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The perennial charm of Guys and Dolls
By Bill Rodriguez
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How delightful. A second reminder in a week that enjoyable theater around here doesn’t mean only Trinity and PPAC and big-budgets. In addition to a very good production of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, there’s a rendition of Guys and Dolls into which the Bristol Theatre Company, despite a shoestring budget, packs all of the enjoyable essentials of a musical. Which is to say that fans of musicals just wanna have fun. And we’ll do so as long as nothing puts us off. Give us good voices and they don’t have to be Met quality. Give us actors who are competent and into their roles, and we won’t expect Julie Andrews. And so forth. Even the dancing here doesn’t call attention to our not watching Rockettes, as so often is the case with amateur musicals. Under choreographer Diane Campagna, this troupe knows not to overextend themselves, if you’ll pardon the pun, so that the dancers entertain rather than distract. Even more importantly, director Sanford Odets has gathered actors who at the very least can sound natural delivering campy, slangy lines, and at best make us look forward to their next scene. A 1950 hit, Guys and Dolls is based on Damon Runyan short stories about Manhattan’s colorful midtown denizens. Subtitled "A Musical Fable of Broadway," the show captivates us right away with "Fugue For Tinhorns," an anthem to horse race betting sung by a trio of shady eccentrics. Lanny Slusher as Nicely-Nicely Johnson wins us over, along with Brian Lopes as Benny Southstreet and Ian Richardson as Harry the Horse, as motley physical types with good voices and loopy personalities. Of course, the main guy and doll here are Sky Masterson and Salvation Army-esque sergeant Sarah Brown, who are played by James Murphy and Kara Manchester with enough charm and charms, respectively, to convince us that these opposites could attract each other. Masterson got his nickname because he would bet "sky high" on crazy bets, not excluding how far you can kick a slice of cheesecake. Nathan Detroit — played ably by Jamieson Schiff when he stops mugging — needs a thousand bucks to pay for a place to run his business, the town’s oldest permanent floating crap game. He has promised Chicago mobster Big Julie (Derek Ferriera) some gambling action, and nobody disappoints Big Julie twice. So when Nathan bets Sky that the latter can’t talk a doll into accompanying him to Havana, he chooses the prim Miss Brown. Manchester finds a convincing balance with Sarah, not making her too prim to fall for Sky but goody-goody enough to be a challenge. As Sky, Murphy could signal the gambler’s later change of heart clearer, but it’s not hard to believe the character when he eventually succumbs. But in case we don’t buy Sky and Sarah teaming up, this musical has an emergency back-up romantic duo in Nathan Detroit and Hot Box chorine Miss Adelaide (Janet Barton). They’re a fun couple, engaged for 14 years, with Nathan supplying nervous agitation at the prospect of marriage and Miss Adelaide supplying the long-suffering but upbeat patience. Barton is especially winsome in the very droll "Adelaide’s Lament," in which we learn that, "In other words / Just from sitting alone at a table reserved for two / A person can develop the flu." (Adelaide has been stringing her mother along for 12 of those 14 years, to the point where she and Nathan, purported to be a supermarket assistant manager, supposedly have five kids by now.) This is one of those musicals with so many good songs that any partial list overlooks familiar favorites. Manchester and Murphy do convincing work with the spoken and sung love duet "I’ll Know," whose words are the sort of mush that usually induces eyes-rolling. Other romantic songs range from the light-hearted "A Bushel and a Peck" to the vaudevillian "Take Back Your Mink" to the serious-but-not-mawkish "I’ve Never Been in Love Before." The gamblers get plenty of action, too. "The Crapshooters’ Dance" is unusual for being almost entirely instrumental, but there’s plenty of vocal opportunity with Sky’s "Luck Be a Lady," of which Murphy takes good advantage. If the set design is minimal and some of the choreographed numbers are not as animated as we want, the ensemble singing certainly keeps things interesting. Set in the rescue mission and led by Slusher’s Nicely-Nicely and Nanette Slusher, as a rescue mission general, "Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat" is a rouser. Performing in the barn theater of Roger Williams University, the Bristol Theatre Company has done a job they can be proud of and we can easily enjoy.
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