REVIEW: Guys and Dolls at Mac-Haydn Theatre
Through 7/6 @ Mac-Haydn Theatre
Photos by Ann Kielbasa
“Mac-Haydn has spun gold with this fairy tale of a New York that never was and is guaranteed to enchant all who attend.”
Guys & Dolls, which has to be on most musical theatre lovers' top 5 musicals of all time, is a brilliant fable of Broadway. A bright, comic valentine from 1950 to the tough talking gamblers of Times Square and the women who loved them. It epitomizes the classic musical comedy of Broadway’s golden age and is being given a first rate production at Mac-Haydn Theatre through July 6.
The musical play is adapted from the stories of Damon Runyon by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, along with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. The book has a lot of witty tough-guy patois and genuinely funny characters and situations that still amuse after repeated viewings. The score is full of standards, including ”Luck Be a Lady,” “If I Were a Bell” and “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat.” It won the Tony for Best Musical and is revived frequently on Broadway and the West End; most recently in a successful immersive production at The Bridge Theatre in London directed by Nicholas Hytner. It's been rumored to transfer to New York for years.
We meet cash-strapped Nathan Detroit (delightful Ian Federgreen) looking for a place to set up a crap game for the night. All he can find is The Biltmore Garage which wants $1,000 up front. Nathan bets high stakes gambler Sky Masterson (glowering and good looking Tristan Caldwell) that he cannot convince a woman to go on a date with him to Havana and chooses as his target, the missionary doll Sarah Brown (sweet Belle Babcock). Nathan has his own female troubles with his perpetual fiancee of 14 years, the Hot Box dancer Miss Adelaide (very funny with sharp elbows, Bridget Carrow).
The musical is perfectly cast and sung, from the leads to all the colorfully named supporting characters; the bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed Nicely Nicely Johnson of Spencer Stanley, to the wise and avuncular Arvide Abernathy of Pat McGuire who delivers a touching “More I Cannot Wish You”, to the imposing and commanding General Matilda B. Cartwright of Kitty Baker.
Director and choreographer Mandy Modic deserves a huge amount of credit for marshalling this large cast and hitting all the comic and sentimental notes. Her work is especially impressive on the big numbers “The Crapshooters’ Dance” and “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat.” If this rendition of “Guys and Dolls” will be remembered by me for only one thing, it would be the superb dancing in these two numbers and “Havana.”
Costume design by Bethany Marx is colorful and mid-century appropriate, especially fun in “Take Back Your Mink” where the Hot Box dancers demurely strip, but hint at more. Set design by Emma Cummings is minimal but highly serviceable as the pews become a longboat and the newsstand pops out of the wall. Lighting by Andrew Gmoser does a great job catching the dancers in shafts of light that bring the city’s glamour to life, along with Music Director Evelyn Tomaro.
Mac-Haydn has spun gold with this fairy tale of a New York that never was and is guaranteed to enchant all who attend.
Guys and Dolls plays at Mac-Haydn Theatre (1925 NY-203, Chatham, NY 12037) through 7/6. Tickets: www.machaydntheatre.org
