By critical consensus, Guys and Dolls is as close to perfect as musicals get.
Subtitled “A musical fable of Broadway,” it hails from 1950, when composer-lyricist Frank Loesser and book writers Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows adapted a couple of comic Damon Runyon tales of Times Square underworld characters. The show’s journey to Broadway was anything but smooth, yet the quality of the results are undeniable.
No wonder it has been revived frequently on Broadway, and that the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has chosen it to be the first show it has produced twice.
Guys and Dolls is a popular musical with audiences of all ages, but getting its many standout elements right and its two romantic couples in balance can be challenging. The current show at the Maltz succeeds on the strength of the material — much of it is foolproof, after all. Nevertheless, the production feels uneven, always competent, yet frequently uninspired. Quite entertaining, but not always up to the Maltz’s usual high standards.
The show is populated with crap shooters, horse players and assorted con artists with such names as Angie the Ox and Harry the Horse. But at its center are a marriage-averse hustler named Nathan Detroit and his fiancée of 14 years, adenoidal Adelaide, the Hot Box club’s lead singer with a perpetual psychosomatic cold. Also vying for attention is bet-on-anything gambler Sky Masterson, who wagers with Nathan that he can persuade prim and proper Save-a-Soul mission sergeant Sarah Brown to fly to Havana for dinner.
Usually with Guys and Dolls, one of the two couples dominates the action. At the Maltz, however, both duos have a chemical imbalance, with the women far outshining the men. Frankly, it would be hard to match Mallory Newbrough’s New Yawky-accented Adelaide, whose growl and sneeze delivery of her sly solo, “Adelaide’s Lament,” is a comic tour de force. As Nathan, Barrett Riggins has no comparable material, and fails to cash in on many of the character’s comic quirks.
Similarly, Hailie Ferrier (Sarah) has a lovely soprano singing voice and she makes a nice transition from prude to pussycat on “If I Were a Bell,” under the influence of Cuban rum, while Dan De Luca’s Masterson is a few quarts low on charisma and sings harshly.
Kyle Taylor Parker stands out of the ensemble as Nicely Nicely Johnson on the title tune and particularly on the show’s rousing 11 o’clock number, “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” a winking gospel of full-throttle fervor. Curt Denham excels on the heartfelt “More I Cannot Wish You” and also worth a mention is diminutive Jen Cody, cast against type as Big Julie from Cicero, a role usually played by a hulking guy.
Under Al Blackstone’s direction, some of the book scenes outstay their welcome. (We’re looking at you, the underground craps sequence.) He is far more successful with his choreography, most notably the “Crapshooters Ballet.”
Adam Koch and Steve Royal’s Times Square scenic design is an amusing, colorful evocation of period signage and while Johanna Pan’s costumes are rich in character, she seems to perversely avoid the usual chalk-stripe suits of the ensemble.
Those costumes seem emblematic of the whole Maltz production, which tries to give Guys and Dolls a new look and feel without a distinctive directorial stamp. Again, the show is sturdy enough and Loesser’s score is such a series of knockouts that the cumulative effect is successful, without it being as memorable as this musical can be.
GUYS AND DOLLS, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Through Sunday, April 6. $74-$140. 561-575-2223 or visit jupitertheatre.org.