Guys And Dolls

Maurice Hines stars as Nathan Detroit in director Charles Randolph-Wright's racially mixed revival of the classic 1950 musical "Guys and Dolls," currently in previews at Washington's Arena Stage.The Abe Burrows-Jo Swerling-Frank Loesser musical, based on the stories of Damon Runyon, focuses on the unlikely connection between a group of underworld gamblers and the do-gooders at the Save-a-Soul Mission.Hines plays Nathan Detroit, proprietor of "the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York."

Live Arts Maryland music director J. Ernest Green opened the 2012-2013 season on a new high last weekend at Maryland Hall with a fabulous production of "Guys and Dolls" in which Annapolis Chorale members and stellar soloists brought sparkle to classic Broadway. With the first notes of the overture, the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra produced a full sound to underscore the importance of music at Green's "Broadway in Concert" performances. Further brightening this production were several surprises by soloists playing the Damon Runyon characters from the 1950 favorite.

THE DRAMA department at Liberty High School will present its spring production, "Guys and Dolls," Friday and Saturday at 7: 30 p.m. The show also will be presented April 26 and 27.With a cast and crew of nearly 60, this production tells the story of a group of gangsters, their gals and their favorite pastime -- gambling.The show, the third major production of the year, is co-directed by drama department veterans Kathy Schnorr and Cathy James.Featured in this musical are seniors Andrea Hussle, Katy Schuman, Ken Fischer and Kevin Schreiner.

Damon Runyon's colorful characters brought to musical life by composer Frank Loesser's 1950 hit Guys and Dolls remains high on most lists of great Broadway musicals. It seemed a safe bet that this timeless show about gamblers done by a lively young cast would provide an entertaining evening and continue Anne Arundel Community College's proud performing arts tradition at Pascal Center. The bet proved risky on opening night last Friday, when Moonlight Troupers' Guys and Dolls fell far short of expectations, based on nearly every Troupers show I'd seen over the last dozen years - including a terrific Guys and Dolls done 10 years ago by a talented cast against a great Manhattan backdrop.

BIG, BROADWAY-style productions no longer are limited to high schools as Mount Airy Middle School opens Guys and Dolls tonight to a sold-out audience. More than 80 pupils have been working since January under the guidance of music and choral teacher Kim Hobbs to put together the musical. "It's been a little crazy," Hobbs said. "Basically, I'm the only adult with 60 or more kids at after-school rehearsals." The production features a cast of more than 50, all of whom are on the stage at once for several song and dance numbers.

Readers are invited to examine the eyes of Rose La Rose. She apparently was an entertainer who performed at Baltimore's famous Gayety burlesque back in the heyday of The Block, LTC which to most minds means the age before television, before the retailing of Swedish sex manuals, before men gave up hats and strippers gave up pasties. In other words, it was a very long time ago.For those of us who have known The Block only as that sleazy, cheap glow coming from the aching heart of Baltimore, there might be in the eyes of Rose La Rose a reflection of the mysterious bygone Block that once was supposedly more innocent and more fun, more dignified and certainly more glamorous.

With its colorful cast of gamblers, floozies and Salvation Army lassies and a musical score that keeps the hits coming fast and furious, it's better than even money that "Guys and Dolls" is going to enchant an audience if a cast can do it justice.Some very appealing talent has assembled across from the City Dock; enough to make the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre "the oldest established permanent floating crap game" in the capital this summer.It is a spirited affair highlighted by excellent leads, some cute choreography and, above all, that remarkable Frank Loesser score that contains such songs as "Luck Be a Lady Tonight," "A Bushel and a Peck," "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat" and "I'll Know When My Love Comes Along."

Once upon a time, all that got shot in Times Square was craps, low lifes had high-sounding monikers like "Nicely-Nicely," and a dame could be called a doll without alerting the political correctness cops.OK. Maybe that was never-never land, but you can have an old-fashioned good time visiting it at the Lyric Opera House, where "Guys and Dolls" is happily ensconced for the next three weeks.Winner of the 1992 Tony Award for best revival, this snappy production, directed by Jerry Zaks, pulls off the difficult combination of being fresh at the same time that it is reverent to Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows' musical comedy based on Damon Runyon's fabled Broadway characters.

With its concert version of Frank Loesser's "Guys and Dolls" Saturday, J. Ernest Green and the Annapolis Chorale moved into a new musical arena without leaving Maryland Hall.The singers have gone this season from Mozart to Motown, from Handel to Mascagni and now to Broadway, without sets. With the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra, the chorale and six soloists, the stage was so full that sets would have gotten in the way of the music.Green and the chorale used the minimal staging effectively, so the performance was never static.

