This way!

My first real theater memory is either when I saw Cats on Broadway when I was 6 or when I saw Bye Bye Birdie at a local high school (community college?) around the same time. (As I recall, they staged "The Telephone Hour" using ladders.)

But one of my earliest is seeing an assembly in elementary school--probably 4th grade--about the high school's production of Guys & Dolls. They showed how the choreography of "Crapshooters Dance" was broken down into counts of 8, the first time I had heard of that. They probably performed some other songs, and definitely gave an overview of the plot. I remember the performance of "Luck Be a Lady" and the blackout cliffhanger at the end.

I don't remember whether we saw the show; I do remember that I watched the movie version with Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando a LOT when I was growing up. It's easily one of my favorite musicals. (And the movie is impressive for how close it stays to the play; so many movie versions change things for no apparent reason.)

Last night I saw a touring company production of Guys & Dolls. I saw the revival back in 1993, and that's the recording I have. Only after seeing the show and getting thrown off by the orchestrations and consequently reading the Wikipedia entry for the show did I find out that it's that revival that changed the orchestrations; what I heard last night was the original sound of the show.

Overall, it was quite enjoyable. Honestly, it's such a great show, it's hard to go wrong. I wasn't blown away by it, though, or by any of the performances. As Sky, Ben Crawford was incredibly charismatic, but every time he sang, I got thrown off; his voice was deeper than I expected, and it was almost operatic. Looking at his credits (which include Booth in Assassins; I mean, talk about the way to my heart), I don't know why this would be the case, but there it is.

Steve Rosen's Nathan Detroit was much more of a schlub, maybe, than I expected (and for some reason, the choreographer had Nathan shooting craps in "Crapshooters Dance," despite the subsequent line about Nathan not participating in the gambling itself, other than taking a piece of each bet). Unfortunately, this impression was made in literally his first moments on the stage. I liked him, but...there seemed something off with the characterization that I can't quite put my finger on.

Megan Sikora as Adelaide and Erin Davie as Sarah were quite good. The Hot Box girls stripped a bit more than I'm used to, and Sikora was directed to sing purposely bad in her two Hot Box numbers for some unknown reason, but both were quite good singers and had the charm and energy to pull off their parts. "If I Were a Bell" was one of the highlights of the show for me.

After doing "Crapshooters Dance" with my tap group this spring, I was totally psyched for the number, but a bit disappointed with the actually choreography. I admit I was comparing it to the movie version (which, OMG, I love so much) and remembering when I saw the show on Broadway--we sat in the 2nd or 3rd row, and I just remember all these guys dancing so hard and holding the pose at the end, panting like crazy, as the audience went nuts. It was still a good dance--the opening sequence, "Runyonland," was also very enjoyable--but I have that dance built up in my head. I think my problem is that a lot of it was only a few dancers moving at a time, instead of the whole ensemble. Less impressive that way, or something.

This seems fairly negative; the reality is that I had a really enjoyable time and thought it was a good production. Not a great one, but the show itself is great. It evens out.

And I still dream that Ford's will do Guys & Dolls one of these seasons. It just seems like a perfect fit. (Not that I'm complaining about them doing 1776 next season!)