'Guys and Dolls:' a winner for Broadway Palm

COURTESY PHOTO Peyton Dixon as Nathan Detroit and Elaine Hayhurst as Miss Adelaide in the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre's production of "Guys and Dolls" on stage through Feb. 16. Love, even in the best of circumstances, can be a gamble.

You toss the dice and hope for the best.

Sometimes the game is fixed, sometimes Lady Luck smiles on you.

Sometimes, even opposites attract and the most unlikely people couple up.

"Guys and Dolls," that classic, wonderful Frank Loesser musical, looks at love in all its tenderness and absurdity. One couple's been engaged for 14 years, another's so mismatched you'd never have guessed they'd get together.

The current production of "Guys and Dolls" now playing at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre (through Feb. 16), demonstrates in spades just why this musical possesses such staying power. ("Guys and Dolls" first opened on Broadway Nov. 24, 1950.)

First of all, it's populated with Damon Runyon's colorful characters who sport equally colorful names such as Nicely- Nicely, Harry the Horse and Big Julie. Second, it's hilariously accurate with its views on love and romance: women mistakenly thinking they can change a man after they marry him, men acting uncharacteristically when wooing a woman. Third, it contains Loesser's spectacular songs, such as "Luck Be a Lady," "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," "If I Were a Bell" and of course, the title song. In fact, every song in this show is well-known and loved among musical theater-goers; it's as if a group put out an album and every cut was a hit single.

There's the beauty of "My Time of Day/ I've Never Been In Love Before" and "I'll Know," and the rousing gospel rhythms of "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" - a song that works up the audience - and cast - so much that some productions immediately perform a reprise. (Unfortunately, this one doesn't.)

And then there are the humorous songs. Take, for example, "Take Back Your Mink," sung by Adelaide and the Hot Box Girls as a stage number at their strip club. They sing about receiving gifts of a hat, gown, pearls and mink, but profess shock when sexual liberties are expected in return. So what do they do? They sing about how shocked they are, and how they're not that kind of girl ...while removing every single gift given them, including gown! In essence, they're stripping to demonstrate how proper and virtuous they are.

Or "Sue Me" ("Sue me, sue me/shoot bullets through me/I love you"), which is possibly the only Broadway song to include the Yiddish phrase, "So, nu?"

Peyton Dixon, who looks like a young Benny Hill and acts like Nathan Lane, plays Nathan Detroit, who runs "the oldest established, permanent floating crapgame in New York." He's been engaged to Adelaide (Elaine Hayhurst), a bottle blonde stripper, for 14 years.

Dixon and Hayhurst make a great onstage couple and Hayhurst plays her character more as a person than a cartoon character. Despite Nathan's constant evasion of the altar and Adelaide's continuous nagging, deep down the two love each other enormously. Even though they haven't officially tied the knot, they interact like a couple already long-married.

Gambler Sky Masterson (Scott Moreau) and missionary Sarah Brown (Elizabeth Kensek) portray the show's other romantic leads. Moreau plays Masterson perfectly: suave, with a wide streak of decency underneath. Kensek is best when her character gets tipsy - OK, more than tipsy - and falls for Masterson, now that her defenses are down.

The two have some great duets ("I'll Know" and "I've Never Been in Love Before.") Unfortunately, the musical accompaniment for those two numbers leaves a lot to be desired; the keyboards sound cheesy and tinny, like a cheap Casio keyboard popular a few decades ago. The singers, and the audience, deserve better.

But from opening number to close, from solos to ensembles, musical director Loren Strickland has gotten some powerful performances out of these actors.

And there's not a weak link among any of them. Jason Sofge's outstanding as Nicely-Nicely, especially when he's giving testimony at the Save-a-Soul Mission. And though James G. Page, who plays Sarah's grandfather, Arvide Abernathy, doesn't have a ton of dialogue, he shows how an actor can do a lot with little. He delivers his solo, "More I Cannot Wish You" a song of Irish blessing, with great tenderness.

And I wished some actors had even more stage time: in particular, Galloway Stevens as Benny South Street, Dante J.L. Murray as Big Julie and Dick Westlake as Lt. Brannigan who wanders onto the scene from time to time, trying to track down the floating crap game. He knows something's afoot but can't catch them in the act.

This is Dean Sobon's first time directing a Broadway Palm main stage production, and his attention to detail and nuance shows.

This production of "Guys and Dolls" hits the trifecta, with powerful singing, skillful acting and invigorating dancing. If you're looking for fun, "Guys and Dolls" is a sure thing.