By Laura Kennelly
It’s hard to know where to start in praising this glorious PlayhouseSquare production of Guys and Dolls at the Hanna Theatre. It’s jam-packed with winners–terrific dancing, acting, singing, sets, orchestra, and staging. Maybe praise should start with director and choreographer Dan Knechtges, once-upon-a-time from Lorain County, now thriving in the Big Apple and elsewhere. He seems to know just about everything about directing a well-paced and tuneful musical.
Knechtges and the stellar cast celebrate all the glories of the 1950s classic musical comedy in this fast-moving tuneful delight. Yes, the ensemble dancing almost steals the show. A fabulous mix of comically sexy gals prancing around the Hot Box nightclub in numbers such as “Take Back Your Mink,” lithe gamblers pleading “Luck Be A Lady Tonight,” and wildly funny doings in “Havana” keep the show vibrating.
Set in a mythic, “gangsta” Broadway (charming in a way it likely never was) based on stories by Damon Runyon, this Golden Age Musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser pairs two couples as they battle their way to marriage.
And what superb couples they are. Miss Adelaide, star dancer of the Hot Box Club, has long-loved Nathan Detroit, who runs the “oldest established floating crap game in New York” while Sarah Brown of the Save-a-Soul Mission can’t stop feeling attracted to compulsive (and successful) gambler Sky Masterson. Kirsten Wyatt brings smile after smile as she bounces through the story (she even uses her constantly pit-patting high heels to express her feelings) as the vocally virtuosic and physically nimble Miss Adelaide. Harry Bouvy’s Nathan Detroit woos and evades with an oily, yet persistent charm as he tries to extend their 14-year engagement. He loves the gal–but marriage? kids? Hmm.
Steel Burkhardt as Sky Masterson sings like a dream and looks like one too as he charms his way into the heart of Leah Horowitz’s very proper Sarah Brown, the little mission gal with a heavenly voice. She’s good; he’s bad, natural attraction results. Also outstanding? Aled Davies, as Arvide Abernathy, who offers a sweetly moving “More I Cannot Wish You” as he tenderly tells Sarah Brown what’s really important in life.
Honestly, there’s not a weak link in the show so here’s a group shout out to everyone in the big cast. The standing ovation at the end showed I wasn’t the only one wowed.
The set, looking a little like one of Red Grooms’ New York scenes, packs a visual punch and all the scene changes smoothly lead from Broadway (both above and below) to Havana. The airplane ride to Cuba was especially well-done. So bravo to scenic designer Beowulf Boritt, costume designer Jennifer Caprio, lighting designer, sound designer Richard B. Ingraham, David Lander, music director Matthew Webb, conductor Steven Gross, and all the crew.
Bottom Line: It’s a sure thing. Lucky this show runs through Sun 6/30/13. It’s just too good to miss; you can bet on it. Call 216-241-6000 or check playhousesquare.org.
Reviewed on 5/3/2013
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.
Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.
Cleveland, OH 44115