Theater Review Guys and Dolls Old Log Theater
Regional Reviews: Minneapolis/St. Paul
Guys and Dolls
Erstwhile Log Theatre
Review past Arthur Dorman | Season Schedule
Also see Kit's review of Collected Stories and High-sounding's reviews of Almighty Voice and His Married woman and Newsies
Kym Chambers Otto and Cast
Photo Courtesy of One-time Log Theatre
The material is top full-blooded, with a terrific book by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling, based on the rollicking stories of humorist Damon Runyon. Runyon'southward numerous natural language-in-cheek tales about gangsters, gamblers and hustlers in Manhattan during the 1920s and 1930s created a mythology of harmless bad guys and ineffectual good guys. His characters speak with an unlikely mixt of hyper-formal English (contractions were verboten) colorful euphemisms, and slang, sounding like low-life individuals striving to come across with a modicum of grade. Burrows used these speech patterns in Guys and Dolls to construct a good-humored foundation to support the antic plot and snappy one-liners.
Frank Loesser'due south amazing score produced such American songbook classics as "If I Were a Bong," "Luck Be a Lady," "I'll Know," "A Bushel and a Peck", and "I've Never Been in Love Before"; the gospel-hued "Sit Down, Yous're Rockin' the Boat"; and droll comic turns like "The Oldest Established," "Ally the Man Today," "Take Dorsum Your Mink," and a landmark of musical theater, "Adelaide's Complaining." The lyrical "More I Cannot Wish You" takes the grade of a tenderhearted lullaby, and the title tune is a rollicking burst of free energy. Scores this full of knockout numbers are a rarity and a cause for commemoration.
The far-fetched story revolves around hustler Nathan Detroit, who operates "the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York," a vocation that has interfered with marrying his fiancée, Adelaide, a headliner at the Hot Box nightclub. Afterwards fourteen years of engagement, Adelaide is beginning to question Nathan'south intentions. To heighten money to float his adjacent game, Nathan places a bet against high-rolling gambler Heaven Masterson, a bet that ends upwardly entangling ladies' man Masterson with Sarah Dark-brown, a virginal missionary at the Save-a-Soul storefront mission.
It is plain as day that guys like Nathan Detroit don't get married and guys like Heaven Masterson accept no involvement in square dolls like Sarah Brown. But in the world of Damon Runyon, anything is possible. Adding to the fun are such colorful characters equally Nicely-Nicely Johnson, Benny Southstreet, Harry the Horse, and Large Jule. Oh, and of class there is an incorrigible detective ever ane footstep behind as he tries to grab Nathan Detroit in the act of running his illegal crap game.
Old Log has found a cast who wonderfully inhabit every one of these distinctive characters. The about impressive is Kym Chambers Otto as Adelaide, convincing in her hopeless devotion to her no-good fiancê, delivering a sterling "Adelaide's Lament" in which she reveals that her long-running cold is the outcome of her long-running engagement. She as well hits the spot with her two sassy nightclub numbers and is perfectly matched with Charlie Clark every bit Nathan Detroit, equally she harangues him in "Sue Me." Otto and Clark have a chemical science that makes their paring seem authentic. Clark is outstanding as a weasely con man in and out of the shadows to keep his game going, while commanding the respect of the other no-goodniks on the street.
Eric Sargent has the suave demeanor to convincingly play the heel Sky Masterson, and his velvet-toned vocalization does justice to 2 romantic duets with Grace Chermak equally Sarah Brown, while rolling out a rousing "Luck Be a Lady."
The supporting characters are nicely bandage likewise, starting with Nicely-Nicely Johnson, played by Aaron Booth, who stirs things up with "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" and the exuberant title song, performed equally a duet with Austin Stole equally Benny Southstreet. Kyle Schwartz delivers a menacing quality as Harry the Horse, and stage veteran James Cada is a hoot as humorless Large Jule, who, to make sure he goes home a winner, carries a pair of dice defective dots: "I memorized where the dots used to be," he assures his nervous accomplices. Martin 50'Herault is a winning presence as wise and goodhearted Arvide Abernathy, Sarah Dark-brown's grandpa and fellow missionary, and gives a tender-voiced delivery to the lovely "More I Cannot Wish You." The ensemble works together like clockwork, playing other roles and executing chorale and dance routines with seamless finesse, everything moving briskly, with an centre to keeping the laughs coming and the sentiment afloat by director R. Kent Knutson.
