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Page THEHERAID Wednesday 1990 Entertainment- Guys and Dolls another hit ByJOHNSOMMER Herald Special Guys and Dolls this season s offering of Georgetown Globe Productions is a tough American romp and I enjoyed it a lot This musical fable of Broad way as it is called was first performed in New York in the ly It book by Jo Swerlmg and Abe Burrows is baded on a story and characters by Damon The guys are a bunch of merry gamblers very macho and subversive of the law They are forever on the lookout for a place where they can come together and patronize the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New Nicely Nicely Johnson and Benny Southstreel are the clowns of this gambling fraternity Nathan Detroit is the organizer of the game Sky Masterson is the mastermind the lone wolf the mysterious seducer Big Jule is the dangerous from Chicago nol just a gambler but a gangster the one who is forcing them all to gamble by HIS rules or else There are five others more or less colorful The dolls are Miss Adelaide a night club singer at The Hot Box and her troupe of six dancers and Sarah Brown the beautiful officer of a Savea Soul Mission in the neighborhood who lives with her aunt Abernathy This mission doesn t do very well in this neighborhood of sin ners and therefore the gene al of the mission Matilda has decided to close the mission down Miss Adelaide has been trying for 14 years to gel Nathan Detroit to marry her but he is as slippery as an eel Nathan who is always short of money bets Sky Master son will not be able to talk the ex Sarah into going to Havana with him this is a pre Fidel musical in the Havana was sin city The clever Sky not only manages to talk Sarah into going to Cuba with him but they fall in love on the romantic island You can imagine that many obstacles have to be removed before the two couples will be lawfully united according to the conventions of a musical of years ago in a double wedding that is also a rousing finale Guys and Dolls is a great American musical American writers and composers changed the schmalzy Vienna operetta in to something altogether Musicals like Guys and Dolls Oklahoma Kiss Me Kate Fiddler on the Roof West Side Story and Cabaret to name the best are closer in spirit to the gritty Three Penny Opera by Bert Brecht and Kurt Weill than to The Merry Widow American musicals are about real people from the poorer and working section of American society and surprisingly often these musicals arc peppered with lawbreakers outsiders and minorities people with complex characters and interesting biographies Take Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls She is shrewish and and yes we are supposed to laugh at her But by today standards the poor woman is abused Her dependency on the certified heel Nathan Detroit is incurable There is pathos here because outside a musical Miss Adelaide would have had a fate like Manln Monroe and today one should play Miss Adelaide a bit like Monroe outrageous but very very vulnerable Guys and Dolls is not only a superlative entertainment but it an attitude that has become an anachronism Guys are still guvs but hardly any women are dolls anymore thank God Now something about the stag and the performances For several weeks the very able department of Globe Productions has told you everything about the artistic director Michael Clipper ton the musical director Terry Seaman the Evelyn Webster the producers Etta Mills Maureen Walker and Betty Andrews the set designer Ann Goetz and the stage manager Craig Hooper as well as close to people behind the scenes and about 30 actors on the stage and eight musicians m the pit The logistics of a production like that are quite staggering Keep in mind that almost all these people have jobs during the day What you see and hear in the John Elliott Theatre has been rehearsed evenings and on Sun days But you do not need to know that to be enchanted This is not a Stratford production but it is very good and our beautiful small theatre is just right for it I went on the first night and as cm be expected things were a bit wobbly at first Soon however everybody on the stage and in the pit warmed up and performed splendidly The stage design is always efficient and at times El Cafe Cubano and In a Sewer for instance inspired The costumes and props are good A few more backprojec tions would have been nice Gord Mcleod and Keith Mills as Nicely Nicely Johnson and Benny are a wonderfully nimble and suiefooted team Debbie Tilson as Sarah Brown makes the evolution from zealot to radiant bnde a process worth listening to Audrev Houston as her aunt Ar bide Abernathy has the loveliest voice Pat plays Nathan Detroit suitably shifty McNeil as Miss Adelaide is a bit too loud for my taste As I said before under her brassy face Miss Adelaide is the most vulnerable person in the musical The things she longs for a home and domesticity she will never get from Nathan While a woman like Sarah has a good chance to reform Sky the battered Miss Adelaide will never manage the same with Nathan Sky is a prince in disguise but Nathan is trash Mark as Sky Master son is extraordinary He could hold his ow n among profes sionals His voice his looks his bearing everything is right for the part he plays He makes it Radial Railway Christmas Show The County Radial Railway located outside Rockwood is putting on a Chnstmas Night Show complete with Christmas lighting If weather permits streetcars will be running to give visitors a feel of riding through the woods on a winter night Tickets cost S3 seniors and children and students The night shows will be Saturday nights Dec and from FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE The Best Around Fur Mote Into Call I I tutor Church II Norn I den u I Video I Hi Recoil 7 ndologr on I en MDUNTAINVIEW PLAZA fiR7Q GEORGETOWN NOW OPEN Daily Lunch Specials Served 76 Man St S 873 7402 RESTAURANT AFTER FIVE THINGS TO 00 PLACES TO GO Wad FOR YOUR LISTENING AND DANCING PLEASURE 8773388 109 MAIN STREET SOUTH GEORGETOWN ONTARIO off all you can eat Chinese Cuisine Friday Saturday Sunday at 00 Salad Bar Shrimp Beef Ham Pork Soup Hot Sour Soup Sweet Sour Chicken Bill CintoneuChowMein Cantonese Fort CuitjChcken Beef I Broccoli Chop Sue Miied B8Q R Deep Fried umbo Shrimps Mned Hot I Spicy Chicken Libit Steak Chicken Fried R Assorted Dtswrti person Children price Licenced Under LLBO When You Eat at Wo Pay The Fast TakoOut Delivery Service IB 87751067 believable that a woman as little in tune with her passions as Sarah Brown would suddenly long to get her hands on that guy His great moment is the scene in the sewers when he sings the song luck be a lady tonight This song is the most remarkable in a musical that has many remarkable songs and Mark Llewellyn sings it like a real pro Vera Mcdonald as General Matilda is com Like a toad she mesmerizes the miserable sin that drift from the cold into the mission She feeds on them Dogooders can be like that Craig Marshall as Big t menacing enough He has the bulk for the Chicago gangster who doesn t take no for an anwser but he t got the menace In the sewer scene everybody is supposed to be afraid of him But I believe that a gangster like him would make them all laugh instead Little Baby Girl batting her eyes at the world from her pram stopped the show To all the people from Georgetown Globe Productions I say You have done it again Shannon Marshall a member of the dancing troupe Hot Box Dancers and Barry who plays Harry the Horse swing lo the Cuban rhythm in a scene from Georgetown Globe Productions fall presentation Guys and Dolls currently playing at Georgetown s John Elliott Theatre The musical runs through Dec 1 and tickets can he purchased Royal I Real state offices Guelph Street Herald Photo VIDEO PLUS West Geo gelown F I Mo BRING HOME A STAR NOW IN BETSYS WEDDING DECEPTIONS ANOTHER HOURS MEN AT WORK NIGHT EAGLE BY TEMPTATION I IRS ION M Unit 00EY PA GOOEY GOOD COULD IMP YOUR OWN HIT MOVIE SO COME ON IN FILL OUT A 308 Guelph St 873 1651 AN EVENING AT LULUS Presented By Georgetown Minor Hockey in association with Lajdlaw Transit and Lulus Roadhouse SATURDAY NOV 24TH 6301 00 am 1000 PER PERSON includes bus and cover charge Tickets Available from any GMHA Convenor or call 877 7543