2001 - 2002
Guys & Dolls
Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser; libretto
by Abe Burrows.
Although Guys & Dolls eventually became the fifth longest running
Broadway musical of the 1950s, it was a long a difficult road getting
to the stage at all. It took 11 librettists to before the producers finally
settled on Abe Burrows.
Based on Damon Runyan's short story The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown,
Guys & Dolls revolves around Nathan Detroit, the organizer
of the old- est established floating crap game in New York. Nathan bets
Sky Masterton that he can't make the next girl he sees fall in love with
him. The next girl happens to be Miss Sarah Brown, a pure-at-heart mission-type
reformer; and the stage is set for a hilarious evening of complications.
Guys & Dolls opened at New York's 46th Street Theatre on November
24th, 1950 and enjoyed a run of 1200 performances. The original cast in-
cluded Alan Alda, Vivian Blane, Sam Levene and Isabel Bigley. The film
version in 1955 starred Marlon Brando, Vivian Blane, Jean Simmons and
Frank Sinatra.
This is the first time that the Cowichan Musical Society has put the orchestra
on stage and not in the pit. The directors felt that the show lent itself
to making the band part of the cast. This innovation makes this production
of Guys & Dolls unlike any other you have seen before.
Artistic
Director - Drew Kemp
Music Director - Mike Simkins
Choreograhpy - Sandra Walton
Poster and programme cover by
Paul McEwan.