[NEohioPAL]Berko review: Guys and Dolls (Porthouse)

[Roy Berko]

MARYANN BLACK MAKES ‘GUYS AND DOLLS’ WORTH SEEING AT
PORTHOUSE

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times	

‘GUYS AND DOLLS’ is a problematic musical.  It is one
of the few modern musicals in which the score was
completed long before the book for the show was
written.  Frank Loesser, so the story goes, wanted to
do a musical based on the short stories of Damon
Runyon’s mythical New York City, the Big Apple, a city
filled with vivid characters.  Loesser finished the
score and no less than a dozen writers attempted to
craft the book. Finally, humorist Abe Burrows and his
side-kick Jo Swerling wrapped a quasi-story around the
music.  As such it is really a serikes of vignettes
featuring various caricatures of characters, blended
into a unified kind-of plot.  This lack of clarity
causes difficulty for directors, actors and
choreographers.

The nature of the caricatures is the second challenge.
 This is New York...the frenetic, “Nu Yawk,” the loud
and brash and unreal-peopled Gotham.  The characters
have to be bigger than life, yet believable.  The
actors have to understand the sound, the walk, the
need  be over-exaggerate the honest motives of the
people they portray.  Actors can’t feign being these
characters, they have to be the personalities.

In the main, ‘GUYS AND DOLLS’ is the combination of
the tales of Nathan Detroit, a small time gambler who
runs the “oldest established floating crap-game in New
York” and Adelaide, his doll; the high roller Sky
Masterson’s gambit of winning a bet by talking the
up-tight missionary doll, Sarah Brown, into going to
Havana with him; and, the multiple character studies
of the likes of Harry the Horse, Nicely-Nicely, Benny
Southstreet, Big Julie.

The wonderful score includes such classics as “I’ll
Know,” “If I Were a Bell,” “My Time of Day,” “I’ve
Never Been in Love Before” and “Marry the Man Today.”

The Porthouse production has many things going for it
including MaryAnn Black, Timothy M. R. Culver, MaryAnn
Black, Bil Pfuderer, MaryAnn Black.   And, did I
mention, MaryAnn Black?  Get the idea that MaryAnn
Black carries the show?  You are right.  Without her
right-on portrayal of Adelaide, the production would
be a bust.  Her “A Bushel and a Peck,” “Take Back Your
Mink” and “Adelaide’s Lament” are all show stoppers.

Culver adds dimension by developing a perfect
Nicely-Nicely.  He is one of the few on stage who
appears to be in total control of his character’s soul
and has a good singing voice to top it all off.  Bil
Pfuderer as Arvide Abernathy, the head of the Save A
Soul Mission, has a wonderful brogue and his version
of “More I Cannot Wish You” was wonderfully touching.

Jim Weaver and Yolanda Christine Davis as Sky and
Sarah, lack any charismatic connection.  It is hard to
believe them as a couple.   They never look, kiss or
touch as if they meant anything to one-another. 

Weaver’s youth and gentleness make it hard to believe
that he is THE Sky Masterson, gambler extraordinaire. 
But. he has a beautiful pop singing voice and is
consistent in his interpretation of the role.

Davis appears miscast as Sarah.  She has a beautiful
singing voice, but it does not fit the show’s songs. 
She sings words, not meanings,  and her shallow acting
makes the character unbelievable.

Rohn Thomas comes close to the Nathan role, but misses
the mark.  He just doesn’t have the underlying New
Yorkese needed for the role.

Terri Kent, the director, appears stuck between a rock
and a hard place.  She, because of the nature of the
youthful casting resources available at Porthouse, has
clean scrubbed suburban youth playing New York
mobsters and cabaret dancers.  In the main, they feign
facial expressions, lack the sounds and the attitude
needed, thus are unbelievable.

Kent is also not aided much by John Crawford, her
choreographer, who has failed, with two exceptions, to
create exciting movements.  It may have been that he
realized the limited hoofing abilities of his cast and
low-keyed it, but the music encourages so much more.  
Dance highlights were the tap number by Black and the
female chorus and Culver’s delightful “Sit Down,
you’re Rockin’ the Boat.”

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  It’s worth seeing ‘GUYS AND DOLLS’
just to see MaryAnn Black in action.  As she proved in
Porthouse’s ‘OKLAHOMA,’ and again in ‘GUYS AND DOLLS,’
she’s a local superstar!  

The show runs Tuesdays through Saturday evenings and
Sunday matinees through August 8 at the Porthouse
Theatre, located on the grounds of the Blossom Music
Center in Cuyahoga Falls.  The 500-seat, outdoor,
covered pavilion theatre is a wonderful setting. 
There isn’t a bad seat in the house.  For tickets,
which range in price from $17 to $23 call
1-800-304-2363 or 330-929-4416 or visit
www.porthousetheatre.com.


APOLOGY RE:  ‘MISS SAIGON’

In my review of ‘MISS SAIGON’ last week I credited the
effective presentation of the song ‘singing of
“Bui-Doi” to Connor O’Brien when it was actually  sung
by Ian Atwood.  Sorry Ian!


=====
Roy Berko's web page can be found at royberko.info and many of his theatre and dance reviews appear on artscleveland.net.


	
		
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