By Dale Burrows
For the Enterprise
Low budget, definitely. Singing voices, not always the strongest. Costumes, probably borrowed.
But for classic musical comedy, wow!
The walls at the PUD Auditorium shook with stand-up cheers on opening night, May 25, when the Northwest Savoyards put their heart into the gangster’s heart of “Guys and Dolls.” The place is still vibrating, I’m sure, and deservedly so.
Love and Luck never pulled the chains of Damon Runyon’s wise-cracking, Broadway lowlifes, post World War II as this production does, with even more jibes, jabs and jerks. Frank Loesser’s score never had more bounce and brass; Abe Burrows’ story, never more streetwise savvy; and Jo Sweling’s lyrics, even more hilarity and heartbreak.
The fast and furious world of racetrack betting, floating crap games, dizzy broads, hustler-boyfriends and soul-saving soldiers in the Salvation Army are all on stage, bumping up against each other, picking pockets and running scams.
Topping the cast is power soprano Jenny Dreessen, as the nearest thing to a straight-shooter and Salvation Army Sergeant, Sarah Brown.
Dreesen’s “If I Were a Bell” — sung with the crystal-clear purity of a bell’s ring after her first act of love — resonates with wonder not easy to forget. Also, her profile of a straight-laced heart waiting to be undone isn’t half bad.
Aaron Ford as Sky Masterson has got the smooth cool and gambler’s smarts of a decent enough guy under the hard varnish of a city slickster. However, the baritone that makes Masterson’s half of the Masterson-Brown poetry could use beefing up.
Ellen Hastings’ Adelaide ought to be arrested. Her waiting-to-be- married-for-14-years girlfriend to a dice-addicted boyfriend steals scenes but not when you’re not looking, thankfully.
“Adelaide’s Lament” is a masterpiece of love frustrated as expressed by psychosomatic illness. Then there is “Take Back Your Mink” with the Hot Box Girls. It’s pure, pinup cheesecake. Hand it to Hastings, she makes it work.
Nick Fuchs as Adelaide’s amour with a jelly-based backbone ricochets like a pinball, back and forth between the love of his life and the pull of four the hard way. But his show-stopping “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat” when he finally comes to his senses, stands your hair on end.
Unless you want to make a fool of yourself, stifle the laughs when Dreessen and Hastings put together “Marry the Man Today.” The song translates: put the screws to your guy but wait till you cut the wedding cake.
T.J. Burzynski in double-breasted suit with broad-brimmed hat and silk hat band impersonates the show’s look and likeability of small-time mobsters who take themselves far more seriously than any audience can begin to.
Steven Feris’ Harry the Horse hides behind Big Jule from Chicago (Seth Fine) but parrots him every chance he gets. The two make for a funny take on dominant-submissive behavior.
Sharon Delong puts up the oblivious and stiff but brittle straight-man exterior of Salvation Army General, Mathilda B. Cartwright. The story’s ins and outs go over her head; but just as well. If one ran into her, she’d break to pieces, you’d swear. Delong makes her so, delightfully.
Musical director and orchestra conductor Karen Knoller makes the score tease, bounce, bait, charm and disarm.
But obeisance and salaams to John Edwards. If anything can pull together the optimism, cynicism, flair, flounder, hardheadedness and soft heartedness of Runyonesque “Guys and Dolls,” it’s Edwards directing and choreography.
A must see.
Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at grayghost7@comcast.net.
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