EVEN THOUGH it was a Saturday, the cafeteria at Wilde Lake Middle School hummed with activity over the weekend as nearly 40 pupils gathered to begin rehearsals with music teacher Kiersten Drumm for the musical "Guys and Dolls Jr." "Play it big. I want to have to tell you to tone down the cheesiness," Drumm says. Then the overture begins. Drumm calls out, "Curtain. Smiles everybody," and the real fun begins as the 33-member cast launches into the opening number. This energetic production of the hit musical debuts at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Slayton House.

Forget Obama, McCain: new Paris Hilton video revives her fake candidacy Paris Hilton is back on the campaign trail appearing in a second video in support of her bid for the presidency. In the video posted on FunnyOrDie.com Wednesday, Hilton gets some advice from the man many Americans came to admire as the chief executive through the eight years of his West Wing administration, President Jed Bartlet, otherwise known as Martin Sheen. As she did in the first video where she announced her candidacy, Hilton offers her views on the issue of the day, saying the government should "lower inflated interest rates so it's not impossible for [people]

You know how you get a song stuck in your head? Ever since the fur started flying in the state prosecutor's investigation of Mayor Sheila Dixon, I keep hearing that song from Guys and Dolls , the one sung by a doll who was shocked, just shocked, at what a guy expected in return for his gifts: Take back your mink, Take back your pearls. What made you think That I was one of those girls? Ever since that first caveman bonked a furry beast and gave its pelt to his best cavelady, that has been the question: Just what does a guy get for giving a doll a mink?

Teamwork, discipline and mental focus are all part of the experience for midshipmen at the Naval Academy. They come together in perhaps a lesser-known way in the academy's music department, which will present the Midshipmen Classical Concert on Sunday and a two-weekend run starting Feb. 22 of the academy's winter musical, Guys and Dolls. "There are a number of very talented midshipmen, and this is a wonderful opportunity to hear some of our future leaders of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps demonstrate this aspect," said Monte Maxwell, in his 12th year as department chairman.

Frances Bergen, 84, a model and actress Frances Bergen, 84, a model and actress who married ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and was the mother of actress Candice Bergen, died Oct. 2 at a Los Angeles hospital after a long illness, Born Frances Westerman in Birmingham, Ala., she moved to Los Angeles with her mother after her father died. At 19, she attended a performance of The Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show and caught the attention of the vaudevillian who, with his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, hosted radio's then-highest-rated program.

NORTHWEST Dawn services planned Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church of Taneytown will hold an Easter sunrise service at 6:25 a.m. today in the church cemetery on Roberts Mill Road. In the event of rain, the service will be held in the church at 38 W. Baltimore St. Breakfast will be served after the service. Information: 410-751-1203. Keysville Evangelical Lutheran Church, 7301 Keysville Road, Keymar, will hold an Easter sunrise service at 6:15 a.m. today. Information: 410-756-6064. St. Luke's (Winter's)

In last weekend's performances of Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls, J. Ernest Green and the Annapolis Chorale, Annapolis Chamber Orchestra and soloists again proved that music is the one essential component of all classic Broadway shows, and music is best served in a concert setting. Green's minimalist staging and judicious use of dialogue made other more elaborate productions seem superfluous. Costumes were well-suited to the characters, with the guys looking sharp and the dolls fetching, most notably Katie Hale as an adorable Miss Adelaide and Amy Cofield doing wonders for her plain gray uniform.

Producing a musical is always a crap shoot, but Washington's Arena Stage has come up with a winner in its sleek, smart and funny production of "Guys and Dolls."This is Broadway-caliber work on the part of director Charles Randolph-Wright, choreographer Ken Roberson, the design team and almost all of the cast (many of whom, including star Maurice Hines, have Broadway credentials).Based on the characters created by Damon Runyon, with a score by Frank Loesser and a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, "Guys and Dolls," which opened in 1950, hails from an era when the words "musical" and "comedy" seemed inseparably linked.

Where can one go and experience New York nightlife, Havana's dance clubs and Christian missionaries all in one night? The answer is a performance of Guys and Dolls, the Tony Award-winning musical that was brought to life last week at Centennial High School. The story takes place in New York, where Nathan Detroit, a craps-game organizer, is desperate for money to fund his next game. He makes a $1,000 bet with the notorious gambler Sky Masterson that Masterson cannot take Sarah Brown, a conservative missionary, to Havana.