Dozens of musicals have been set in New York, but few have had the staying power of “Guys and Dolls.” The show is nearing its 70th birthday, but it seems forever young, especially with a young and energetic cast. The Bromfield Drama Society’s production of “Guys and Dolls,” which was in dress rehearsal this week and opens Friday, brings to life a world that probably never existed—but should have.
That world consists of a few blocks on Broadway where some colorful characters with no visible means of support and (mostly) hearts of gold spend their time drinking booze, playing the ponies, and shooting craps. The Bromfield production shows that world through simple, flexible, modular sets that change quickly from street scene to nightclub to the Save-a-Soul Mission, keeping up the fast pace of the play.
“Guys and Dolls” premiered in 1950, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. (Burrows unfortunately attracted the interest of the House Un-American Activities Committee, causing “Guys and Dolls” to lose the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for which it had already been chosen.)
From left: Kai Oldham, Nick Thornton, Liam Wang, Wyatt Neville, and Andrew Mirarchi portray gamblers in a scene from “Guys and Dolls.” (Courtesy photo)
Though written in 1950, the play’s characters stepped out of the pages of short-story writer and reporter Damon Runyon, who died in 1946 and whose stories were mostly set in the 1920s and ’30s. Runyon wrote of small-time hustlers who spoke in a humorously endearing mixture of polite formality and slang. As Adam Gropnik wrote in The New Yorker, Runyon’s gangsters knew “what elaborate politesse it takes to keep from getting killed, and [this] is the source of a lot of his comedy. A wiseguy on the lower end of the totem pole is of necessity an expert in courtesy.”
A number of strong voices anchor the solos in the Bromfield production. Phoebe Clark, as Miss Adelaide, nails not only the notes but even the squeaks in “A Bushel and a Peck.” Both she and Vivien Fair, as Sarah Brown, can belt out a song when needed. Fair shows her vocal and dramatic range in “If I Were a Bell,” and Clark makes the most of “Adelaide’s Lament” and “Take Back Your Mink.” Together they agree in the end to “marry the man today…and change his ways tomorrow.”
Liam Wang, as Sky Masterson, delivers fine renditions of the more serious songs such as “I’ll Know [when my love comes along]” and “My Time of Day.” KeeSeok Lee, as the harried Nathan Detroit, gets comparatively few singing opportunities, but his role is central not only to Miss Adelaide’s matrimonial plans but, more importantly (from Nathan’s point of view), to the need for a place to hold “the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York.”
Fast-paced songs, witty lyrics
Several of the ensemble pieces for male singers are fast-paced and interactive, with vocalists overlapping in complicated rhyme schemes. All the lyrics in these songs are witty and worth hearing, which challenges the actors/singers to keep their voices distinct from one another. The Bromfield actors rise to this challenge well—partly through good technique and partly through the skilled efforts of the sound technicians who manage the mics. Nicely-Nicely Johnson (Kai Oldham), Benny Southwest (Dallas Briggs-Adams), and Rusty Charlie (Nicholas Thornton) establish their characters early in the show in one of those ensemble songs, “Fugue for Tinhorns,” where they debate the relative merits of nags in an upcoming race, based on such reliable sources as the jockey’s brother and “a handicapper that’s real sincere.”
Miss Adelaide’s nightclub act is backed up by the female ensemble singers as the Hot Box Girls: Brooke Caroom, Lauren Stoller, Catalina Lora, Katherine Prouty, Marissa Flynn, Shey Bala, Taylor Caroom, and Thea Eiland. Several of these singers are also double-cast in other roles, but careful costuming makes the duplication hard to spot.
Among the gamblers and crapshooters who give the production the feeling of a busy, crowded city full of nightlife are Andrew Mirachi, Douglas Caroom, Maddie Gamelin, and Wyatt Neville. And struggling to redeem those same gamblers are representatives of the mission, General Matilda B. Cartwright (Camila Müller-Juez) and Mother Arvide Abernathy (Delaney Bala).
A cameo appearance
Bromfield Principal Scott Hoffman makes a surprise cameo appearance as Lt. Brannigan, engaged in a perpetual and futile effort to foil the crapshooters. Teacher Michael Poe appears as Big Julie, the threatening Chicago mobster whose dice are so well used that the spots have worn off, “but he remembuhs where dey wuz.”
Music teacher Craig Robbins not only conducts the orchestra but also makes his own cameo appearance as the master of ceremonies at the Hot Box. The orchestra is made up of several professional musicians with whom Robbins has worked in the past, as well as students Drew Femino (French horn) and Sierra Gomez (tenor sax and clarinet) and teacher Rebecca Ufema on piano. The production is directed by Martha Brooks with Ufema as music director, Beth Drummey as costumer, and senior J Woolcock as assistant director/stage manager.
Performances are Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1–2, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 3, at 2 p.m. in Cronin Auditorium.
