From The High Point Enterprise 3/9

REVIEW ---

‘Guys and Dolls’ provides 2 love stories

BY JOSEPH ROSENBLUM
SPECIAL TO THE ENTERPRISE

HIGH POINT – High Point Community Theatre opened on Thursday night the sec­ond production of its 2007-08 season with an exhilirating revival of the 1950 musical “Guys and Dolls.”

Most musicals offer one love story. “Guys and Dolls” provides two. Miss Adelaide (Steffanie Vaughan), the well-known fiancee, has been engaged to Nathan Detroit (Gary Stirewalt) for 14 years, and this prolonged non-mat­rimonial state has given her a cold. She bemoans her plight in two delightfully rendered laments, aptly punctuated by sneezes. Vaughan is equally en­chanting as she entertains the denizens of the Hot Box with “A Bushel and a Peck” and with her modest strip­tease for “Take Back Your Mink.” Stirewalt’s Detroit is an adorable Damon Runyon­esque grifter who prefers a game of craps to marriage. He loves his doll; he just pre­fers hanging out with the guys. But love triumphs in the end.

To bankroll the longest es­tablished floating craps game in New York City, Detroit bets the high-rolling Sky Mas­terson (Dusty Lucas) that Sky cannot get Lieutenant Sarah Brown (veteran actress Sheri Masters) of the Save-a Soul mission to accompany him to Havana. And so begins the second romance. Lucas conveys the louche yet suave air of his character, who clearly affects Masters at their first meeting. But they face in opposite directions, and a kiss is quickly followed by a slap. Sky eventually uses his gambling skills to save her mission, which he joins as her husband.

Sally Hord’s tough-as-shoe­leather General Matilda B. Cartwright wants to close down that mission for lack of converts. She uses her limited stature to full comic effect, es­pecially when she clings to a lecturn that all but hides her.

Nathan’s raffish cohorts Nicely-Nicely Johnson (Lee Willard, another HPCT stal­wart) and Benny Southstreet (Gareth Allan Stearns) are as heart-winning as he. They also sing well in their lively numbers.

Charlie Waller as tough Lieutenant Brannigan keeps trying to lock up these gam­blers, but odds are eight-to­-five he won’t succeed.

Adelaide is well supported choreographically by the Hot Box dancers, a lovely, enchanting crew. Sarah Brown receives fine musical and spiritual assistance from Jim Corey’s fatherly Arvide Abernathy, Peggy Clapper’s Agatha and Elissa Bober’s Martha.

“Guys and Dolls” is a sure thing. Put down your dice box and remote control, and see it this weekend.

JOSEPH ROSENBLUM teaches library science and literature at The Universitiy of North Carolina at Greensboro.