By Cindi Sansone-Braff
Photos Brian Hoerger
I’ll Bet the Farm You’ll Love Theatre Three’s “Guys and Dolls”
Entire Company of ‘Guys and Dolls’ at Theatre ThreeTheatre Three made a wise decision to kick off its 52nd season with a revival of Guys and Dolls, the screwball musical comedy from Broadway’s Golden Age. With music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, book by Joe Swerling and Abe Burrows, and based on stories and characters created by Damon Runyon, this show opened on Broadway in 1950, ran for 1,200 performances, and picked up the Tony Award for Best Musical. In 1955, Samuel Goldwyn Productions made this Broadway musical into a film starring Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, and Vivian Blaine.
From the moment the show begins, the audience gets caught up in the hustle and bustle of New York City life. The actors scurry busily about the stage in Ronald Green III and Jason Allyn’s authentic period costumes, with the men wearing suits, ties, and fedoras; and the women donning dresses, hats, pearls, purses, and gloves.
This show has a huge cast, and a lot is happening on stage at every moment of every scene. Director Jeffrey Sanzel’s excellent staging kept the show well-paced, polished, and professional, from lights up to the dazzling finale.
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Kevin Shaw and Rachel GreenblattRachel Greenblatt gave an outstanding performance as the idealistic missionary Sister Sarah Brown from Save-a-Soul Mission. She is hellbent on saving sinners, and she lets this fact be known when she belts out “Follow the Fold,” a song imploring people to stray no more and seek repentance. Ms. Greenblatt has a sweet soprano voice and gave a riveting performance during this up-tempo, comedic, jazzy song.
Kevin Shaw made his Theatre Three debut as Sky Masterson, the smooth-talking, handsome high-stakes gambler whose luck never seems to run out. When Mr. Shaw entered the stage wearing a perfectly tailored three-piece suit and fedora, he already had the audience in the palm of his hands. Mr. Shaw has star quality, that indefinable something that makes an audience believe that a performer is magical. The sky’s the limit for this triple-threat actor, who can sing, dance, and act. I hope to see him time and time again on Theatre Three’s mainstage.
At the end of Act I, Sarah (Rachel Greenblatt) and Sky (Kevin Shaw) discover, much to their mutual surprise, that they have fallen in love. Their passionate duet, “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” was one of the highlights of the evening.
Angelo DiBiase and Steven UihleinTheatre Three veteran, Steven Uihlein, was lovable as Nathan Detroit, a nice enough guy, although plagued with a gambling problem. Nathan runs an illegal floating crap game to earn a living and constantly dodges the cops. Angelo DiBiase, as Lt. Brannigan, was most believable in his portrayal of a by-the-books police officer at his wit’s end because Nathan and the other gamblers are always outsmarting him.
Nathan is also a diehard commitment-phobic, finding any excuse to put off the nuptials, although he has been engaged for 14 years to his fiancée, Adelaide, played by Sari Feldman. Ms. Feldman, with her heavy New York accent and expressive body language, aced the role of a singer/showgirl with more heart than brains. Ms. Feldman and Mr. Uihlein have great chemistry, and their duet “Sue Me” held the audience spellbound. Ms. Feldman has pitch-perfect vocals and great comedic timing. These talents were apparent during her performance of “Adelaide’s Lament,” a song about how being single has caused her to have psychosomatic symptoms that manifest as a continuous cold.
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Melanie Acampora, Tamralynn Dorsa, Samantha Fierro, Melissa Norman, Cassidy Rose O’Brien, and Michelle ShapiroThe Hot Box Girls, who perform with Adelaide at the Hot Box club, looked fabulous in their showgirl costumes. They are all talented performers, and a big round of applause goes out to Melanie Acampora, Tamralynn Dorsa, Samantha Fierro, Melissa Norman, Cassidy Rose O’Brien, and Michelle Shapiro.
Finn MacDevitt gave a spot-on performance in the role of Nicely-Nicely Johnson, a compulsive gambler and associate of Nathan Detroit. Mr. MacDevitt is a comic genius, delivering his lines with expert timing. He demonstrated his powerful vocals during the big production number “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.” Linda May, as General Cartwright, the regional director of the Save-a-Soul mission, was hilarious when she finally ripped loose and joined in the festivities.
James Taffurelli gave a solid performance as Big Jule, a sore-losing hustler from Chicago. Big Jule seemed to appear on stage out of nowhere, just menacingly standing there, stone-faced and silent, and the audience knew this was a man to be feared. However, Mr. Taffurelli revealed Big Jule’s softer side when he got momentarily swept up in the heat of the “hallelujah” moment at the mission.
Michael J. Butera as Arvide Abernathy, Sarah’s grandfather and the leader of the mission band, gave a heartwarming rendition of “More I Cannot Wish You.”
The scenic design by Randall Parsons transforms in an instant from a bustling Time Square cityscape, with neon signs, billboards, and towering buildings, into the glamorous Hot Box Club. When Nathan opens a manhole cover, the set morphs into a dingy sewer. This grungy underground tunnel system with huge sewage pipes was the only place Nathan could find to host a crap game. In this unsavory setting, the showstopping “Luck Be a Lady” number enfolds. Mr. Shaw, as Sky Masterson, gave a stellar rendition of this classic song while the other gamblers joined him in a high-energy, athletic dance routine choreographed by the gifted Ryan Nolin.
Theatre Three’s spectacular revival of Guys and Dolls is a sure bet. See it! You’ll love it, “A Bushel and a Peck!”
The show runs through October 22, 2022. To purchase tickets, visit www.theatrethree.com or Call the Box office: 631-928-9100.
Cindi Sansone-Braff is an award-winning playwright. She has a BFA in Theatre from UCONN and is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Long Island Authors Group. She is the author of Grant Me a Higher Love, Why Good People Can’t Leave Bad Relationships, and Confessions of a Reluctant Long Island Psychic. Two of her monologues from her full-length plays are featured in Smith and Kraus’s The Best Men’s Stage Monologues of 2022 and The Best Women’s Stage Monologues of 2022. www.Grantmeahigherlove.com.