Guys And Dolls - Like You Have Never Seen It Before
Check Out The Hyde Park Theater Scene
Guru Gupta
Issue date: 3/8/04 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Despite having spent two quarters on the campus, I was not aware of the existence of a professional theatre in Hyde Park till very recently. A Divinity school student literally dragged me to the Court Theatre thinking that I am losing my sanity juggling recruiting and mid-terms. Court Theatre is the professional theatre at the University (located on Ellis and 55th across the new sports complex) and its latest offering is an adaptation of Broadway classic Guys and Dolls. The show will run till March 28. From time to time, the Court Theatre organizes University of Chicago nights, which gives you steep student discounts on tickets.
Set against the grit and glitter of New York, this musical fable of marriage and salvation is completely re-imagined by Court Theatre's artistic Director Charles Newell and Music Director Doug Peck. Based on a story and characters conceived in 1950s by Damon Runyon and music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, on a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, it is indeed among the greatest musicals of all time. The musical was such a theatrical sensation that it is no wonder they pushed it to the big screen with 1955 hit starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine in lead roles.
The production at the Court Theatre is a radical departure from the traditional Broadway musical. It has no big chorus numbers or elaborately choreographed dance scenes. All the action takes place on a simple wooden platform. However, this simplicity becomes the show's biggest strength allowing it to overcome much of the artificiality that mars so many musicals. The sparse setting enables actors to shine, as the emphasis is always on the individual performances rather than spectacular musical numbers. The characters interact naturally and dramatically even when they are singing and the production hit home more directly.
The basic plot revolves around the Broadway of the 1940's inhabited by gamblers, nightclub performers, and Salvation Army members trying to cure the sins of the Times Square population. Nathan Detroit, who runs the floating craps game is engaged to Miss Adelaide for fourteen years but is still afraid to tie the knot. He needs $1,000 to get his craps game up and going and decides to make a bet that is impossible to lose. He wagers with a seasoned and suave gambler Sky Masterson, who boasts that he can woo any doll (with due apologies to one third of the class - before you ostracize me, I neither coined this term nor is it a part of my vocabulary!) and take her to a romantic Havana getaway. Nathan chooses none other than straight-laced, pure at heart, Save-A-Soul mission worker Sarah Brown of the Salvation Army. Out of these two basic premises, the two and an half hour long show spins into a number of memorable and hilarious situations.
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Set against the grit and glitter of New York, this musical fable of marriage and salvation is completely re-imagined by Court Theatre's artistic Director Charles Newell and Music Director Doug Peck. Based on a story and characters conceived in 1950s by Damon Runyon and music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, on a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, it is indeed among the greatest musicals of all time. The musical was such a theatrical sensation that it is no wonder they pushed it to the big screen with 1955 hit starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine in lead roles.
The production at the Court Theatre is a radical departure from the traditional Broadway musical. It has no big chorus numbers or elaborately choreographed dance scenes. All the action takes place on a simple wooden platform. However, this simplicity becomes the show's biggest strength allowing it to overcome much of the artificiality that mars so many musicals. The sparse setting enables actors to shine, as the emphasis is always on the individual performances rather than spectacular musical numbers. The characters interact naturally and dramatically even when they are singing and the production hit home more directly.
The basic plot revolves around the Broadway of the 1940's inhabited by gamblers, nightclub performers, and Salvation Army members trying to cure the sins of the Times Square population. Nathan Detroit, who runs the floating craps game is engaged to Miss Adelaide for fourteen years but is still afraid to tie the knot. He needs $1,000 to get his craps game up and going and decides to make a bet that is impossible to lose. He wagers with a seasoned and suave gambler Sky Masterson, who boasts that he can woo any doll (with due apologies to one third of the class - before you ostracize me, I neither coined this term nor is it a part of my vocabulary!) and take her to a romantic Havana getaway. Nathan chooses none other than straight-laced, pure at heart, Save-A-Soul mission worker Sarah Brown of the Salvation Army. Out of these two basic premises, the two and an half hour long show spins into a number of memorable and hilarious situations.