“Wait ‘til the hookers leave!” director Kathy Tom called as a
newsboy started moving across the stage.
“Wait ‘til the hookers leave!” director Kathy Tom called as a newsboy started moving across the stage.
This was the dress rehearsal for South Valley Civic Theater’s production of “Guys and Dolls,” a show about gambling and love.
Actors and musicians alike were putting the final touches on the production in anticipation of its opening tonight. Performers and crew members hurried around the theater while snippets of the score drifted from the orchestra pit.
And there were a lot of people moving around – about 45 cast members, not to mention another 15 to 20 crew members and musicians working behind the scenes.
“It’s a challenge, but I enjoy a large cast,” said Tom, who has also directed “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” for the theater.
Part of the reason for the large group of people working on the show is that the theater likes to find a spot for anyone who wants to be a part of the show.
The musical takes place in post-war New York, where gambler Sky Masterson, bets Nathan Detroit, the organizer of “the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York” that he can woo any woman he chooses and take her on a romantic getaway to Havana.
The woman Masterson chooses is Sarah Brown, a Salvation Army reformer who preaches on the street against vice and iniquity. Should Masterson win, Detroit’s end of the bargain is that he must marry Adelaide, his fiancée of 14 years.
Tom said while the show is written for adults only, she included children to make it more true-to-life.
“I used to go to New York all the time, and there wasn’t any hour of the day when you didn’t see children on the street,” she said.
“There’s gamblers, hotbox dancers, New York City streets; there’s song and dance, lots of comedy, lots of characters,” said producer Frank McGill.
Peter Mandel, who plays Detroit, echoed previous assertions that the play is one of the greatest on Broadway.
“The music is wonderful,” he said. “The lyrics are funny, and they move the plot along really well.”
Masterson is played by Lane Grover; Colleen Chipman plays Sarah; and the long-suffering Adelaide is played by Joy Reynolds – her first time in a lead part.
“I’m so nervous,” she said right before her first appearance on-stage for the rehearsal.
Tom continued to call directions from the fifth row, fine-tuning timing and actors’ positions.
“It always comes together,” she said.
