Nicely Naughty ‘Guys and Dolls’

BUENA PARK —  “Guys and Dolls” may be set in a seemingly far-removed world of hotshot gamblers and their Broadway babies, but beneath those trappings, it’s really just a chronicle of the clinches and the clashes involved when two people fall in love. And therein lies its enduring appeal.

The beloved musical remains as joyous as ever in an outdoor presentation by Buena Park Civic Theatre.

Director Ken Roht, who holds extensive credentials in experimental theater, adds wrinkles that make his staging a bit quirkier and naughtier than others.

John Charron’s choreography is another winning roll of the dice. Whenever the band strikes up a song and the dancers begin their sleek moves, the summer night lights up with viewers’ delighted smiles.

The principal performances are serviceable, if not stellar. But, hey, these people--many of whom are veterans of area civic light operas and amusement park shows--are real troupers. In the best spirit of “the show must go on,” they pushed ahead in a technical-disaster-plagued performance during opening weekend (which at one point left them stranded in the dark and necessitated a premature close to Act 1).

“Guys and Dolls” is Damon Runyon’s often-comic take on 1930s New York, as translated to the stage in 1950 by scriptwriters Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows and brilliant composer-lyricist Frank Loesser.

Roht--who has devised several shows in L.A. and New York with in-your-face, taboo-breaking director Reza Abdoh--re-creates this world with a touch of sly irreverence. During a scene change, for instance, a prostitute hauls out her own street lamp, hikes her bosom and starts trolling for business. In the Save-a-Soul Mission, a disheveled male missionary pops up from a pew, followed by the female missionary who rumpled him.

For the most part, though, Roht holds to the original’s cartoon world of tough-talking gangsters and squeaky nightclub performers.

The story focuses on two romances: between Nathan Detroit, who sets up illegal, roving craps games, and Miss Adelaide, his chorus girl fiancee of 14 years; and between Sky Masterson, a big-bucks gambler, and Sarah Brown, the no-nonsense mission worker he tries to date to collect on a bet.

In a delicious series of songs that includes the yearning “I’ll Know,” the comically despairing “Adelaide’s Lament” and the soaring “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” these guys and dolls stumble in and out of true love and devotion.

*

Charron delivers in the big dance numbers, with couples engaged in fevered Latin moves in “Havana” and gamblers spinning, leaping and diving through “The Crapshooters’ Ballet.”

The night after opening, the show still struggled to cruising speed, energy accelerating in the dance numbers and slowing for dialogue--with sudden brake-slamming for lengthy scene changes. However, it was difficult to assess how much of this remains inherent in the staging and how much was a result of technical difficulties and a rash of small mishaps (breakaway costumes that didn’t; hats that weren’t supposed to that did).

Lean and handsome, Matthew John Snyder makes a particularly dashing Masterson; short and nebbishy Barry Scott Silver makes an amusing Detroit. Jim Hatcher has a comic’s skilled timing as Nathan’s easily wounded cohort, