By James V. Ruocco
Everything about it is perfect - the acting, the singing, the staging, the direction, the story, the music, the songs, the costumes, the choreography, the orchestra.
There's buzz.
There's snap.
There's rise.
There's eruption.
There's surprise.
There's dazzle.
There's promenade.
There's truth.
There's chemistry.
There's connection.
There's glide.
This is one of those big Broadway musicals that not only honors its values, its traditions and its irresistible telling of a marvelously complex tale, but one that sets its boundaries afloat with playful dozes of wit, eccentricity, nostalgia and discovery.
As musical theatre, it also respects the time period from whence it came - 1950, to be exact - and stays true to that year, its mindset, its innocence, its language, its silliness and its highlighted sense of whimsy.
There are no updates. There are no shifts in mood and tone. Nothing is out of sync. The dialogue and the songs remain unchanged. Nothing has been reinvented or reimagined. There are no huge leaps of faith.
That plan, or required sense of thinking, brings both humor and chutzpah to this inspired revival. The big numbers mirror supper club tradition. The wide-ranging musical score is timeless and resourceful. The important love stories, the comic banter, the set ups, the jokes and the dramatic repercussions all unfold with nurtured flight and gallop. And finally, standouts are aplenty.
First performed on Broadway in 1950 and followed three years later by its debut in London's West End, "Guys and Dolls" is based on two short stories by Damon Runyon - "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure." It also borrows characters, dialogue and story elements from other popular Runyon stories including "Pick the Winner."
Written for the stage by Abe Burrows, the two-act musical charts the hilarious comic and romantic misadventures of the New York City underworld's gangsters, wheeler dealers, gamblers, showgirls, missionaries and other assorted characters.
At the center of the story are high stakes roller Sky Masterson, a dashing gambler who falls head over heels for Sarah Brown, a Times Square missionary scouting converts and smooth-talking Nathan Detroit, another risk-taker who has been engaged for 14 years to Miss Adelaide, a headliner at the Hot Box Supper Club.
The "Guys and Dolls" musical score - bright-sounding, glistening, rhythmically spirted - was created by Frank Loesser (music and lyrics), an award-winning composer whose Broadway credits include "The Most Happy Fella," "Greenwillow" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." It contains 18 memorable songs, all of which glide and swing with purpose, command and Broadway musical bravura.
They are: "Fugue for Tinhorns," "Follow the Fold," "The Oldest Established," "I'll Know," "A Bushell and a Peck," "Adelaide's Lament," "Guys and Dolls," "If I Were a Bell," "My Time of Day/I've Never Been in Love Before," "Take Back Your Mink," "Adelaide's Second Lament," "More I Cannot Wish You," "Luck Be a Lady," "Sue Me," "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," "Marry the Man Today" and "Guys and Dolls (reprise)."
Musically, the message is clear. In terms of pace, flow, boom and pitch, "Guys and Dolls" has it all. As the production evolves, musical director Frank Martignetti's interpretation is natural, realistic and fully formed.
The playing is excellent. The orchestral sound he creates with his talented team of onstage musicians is fulsome, prepared, beautifully captured and lovingly engineered. Here, what matters most are the gorgeous melodies, the symphonic sound, the emotional harmonies, the build ups, the breaks and pauses and the natural, impressively managed vocal outpourings of the entire cast. That full command brings opportunity and scope to the popular score, its nostalgic representation and its rising, erupting mastery.
Showstoppers are aplenty.
Among them - "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat," "Fugue for Tinhorns," "If I Were a Bell," "A Bushell and a Peck," "The Oldest Established" and "Adelaide's Lament."
Staging "Guys and Dolls" for Fairfield Center Stage, director Brian Crook crafts an exuberant, swiftly paced production with game-playing affection, steam, naughtiness and seamless narrative sway and spin.
There are cleverly couched glimmers of Broadway's past throughout the musical presentation alternating between first-rate vaudevillian schtick, jazzy 1950s repartee and blossoming giddyap. Crook, as director, also breaks down the fourth wall from time to time moving the action from the proscenium stage right into the audience.
Here, comic moments as well as certain songs and dances adapt an actor-audience closeness that is nicely defined, staged and performed evoking a Donmar Warehouse quality of complete immersion, commitment and uptake on the actual progression of the show, where it is going and how it will eventually play out once the action continues on the main stage. It's a directorial conceit that Crook invests with imagination, recognition and excited investment.
The spirit of Damon Runyon's original stories and his bustling take on Runyonland is accentuated greatly by the "Guys and Dolls" cast.
As Miss Adelaide, the intellectually challenged New York supper club entertainer who has spent the last 14 years as Nathan Detroit's perplexed fiancée, Christy McIntosh- Newsom's standout performance is a delightful treat of open-hearted tenderness, brass and sass, mixed lovingly with genuine sparkle, musicality and hallmark comic inspiration. It's a part that showcases her talents beautifully and one that comes complete with many iconic Frank Loesser songs including the deliciously witty "Adelaide's Lament," which Newsom navigates with the humor, irony and chutzpah envisioned by the composer when "Guys and Dolls" first played Broadway back in 1950.
As Nathan Detroit, the double-talking gambler hoping to find the right spot for his next illegal crap game, Marc Improta is smooth and slippery never once losing sight of the character's broad comic appeal, his clever, wordy verbiage, his full-blown Runyon antics or his madcap relationship with Miss Adelaide, the latter of which is revealed through the hilariously executed rendition of "Sue Me." Both he and Newsom are the ideal idiosyncratic comic couple - a paring that the duo pull off swimmingly never once missing a comic beat or tilt, as set forth in Abe Burrows crazily executed libretto.
Rebecca Borowik, as Save-A-Soul Mission sergeant Sarah Brown, not only gives one of the best renditions of "If I Were a Bell" in the last decade or two but comes to "Guys and Dolls" with such vigor, command and persuasion, it's easy to see why Crook cast her in this iconic female role. She's absolutely perfect.
Blessed with a soprano voice that rings true and clear, she captures the intended meaning behind every lyric and note. She is also well-matched opposite Robert Agis who has been tapped to play the romantic leading man character of Sky Masterson, which he exudes with a natural charm, dash and charisma.
As Nicely-Nicely Johnson, Jeffrey Fulton's big vocal "Sit Down Your Rockin' the Boat" is just as powerful and commanding as Stubby Kaye's was in the 1950 original Broadway production of "Guys and Dolls" and the subsequent 1955 film adaptation. Kevin Pelkey (Benny Southstreet) and Michael Traum (Rusty Charlie) invest their broad comic roles with Runyon flair, execution and set up.
A joyous, tuneful look at the golden age of Broadway musicals, "Guys and Dolls" is an achingly tender, eclectic production that sizzles and snaps with savvy accent and collection.
It's fun, It's delightful. It's passionate. It warms the heart. Brian Crook's good-natured direction, mixed joyfully with Bonnie Gregson's bright and bouncy choreography is tonic ready and willing, iced and diced to perfection by an enthusiastic ensemble cast who have great fun taking their audience on a Runyonesque journey of great songs, big musical moments and scene-stealing comic turns that are merrily tinkered and displayed, thus producing, a good time for all.
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