the Rice Thresher

Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: David Rosales Wiess College sophomore Liz Castillo (far right), who plays Sargent Sarah Brown, belts a tune in Brown College's Guys and Dolls.

With its fantastic combination of gambling high rollers, upright religious workers and quibbling lovers, Guys and Dolls is a well-loved musical that has been revived multiple times on Broadway. Brown College's production of the play, directed by Brown junior Mike Clendenen and Brown sophomore Kensey King, valiantly strives for another great revival. While their version of the musical is a modestly entertaining show, it doesn't quite live up to the hype.

Guys and Dolls is a lively comedy set against the backdrop of prohibition-era New York. In a last-ditch attempt to obtain the money he needs to host a game of craps for the high rollers in town, craps master Nathan Detroit makes a bet with the smooth-talking Sky Masterson that he can't get Sargent Sarah Brown to fall for him. But of course, Masterson and Sarah end up falling in love. Disaster ensues and misunderstandings abound as the two try to sort each other out.

The story may be tired, yet the play's leads are anything but. Wiess College sophomore Liz Castillo plays Sarah Brown with pitch-perfect uptightness, bringing her clear, expressive and well-controlled voice to the role. Jones College sophomore Lilla Pivnick also excels in her hilarious and bubbly portrayal of Miss Adelaide, with a faultless New York drawl and an impressive command of both her singing and dancing roles.

Masterson, the slick high roller, is played by Hanszen College sophomore Spencer Boucher, a talented male lead, decently matched against Castillo. However, aside from their excellently paired singing talents, Boucher and Castillo display almost no believable chemistry onstage. Their relationship seems more that of a domineering master and a na've child, and it lacks the romance needed to support the play. The relationship between Miss Adelaide (Pivnick) and Nathan Detroit (Jones senior Stephen Nelson), is more believable, but only because Miss Adelaide is so over-the-top in her perky obsessiveness with her resistant fiance.

Castillo's projection is excellent, which comes in handy throughout the performance. The band, directed by Brown sophomore Joelle Zigman, occasionally drowns out some of the quieter singers. The strength of the band lies in the full, well-rehearsed main numbers. However, the band also tends to bog down the tempo of both the slower and the faster songs, and the violins and clarinets sound consistently out of tune.

Fortunately for the dancers in Guys and Dolls, the band keeps up during the majority of the dance numbers. Choreographed by newcomers Brown sophomore Jasmine Elliot and Wiess sophomore Jessica Manriquez, the dances are mostly comprised of simple choreography, with the exception of the impressively intricate and showy craps game sequence. Many of the numbers looked slightly sloppy - the several strong dancers in the production were unable to carry the amateurs onstage.

The stage set is also simple - the cardboard cutouts of New York City skyscrapers are a pleasure to behold upon the beginning of the show. The cutouts get monotonous by the end of the show, however, as they are altered very little throughout the entire production. Still, one very cool stage prop makes a brief appearance, when Sky and Nicely-Nicely Johnson make a daring escape through a manhole in the stage.

The show is mostly buoyed by the strength of the leading cast - this production is nearly worth attending simply to hear Castillo's angelically precise vibrato and Pivnick's perky accent. Duncan College freshman Estevan Delgado also makes an adept debut in the supporting role of Nicely-Nicely Johnson, bringing his energetic presence and expressive projection to a welcome dose of comic relief.

The leads are worth the money, but while Guys and Dolls is a valiant effort, the talent is young and unfocused. The sloppy dancing, overpowering music and somewhat disjointed scenes make for a rough ride that is difficult for the inherent vocal talent to redeem.

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