Aficionados of the golden age of Broadway musicals rank Guys and Dolls right up there with Gypsy, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma!, Kiss Me, Kate, South Pacific, and other classics in that celebrated pantheon. Derby Dinner Playhouse, which excels at recreating those magical works, excels once again with its current presentation of composer/lyricist Frank Loesser's tune-filled adaptation from 1950 of a Damon Runyon short story (book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows) epitomizing lovable Broadway gamblers, Salvation Army do-gooders, and heart-of-gold showgirls. Producer/director Bekki Jo Schneider's crackerjack cast boasts four terrific leads - Brian Bowman as the handsome big-stakes gambler Sky Masterson; Pamela Brumley as prim and pretty Salvation Army "doll" Sarah Brown; Peter Riopelle as Nathan Detroit, hilarious in Marx Brothers mode as he frantically seeks a place for his "Oldest Established (Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York)," and Sandra Simpson as brassy but sweet-natured Miss Adelaide, the slightly-over-the-hill "Hot Box" star who has been trying for 14 years to get Nathan to the altar.
Bowman and Brumley's voices blend beautifully in their gorgeous love duets - "I'll Know" and "I've Never Been in Love Before." This is musical theatre at its spellbinding best. His solo on "My Time of Day" and hers on "If I Were a Bell" are pure bliss.
"Adelaide's Lament," Miss Adelaide's big number about how her prolonged unmarried state has caused her to develop colds and coughs, never fails as a show-stopper. Simpson does it to a fare-thee-well but she's even better in the quarrelsome "Sue Me" duet where she's equally matched with a chastised and apologetic Nathan. The way she varies her "I could honestly die" line from chorus to chorus humanizes and brings out the vulnerability in this cartoonish creature. "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," another show-stopper, gets rollicking, exuberant treatment from Jim Hesselman as hot-shot crap-shooter Nicely-Nicely Johnson, who leads the ensemble through the gospel-tinged song at Sarah's Save-a-Soul Mission. Hesselman and Cary Wiger (as BennySouthstreet) get to belt the title tune, and with Lem Jackson (as Rusty Charlie) they open the show with the catchy "Fugue for Tinhorns" roundelay.
A touchingly effective moment comes when J. R. Stuart as Arvide Abernathy, Sarah's missionary grandfather, sings to her the charming "More I Cannot Wish You."
Barbara F. Cullen's choreography propels the "Luck Be a Lady" number by Sky and his fellow gamblers with dazzling energy. The Hot Box Girls spearheaded by Miss Adelaide display their talents in "A Bushel and a Peck" and "Take Back Your Mind," two comically raucous song-and-dance interludes.
With "Marry the Man Today," a philosophically delicious duet by Sarah and Miss Adelaide, the Broadway sharpies make their adjustments, solving all their problems - or at least putting them off.
