday at 5pm. Additional Wednesday matinees held June 29, July 6 and July 13 at 2pm. There is no 8pm performance on Saturday, June 25. Tickets: $15-$60. Seniors: $35 all matinees. There will be a post-show discussion following the Tuesday, June 21, 7pm performance.

Tickets: $15-$60. Seniors: $35 all matinees. Tickets for Youth 18 and under or students with a valid ID are $15 all performances except Saturday evenings. Call the box office at 413-236-8888 or visit www.barringtonstageco.org for tickets and more information.

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