Guys and Dolls


Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, such as "Pick the Winner".
The show premiered on Broadway on November 24, 1950, where it ran for 1,200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical has had several revivals on both Broadway and the West End, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, and Vivian Blaine, who reprised her role of Adelaide from Broadway.
Guys and Dolls is considered one of the greatest Broadway musicals. In 1998, Vivian Blaine, Sam Levene, Robert Alda and Isabel Bigley, along with the original Broadway cast of the 1950 Decca cast album, were
inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Background

Guys and Dolls was conceived by producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin as an adaptation of Damon Runyon's short stories. These stories, written in the 1920s and 1930s, concerned gangsters, gamblers, and other characters of the New York underworld. Runyon was known for the unique comic dialect he employed in his stories; mixing highly formal language, without contractions, and colorful slang. Frank Loesser, who had spent most of his career as a lyricist for movie musicals, was hired as composer and lyricist. George S. Kaufman was hired as director. When the first version of the show's book, or dialogue, written by Jo Swerling was deemed unusable, Feuer and Martin asked radio comedy writer Abe Burrows to rewrite it.
Loesser had already written much of the score to correspond with the first version of the book. Burrows later recalled:
Frank Loesser's fourteen songs were all great, and the had to be written so that the story would lead into each of them. Later on, the critics spoke of the show as 'integrated'. The word integration usually means that the composer has written songs that follow the story line gracefully. Well, we accomplished that but we did it in reverse.

Abe Burrows specifically crafted the role of Nathan Detroit around Sam Levene who signed for the project long before Burrows wrote a single word of dialogue, a similar break Burrows said he had when he later wrote Cactus Flower for Lauren Bacall. In "Honest, Abe: Is There Really No Business Like Show Business?", Burrows recalls "I had the sound of their voices in my head. I knew the rhythm of their speech and it helped make the dialogue sharper and more real". Although Broadway and movie veteran Sam Levene was not a singer, it was agreed he was otherwise perfect as Nathan Detroit; indeed, Levene was one of Runyon's favorite actors. Frank Loesser agreed it was easier adjusting the music to Levene's limitations than substituting a better singer who couldn't act. Levene's lack of singing ability is the reason the lead role of Nathan Detroit only has one song, the duet "Sue Me".
Composer and lyricist Frank Loesser specifically wrote "Sue Me" for Sam Levene, and structured the song so he and Vivian Blaine never sang their showstopping duet together. The son of a cantor, Sam Levene was fluent in Yiddish: "Alright, already, I'm just a no-goodnick; alright, already, it's true, so nu? So sue me." Frank Loesser felt "Nathan Detroit should be played as a brassy Broadway tough guy who sang with more grits than gravy. Sam Levene sang "Sue Me" with such a wonderful Runyonesque flavor that his singing had been easy to forgive, in fact it had been quite charming in its ineptitude." "Musically, Sam Levene may have been tone-deaf, but he inhabited Frank Loesser's world as a character more than a caricature", says Larry Stempel, a music professor at Fordham University and the author of Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater.
The character of Miss Adelaide was created specifically to fit Vivian Blaine into the musical, after Loesser decided she was ill-suited to play the conservative Sarah. When Loesser suggested reprising some songs in the second act, Kaufman warned: "If you reprise the songs, we'll reprise the jokes."

Characters

  • Sky Masterson
  • Sarah Brown
  • Nathan Detroit
  • Miss Adelaide
  • Nicely Nicely Johnson
  • Benny Southstreet
  • Arvide Abernathy
  • Rusty Charlie
  • General Cartwright
  • Lieutenant Brannigan
  • Harry The Horse
  • Big Jule
  • Angie The Ox
  • Master of Ceremonies
  • Mimi
  • Agatha
  • Calvin
  • Martha
  • Liver Lips Louie
  • Ensemble

    Synopsis

Act I

A pantomime of never-ceasing activities depicts the hustle and bustle of New York City. Three small-time gamblers, Nicely-Nicely Johnson, Benny Southstreet, and Rusty Charlie, argue over which horse will win a big race. The band members of the Save-a-Soul Mission, led by the pious and beautiful Sergeant Sarah Brown, call for sinners to "Follow the Fold" and repent. Nicely and Benny's employer, Nathan Detroit, runs an illegal floating craps game. Due to local policeman Lt. Brannigan's strong-armed presence, he has found only one likely spot to hold the game: the "Biltmore garage". Its owner, Joey Biltmore requires a $1,000 security deposit, and Nathan is broke. Nathan hopes to win a $1,000 bet against Sky Masterson, a notoriously lucky gambler willing to bet on virtually anything. Nathan proposes a bet he believes he cannot lose: Sky must take a woman of Nathan's choice to dinner in Havana, Cuba. Sky agrees, and Nathan chooses Sarah Brown.
At the mission, Sky attempts to make a deal with Sarah; offering her "one dozen genuine sinners" in exchange for the date in Havana. Sarah refuses, and they argue over whom they will fall in love with. Sky kisses Sarah, and she slaps him. Nathan goes to watch his fiancée of 14 years, Adelaide, perform her nightclub act. After her show, she asks him to marry her once again, telling him that she has been sending her mother letters for twelve years claiming that they have been married with five children. She finds out that Nathan is still running the craps game. After kicking him out, she reads a medical book telling her that her long-running cold may be due to Nathan's refusal to marry her.
The next day, Nicely and Benny watch as Sky pursues Sarah, and Nathan tries to win back Adelaide's favor. They declare that guys will do anything for the women they love. General Cartwright, the leader of Save-a-Soul, visits the mission and explains that she will be forced to close the branch unless they succeed in bringing some sinners to the upcoming revival meeting. Sarah, desperate to save the mission, promises the General "one dozen genuine sinners", implicitly accepting Sky's deal. Brannigan discovers a group of gamblers waiting for Nathan's craps game, and to convince him of their innocence, they tell Brannigan their gathering is Nathan's "surprise bachelor party". This satisfies Brannigan, and Nathan resigns himself to eloping with Adelaide. Adelaide goes home to pack, promising to meet him after her show the next afternoon. The Save-A-Soul Mission band passes by, and Nathan sees that Sarah is not in it; he realizes that he lost the bet and faints.
In a Havana nightclub, Sky buys a "Cuban milkshake" for himself and Sarah, which contains Bacardi rum. After a long dance sequence, a fight breaks out in the nightclub, and they flee. Outside, a drunk Sarah kisses Sky. Sky realizes that he genuinely cares for Sarah, and he takes her back to New York. They return at around 4:00 a.m., and Sky tells Sarah how much he loves the early morning. They both spontaneously admit that they're in love. A siren sounds and gamblers run out of the Mission, where Nathan has been holding the craps game. Sarah assumes that Sky took her to Havana so Nathan could run the game in the mission, and she walks out on him.

Act II

The next evening, Adelaide performs her act. Afterwards, Nicely and Sky inform her that Nathan once again will not be making an appearance. Adelaide and Sky argue about their respective relationships and their outlooks on life. He leaves, and she sadly reflects on Nathan standing her up again.
Back in the Mission, Sarah admits to Arvide and Martha that she does love Sky, but she will not see him again. Arvide, her grandfather and fellow mission worker, expresses his faith in Sky's inherent goodness and urges Sarah to follow her heart. Sky arrives and tells Sarah he intends to deliver the dozen genuine sinners for the revival, but she rebukes him and walks off. Arvide subtly encourages Sky, who leaves and finds Nicely. Nicely shows Sky to the craps game, which has now moved to the sewers to hide. After playing for twenty-four hours, most of the gamblers are tired, but Big Julie, a gambler from Chicago, has lost a large sum of money and refuses to end the game until he earns it back.
Sky arrives and fails to convince the crapshooters to come to the mission. He gives Nathan $1,000 and claims that he lost the bet. After a comment made by one of the gamblers inspires him, Sky formulates a last-minute bet to get the sinners: if he loses, everyone gets $1,000, but if he wins, they visit to the mission one time. He wins the bet. On the way to the Mission, Nathan runs into Adelaide. She tries to convince him to elope, but when he tries to deflect her, Adelaide finally realizes he will never change. Nathan finally professes his love for her, and leaves.
Sarah is shocked to see that Sky carried through on his promise. The General asks the gamblers to confess their sins, and while some offer sarcastic confessions, one of them admits the real reason they are even there. The General is thrilled that good can come from evil. Attempting to appear contrite during his confession, Nicely invents a dream that encouraged him to repent, and the gamblers join in with revivalist fervor. Brannigan arrives and threatens to arrest everyone for the craps game in the Mission, but Sarah clears them, saying that none of the gamblers were at the mission the previous night. After Brannigan leaves, Nathan confesses that they held the craps game in the mission and apologizes. He also confesses to the bet he made with Sky about taking Sarah to Havana, adding that he won the bet, to Sarah's shock. She realizes that Sky wanted to protect her reputation and must genuinely care about her. Afterwards, Sarah and Adelaide run into each other, and they commiserate and then resolve to marry their men anyway and reform them later.
A few weeks later, Nathan owns a newsstand and has officially closed the craps game at Adelaide's behest. Sky, who is now married to Sarah, works in the Mission band and has also stopped gambling. The characters celebrate as Nathan and Adelaide are married.