Review of Huys and Dolls in Long Beach
To say that "Guys and Dolls" is foolproof may be a stretch, only anyone who endeavors to phase the striking 1950 Broadway musical already has a leg up.
The characters, based on the creations of newspaperman and short story writer Damon Runyon, are colorful and lighthearted and their dialogue is pointed, funny and entertaining. Frank Loesser's songs are among his best, representing the pinnacle of theater's fabled Golden Age.
Get the correct gents and ladies into the cast, a strong visual look, and a solid orchestral handle on Loesser's score, and you're off to the races.
Musical Theatre West's Carpenter Eye staging has it all. It'due south everything any "Guys and Dolls" should be, and more than.
Managing director Mark Martino has platonic leads in Matthew Henerson, Bree Murphy, Jeremiah James and Madison Claire Parks. The 12 supporting players are aces. Ditto every member of the half-dozen-guy, half-dozen-doll ensemble.
Theater fans know that volume writers Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling crafted a story of ii couples: Nathan Detroit (Henerson) runs New York City'south longest continuing floating craps game while fugitive marriage to longtime fiancée Miss Adelaide (Murphy).
Nathan bets flashy gambler Heaven Masterson (James) he tin't get pious practice-gooder Miss Sarah Brown (Parks) on a appointment. Naturally, with trivial in common, the slick Sky and starchy Miss Sarah fall in dear.
The residue of "Guys" is pretty much window dressing, but what glorious theatrical window dressing it is.
The famed "Runyonland" overture sets the tone, as Times Square is overrun with tourists, sailors on shore get out, chorus girls, a nanny pushing a baby carriage, a boxer in training, a pickpocket, a wino, a photographer and some glamorous motion-picture show stars.
Burrows and Swerling'southward volume is every bit good every bit golden – a sure affair with enough of solid 1-liners among the dialogue. Some of the jokes are silly groaners – entirely the point, since Runyon's characters are endearingly unsophisticated.
The gamblers counting on Nathan to keep the floating craps game from going under revere "the game" as a organized religion – a fact that nicely ties in with Sister Sarah Brown's heroic efforts to keep the Save-A-Soul Mission from endmost its doors.
Every bit short and squat, Potato and Henerson are visually well matched, Potato's pugnacious Adelaide every bit allergic to remaining unwed as Henerson's excitable Nathan is to matrimony.
Henerson's Nathan is aptly choked – desperate to line up the game, cringing at cops (Lt. Brannigan), gangsters (Big Jule) and his lady dear (Adelaide).
Feisty redhead Murphy is a bulldog of a gal, her granite jaw set with Adelaide's conclusion. She's a tough cookie, true, but Nathan wounds her dignity, a trait played for both laughs and poignancy.
James lends nice shadings to his slick, mannerly Sky, who brims with conviction, distinctive mannerisms and a delivery that's part Clark Gable, office Kirk Douglas.
The handsome actor'south strong tenor is used to stirring effect in "My Fourth dimension of Day" and given a softer tone for "I've Never Been in Dear Before," and he embodies Sky'southward intensity in the exciting solo "Luck Be a Lady," with Sky'south entire romance with Sarah riding on i ringlet of the die.
Parks delivers Sarah's fluttery emotions in signature songs similar "I'll Know," and her elation and romantic abandon in the archetype solo "If I Were a Bell."
Andrew Metzger'south Nicely-Nicely Johnson combines The 3 Stooges' Curly Joe with Wimpy of "Popeye." Colorful clowns throughout, he and Blake Joseph equally Benny Southstreet are an entertaining, vaudeville-similar duo in the tricky, peppy, iconic title number.
The duo's idiosyncratic mode of speaking is the show's defining feature, carried out by Martino's entire cast: Ted Barton'south enjoyably eccentric Harry the Horse, Kenny Landmon's tough-every bit-nails Brannigan, Phil Nieto'south hulking, bearish Big Jule and Janna Cardia's goofily energetic General Cartwright.
The most overtly straitlaced grapheme is Fred Bishop's compassionate Arvide. Patient and supportive of Sarah, his granddaughter, he lends pleasingly Gaelic shadings and philosophical wisdom to his solo "More I Cannot Wish You lot."
Loesser's immortal score shines nether the baton of music director and pit usher Benet Braun. Tamara Becker's vibrant costumes garb the raffish gamblers in checks, pinstripes and plaids. The beautifully fanciful sets are furnished past The Music and Theatre Company in Lakeside.
Choreographer Daniel Smith'due south work enlivens every musical number, with highlights in the visually arresting Crapshooters Ballet, which showcases incredibly agile dancing by the male chorus, and the most expansive number, the climactic "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat."
MTW's staging is simply magnificent, surpassing the show's playfully accurate billing as "a musical fable of Broadway."
'Guys and Dolls'
When: Through March 4. 8 p.m. Fridays, two p.m. and eight p.m. Saturdays, ane p.one thousand. Sundays, 6 p.m. Feb. 25, viii p.thousand. March i
Where: Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Heart, 6200 East. Atherton, Long Beach
Tickets: $xx to $92
Length: 2 hours, 35 minutes
Suitability: All ages
Rating: ***1/two
Information: 562-856-1999 ext. 4, musical.org
Source: https://www.presstelegram.com/2018/02/21/long-beach-staging-of-guys-and-dolls-cashes-in-on-the-1950-musicals-raft-of-theatrical-assets/