By Richard Knox
Richard Knox plays in the Mission Band of “Guys & Dolls” and writes program notes for the Educational Theater Collaborative. He lives in Sandwich.
“Guys and Dolls,” a classic Broadway musical with a script that still sparkles and music that never fails to move and entertain, is coming to Plymouth’s Flying Monkey Performance Center for a six-show run from January 18 through 22.
Trish Lindberg, producing artistic director of the Educational Theater Collaborative, programmed G&D for the group’s 27th season because of the show’s matchless collection of characters. “I love love love the characters,” she says. “They’re so full of life, so authentic. This show has such a big heart!”
The Educational Theater Collaborative (ETC), based at Plymouth State University, has earned a reputation for top-level musical productions that bring together professional-level talent and community thespians of all ages, from pre-teens to septuagenarians. This professionally costumed G&D cast includes 30 main cast members, 17 others in young adult, teen and child ensembles, and a live professional pit band under the direction of ETC Music Director Harmony Markey.
The colorful characters of G&D are a mix of high-rolling crap-shooters, low-life racetrack denizens, high-kicking chorus girls and a band of missionaries determined to convince them to foreswear their sinful ways.
The story is based on the fiction of Damon Runyan, whose writing so perfectly captures the colorful gamblers and chorus girls who inhabited Depression-era Broadway that his name became an adjective – “runyonesque.”
The leading love interest is Sarah Brown, who heads the Save-a-Soul Mission. Runyan based Sister Brown on a real person, “a gorgeous former Follies girl who became a missionary and devoted her life to converting the evil sinners and wicked gamblers who inhabited the Broadway theatrical district,” according to Abe Burrows, who wrote the script for G&D based on a concept by screenwriter Jo Sperling.
Sarah Brown’s well-thought-out portrait of the guy she’ll fall for when the time is right bears no resemblance to Sky Masterson, the swaggering prince of gamblers who falls for her. Sky eventually wins her over by finagling a dozen bona fide sinners into attending a critical prayer meeting that saves the Save-a-Soul from shutting down.
A parallel love story hilariously chronicles the ups and downs of Nathan Detroit’s 14-year engagement to his “well-known fiancé” Adelaide. Nathan is the impresario of the Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York and Adelaide is the headliner talent of the Hot Box Club.
Frank Loesser’s music for G&D, composed 72 years ago, will be familiar to many theater-goers today. It includes the romantic ballads “I’ll Know (When My Love Comes Along),” “I’ve Never Been in Love Before” and “If I Were a Bell.”
Its big production numbers include the familiar “Luck Be a Lady Tonight,” the holy-rolling “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” and the bouncy theme song “Guys and Dolls,” which begins “When you see a guy/Reach for stars in the sky/You can bet that he’s doin’ it for some doll.”
Adelaide and the Hot Box dolls sing and dance to the familiar “Bushel and a Peck” and the droll but less-familiar “Take Back Your Mink.” Among the highlights is “Adelaide’s Lament,” a comical character piece in which she bemoans the never-ending psychosomatic cold she suffers from her endless engagement.
Evening performances are at 7 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday, January 18-22. Matinees are at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 21, and Sunday, January 22.
The production is co-sponsored by Plymouth State University and the Common Man Family of Restaurants. Tickets are available for online purchase at flyingmonkeynh.com.