(by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Ltd - On belhalf of Music Theatre International of New York)

Music & Lyrics By FRANK LOESSER
Book By JO SWERLING & ABE BURROWS
Based On A Story By Damon Runyon

Director/Choreographer DENISE ROBINSON
Musical Director JOHN BIDDULPH

GANGSTERS, HOT BOX GIRLS, THE MISSION BAND ETC.

Kirk Andrews, Kip Barratt, Fiona Bingham, Sandra Birch, Stacey Birch, Liz Bolton, Neil Bromley, Tasheka Brown, Alan Compson, Carol Dicken, Tami Dowen, Chris Duff-Cole, Taz Folarin, Jonathan Hallmark, Charlotte Haughty, Stan Holmes, Ian Hunter, Lisa Jane Jones, Jack Morris, Eric Page, Wendy Peterson, Peter Pingree, Andy Poulton, Joanne Rideout, Maria Robbins, Kimberley Robinson, Marcelle Rollings, Pascale Rollings, Yvonne Salt, Tracey Spencer-Smith, Holly Stringfellow, Peter Taylor, Stan Till, Chris Walker, Jackie Watkins, Ray Whittaker, Ashley Wilkes.

NON ACTING MEMBERS TO DATE

Claire Andrews, Jackie Andrews, Jean Beard, Ron Beard, Jayne Blakemore, Veronica Bould, Joyce Brookes, Lloyd Brookes, Jenny Darlington, June Evans, Lindsay Flavell, Joan Grice, Sue Harris, Jerry Hobbs, Gail Hutcheson, Sheryl Lea, Janet Molton, Mick Moreton, Bryn Morris, Rosemary Moss, Pauline Purshouse, Peter Rollings, Keith Rowley, Maria Shee, Graharm Tarbuck, Jean Wadsworth, Alison Walker, Debra Watson, Doreen Whild

LIFE MEMBERS

Chris Duff-Cole, George Ellis, Bob Frost, Jeanette Frost, Michael Kemp, Anne Palmer, Maria Robbins, Olwen Rowley, Maggie Thurgur

Guys & Dolls opened at the 46th Street Theatre in New York on 24th November 1950, and was a smash hit. With a book by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling, and music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, out-of-town tryouts were hugely successful and by the time of its opening night on Broadway, the word was out that the show was a winner. Based upon the risqué yarns of Damon Runyon, the dialogue and lyrics effectively captured the speech patterns of Runyon’s larger-than-life characters, and complicated the show’s strong characterization and dramatic book. In addition, the music perfectly matched the show’s mood.

The story tells of two love affairs, the first between compulsive gambler Nathan Detroit and the leading dancer at the Hot Box night club, Miss Adelaide, and the second between another – far more successful – gambler, Sky Masterson and Miss Sarah Brown, a leading light at the Save-A-Soul Mission. Other Runyonesque characters enhance the milieu, notably Benny Southstreet, Big Jule, Harry the Horse, and Nicely-Nicely Johnson, who stopped the show every night when he lead the cast in the exuberant ‘Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ The Boat’. During the course of the play true love triumphs despite many obstacles, not least of which is the police officer Lieutenant Brannigan’s desperate attempts to locate and close down Nathan’s floating crap game, the ‘oldest established’ in New York. By the time the curtain falls, Masterson is a reformed character and has married Sarah, while Nathan and Miss Adelade are about to marry after a 14 year long courtship. Loesser’s marvellous score include ‘Follow The Fold’, ‘Fugue For Tinhorns’, ‘The Oldest Established’, ‘I’ll Know’, ‘A Bushel And A Peck’, ‘Adelaide’s Lament’, ‘Guys And Dolls’, ‘Havana’, ‘If I Were A Bell’, ‘My Time Of Day’, ‘I’ve Never Been In Love Before’, ‘Take Back Your Mink’, ‘More I Cannot Wish You’, ‘Luck Be A Lady’, ‘Sue Me’, and ‘Marry The Man Today’.

Critics and public loved the show and it ran for some 1,200 performances, winning Tony Awards for best musical. A London production opened on 28th May 1953 at the Coliseum, and ran for over a year (555 performances). The show was revived in Britain by the Royal National Theatre in 1982, 1985 (with pop singer Lulu as Miss Adelaide) and again in 1996.