Review: Guys and Dolls: Frank Loesser’s Musical Fable Is No Gamble
Ask any passionate musical theater fan to name the “perfect” musical, and you’ll likely get one of three answers: Gypsy, My Fair Lady, and Guys and Dolls. Sure, you could make an argument for Sweeney Todd, A Chorus Line, Oklahoma!, or insert-your-favorite-here. But Gypsy, My Fair Lady, and Guys and Dolls—in no particular order—inevitably emerge as the top 3.
Count me squarely in the Guys and Dolls camp. If there’s a flaw to be found in the 1950 “musical fable of Broadway,” based on characters created by journalist/short story writer Damon Runyon, it’s not in Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ drum-tight book. And it’s certainly not in Frank Loesser’s honey of a score. Plus, the show is pretty much indestructible: Even a high school drama department with the skimpiest of budgets can do Guys and Dolls justice. All you need is a bunch of fedoras for the crapshooters, a few feather boas for the Hot Box Girls, and a willingness to experiment with a Noo Yawk accent. (Gypsy, magnificent as it may be, is not exactly high school fare. College is probably a better place for the story of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and her single-minded stage mom.)