Talya Dozois' choreography is pleasing, enlivening "Luck Be a Lady" (and the gamblers' ballet that precedes information technology), "Sit down, You're Rockin' the Gunkhole," and the "Havana" Latin trip the light fantastic sequence (throughout the 1950s, it seems a tango, a mambo, a cha-cha or some other Latin dance number was a staple of musicals). She besides provides charming numbers for Adelaide and her backup dancers at the Hot Box, though non almost as risqué as one would imagine the real thing to exist. Loesser's score is in capable hands, played by a seven-piece band led by Kyle Picha. Sara Wilcox has outfitted the bandage with the flashy garb associated with Runyon's characters, and Dave Hermann has provided hair and wig design to aptly complete the look. Erik Paulson's scenic pattern smartly uses just a few elements with dandy versatility to create the lively streetscape, the Hot Box, the Save-a-Soul mission, a Cuban cafe, and a sewer large enough to arrange a passel of gamblers shooting craps.
One may wonder how well Guys and Dolls holds up to scrutiny in the #metoo era. Its plot features a woman (doll, in the show's pre-feminist parlance) who tolerates a fourteen year-long engagement to a guy clearly unable to brand his commitment stick. The evidence's other doll is a directly-laced missionary who becomes the object of a bet near whether or not she can be persuaded to proceed a engagement with a well-known loftier-rolling gambler. On tiptop of that, the guy slips booze into her drinkable, telling her information technology is only sweetened milk. All of this is meant to be part of the hilarity of the story—and in fact, as played, information technology is really funny. Is that reason enough to give it a pass?
The gold-medal level work past Loesser, Swerling and Burrows was written through the lens of a very different time, never meant to belittle or offend anyone. The guys and the dolls in the piece are all created to as foolish, flawed people who win our affections equally they wade through the gender roles and courting customs of their era, which from our vantage betoken are totally retrograde, to find a promised happily ever after. I say Guys and Dolls is a win-win—a certificate of where nosotros were that enables us to celebrate progress made over the ensuing seven decades (albeit, with much further withal to become), while having a terrific time exercising our laugh and smiling muscles.
Sometime Log has done a swell task of staging this golden age dazzler.
Guys and Dolls continues through June 16, 2018, at Former Log Theatre, 5185 Meadville Street, Excelsior MN. Tickets are $30.00 - $40.00, educatee rush tickets: $20.00 with valid IDs the solar day of performance. Wed ane:30 PM matinees are general admission. For tickets telephone call 952-474-5951 or go to www.oldlog.com.
Volume: Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows; Music and Lyrics: Frank Loesser; Director: R. Kent Knutson; Conductor: Kyle Picha; Choreography: Talya Dozois; Scenic and Lighting Designer: Erik Paulson; Costume Designer: Sara Wilcox; Sound Designer: Jeff Geisler; Hair/Wig Design: Dave Hermann; Stage Manager: Lizzie Streif.
Cast: Aaron Booth (Nicely-Nicely Johnson), Dorian Brooke (Mimi), Sharayah Lynn Bunce (Abigail), James Cada (Big Julie), Grace Chermak (Sarah Dark-brown), Charlie Clark (Nathan Detroit), Chelsey Grant (Ensemble), Nick Lande (ensemble), Martin Fifty'Herault (Arvide Abernathy), Kym Chambers Otto (Adelaide), Jordan Oxborough (Lt. Brannigan), Dylan Rugh (Rusty), Eric Sargent (Sky Masterson), Kyle Schwartz (Harry the Equus caballus), Austin Stole (Benny Southstreet), Nicolas Sullivan (The Greek), Maisie G. Twesme (Full general Cartwright), Lydia Wagner (Ensemble), Nikki Zwolski (Ensemble).
Source: https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/minn/minn714.html
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