"Guys and Dolls" – now on stage
at the Heights Players through Oct. 24 – has become such a classic
of musical theater it’s easy to forget its long, hard road to
Broadway. In fact, producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin originally
envisioned the musical, based on Damon Runyan’s short story "The
Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown," as a serious romance.
After hiring composer-lyricist Frank Loesser, the producers went
through 11 librettists before settling on Jo Swerling and Abe
Burrows. It was this writing team that turned the project into
a comedy revolving around "the oldest established permanent
floating craps game in New York" and its organizer, Nathan
Detroit, who tries to keep the game afloat by betting fellow
gambler Sky Masterson he can’t convince the first girl he sees
(she turns out be the temperance missionary Sarah Brown) to accompany
him to Havana.
With the addition of a sub-plot involving Detroit’s long-suffering
fiance of 14 years, the nightclub singer Adelaide, the show was
ready for the Great White Way. "Guys and Dolls" opened
at the 46th Street Theatre on Nov. 24, 1950, and ran for 1,200
performances, making it the fifth-longest-running Broadway show
of the ’50s.
Since that time, "Guys and Dolls" has been revived
twice on Broadway (in 1976 with an all-black cast and again in
1992) and twice at City Center during the ’60s. "Guys and
Dolls" was also made into the 1955 film starring the hopelessly
miscast Marlon Brando as Masterson. And, of course, the musical
has become a staple for regional theaters throughout the country.
Although "Guys and Dolls" is, by now, an old war-horse,
it traditionally pulls up to the finish line like a true thoroughbred.
The Heights Players, presenting "Guys and Dolls" for
the second time (the first was during the 1972-’73 season), have
once again proven true the advice Masterson received from his
father: "You can’t lose with a sure thing." But that
is not to say they haven’t stacked the deck with a winning team.
The very capable Ellen Pittari ("The Wizard of Oz,"
"Rumors") directs a huge cast of both newcomers and
veterans. Among the newcomers, Mitch Maguire as Masterson, Whitney
Kirk as Brown, Mark Cajigao as Detroit and Olivia Goode as Miss
Adelaide all deliver outstanding performances.
Kirk’s soprano is as pure as her character’s heart, while Goode
is a ball of blonde fire as she belts her way through "Take
Back Your Mink" and "Adelaide’s Lament." Cajigao
portrays Detroit with equal doses of chutzpah and heart as he
pursues Adelaide with the hopes of never getting caught. Although
Maguire seems to have taken too much of a cue from Brando, he
has a good voice and an easy way that could and should be developed.
One of the best features of "Guys and Dolls" are its
well-developed supporting characters. The Heights Players have
wisely and whimsically filled two of these roles with veterans
from their previous "Guys and Dolls" production – Ed
Healy, who seems born to play Big Jule, the gangster from Chicago
who carries his own set of blank dice (and a gun in case anyone
has any problems with that), and John Bourne, whose cameos as
the drunken Red Nose Regan are totally convincing.
Tom Tyler (Arvide Abernathy, leader of the Mission Band), who
more frequently directs these days, provides one of the tenderest
moments in the play when he sings his advice to Brown – "More
I Cannot Wish You."
Another newcomer we’d like to see more of is Tom Patterson (Nicely
Nicely Johnson), who rocks the house with "Sit Down, You’re
Rockin’ the Boat."
Albert Walsh and Judith Meehan get the costume credits for this
production, and they have achieved what is so often impossible
in community theater – making showgirls look really sexy. If
only for this they deserve a round of applause.
"Guys and Dolls" remains that quintessentially New
York musical in its ability to mix the sordid and the sublime.
More than 50 years after it first opened on Broadway, the musical
still pays tribute to the grit of those who live in a city filled
with grime and glitz. And it does so with great humor and some
of the most beautiful, innovative and spunky songs ever warbled
onstage.
The Heights Players’ production of "Guys and Dolls"
plays through Oct. 24, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays
at 2 pm. Tickets are $15, $12 students and seniors. The Heights
Players theater is located at 26 Willow Place at State Street
in Brooklyn Heights. For reservations, call (718) 237-2752.
