If you’ve seen only the 1953 movie version starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, do yourself a favor and head to Music Hall at Fair Park over the next couple of weeks to watch Dallas Summer Musicals’ Guys and Dolls live on stage. (Even better, until this Thursday at 2 p.m., buy discounted tickets through Travelzoo.)
As I watched Tuesday night’s premiere of the touring show, it became clear to me why composer Frank Loesser was so upset over the decision to cast Frank Sinatra in the role of floating crap game scouter Nathan Detroit. I’m a huge Sinatra fan, but the part requires a goofball, not someone smooth and suave like Sinatra, and Steve Rosen does a great job of comically playing Detroit. Megan Sikora as Detroit’s fiancee, Miss Adelaide, stole the show, with great comic timing that drew the biggest and most frequent laughs.
I also realized that though Marlon Brando made for a great Sky Masterson, the musical’s high-rolling gambler, movie-watchers missed out on the vocal chops that should accompany great acting. Ben Crawford didn’t disappoint, and as the “mission doll” who surprisingly wins his heart, Erin Davie as Sarah Brown matches his vocal power.
The show swept the Tony Awards in 1951 and garnered many more over the years in revivals. It’s easy to see why — the musical has some of Broadway’s best comic lines and most well-known songs. It does have a number of antiquated cultural references, so some of the jokes fall flat, but overall it’s a classic with universal humor and themes. Similar to a number of Broadway classics, the show probably has one or two more songs and scenes than it needs to tell the story, and feels slow in places. It’s too bad that the best number takes place so close to the end, when the gangsters gather in the Salvation Army mission for a prayer meeting, and Glenn Rainey as Nicely Nicely Johnson leads the cast in a rousing rendition of “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat”. Applause for this number required the cast to hold their complicated final poses for at least a couple of minutes, and jolted the audience with energy that lifted the rest of the show.
