When you attend a performance of Guys and Dolls in 2019 you have to expect to squirm a bit. Sex stereotypes abound, and the show itself is a revolving stage of craps games, marching bands, girly shows, Brooklyn accents, and mushy love songs.
Kate Sainer
“Resist in an all-night session against the Devil,” yell the uniformed temperance union members; “All we want is a craps game,” scream the gangsters. “All we want is a kitchen,” sing the girls.
Despite the challenges, Director/Choreographer Bruce Moore moves the show through the dated storyline, and the outcome is a well-earned, enjoyable evening, recently played to three weeks of sold-out performances at the Gettysburg Community Theatre.
The choreography, the characters, the spirit, and especially the music, bring the show enjoyably together.
The costumes and lighting are bright and colorful. The craps game ballet is beautifully choreographed.
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The many characters, including Harry the Horse (Scott Hartwig), Big Jule (Walter Wagner), Benny Southstreet (Drew Derreth), Nicely-Nicely Johnson (Samuel Eisenhuth), and Lieutenant Brannigan (David Hurlbert), lend color and interest to this “fly-by-night Broadway romance.”
The sincere Save a Soul Mission Band members and the randy Hot Box Girls provide fitting accompaniments for the leads.
And then there are the golden nuggets – The duets where time slows down as the love stories are sung.
The showgirl, Miss Adelaide, played by Carrie Conklin Trax, has been engaged for 14 years to her boyfriend Nathan Detroit (Greg Trax), while at the same time writing her mother they are married with five kids.
Reading a psychology book while singing “Adelaide’s Lament,”, she determines that her persistent cold, which gradually turns into the flu as the evening progresses, is a stress-induced psychological disturbance.
“Just from worrying;
Whether the wedding is on or off;
A person;
Can develop a cough.”
Trax can sing and act; she has created a precisely-crafted and engaging theatrical style. She croons “(I love you a) Bushel and a Peck,” laments her love and her losses, and convincingly beats the heck out of her stage (and real-life) partner.
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Kate Sainer, portraying the temperance worker Sarah Brown, performs a couple of lovely duets with her gangster love, Sky Masterson (Matthew Barninger) in “If I were a bell (I’d be ringing)” and “I’ve Never Been in Love Before.”
“But this is wine;
It’s all too strange and strong;
I’m full of foolish song.”
Sainer is a fresh and sometimes enchanting soprano.
The songs, many easily-recognizable, are rounded out by “Luck be a Lady” sung by Sky and the Gamblers, and “More I cannot wish you,” sung tenderly by Ed Riggs as Arvide Abernathy to his granddaughter Sarah.
In the end the two mismatched couples are married, but they seem unlikely to be happy.
View the Guys and Dolls slideshow.
Attempting a musical production of this size on a small stage in front of an audience of only 80 requires some compromises: In this case the musical accompaniment is not live, and there were no sets.
The singers sang over a canned orchestra, and although I would have expected this would bug me, it didn’t. Although I didn’t get the pleasure of letting my eyes drift from the stage to the musicians and back, I didn’t notice it otherwise. As far as I could tell, the voice and the orchestra remained in sync.
The “set,” lovely hand-drawn images of New York streets painted by Greg Trax, is projected onto a large screen behind the stage. But I missed the set itself, its color, its interaction with the actors, its setting up and striking across scenes, and the thought of the nails and paint that would have been used to create it.
Guys and Dolls finished its run on Sunday.
Well-deserved kudos to the community theater and its artistic director Chad-Alan Carr. It was a great evening and we are lucky to have them here.
Charles (Chuck) Stangor is Gettysburg Connection's Owner, Publisher, and Editor in Chief. I would like to hear from you. Please contact me at cstangor@gettysburgconnection.org.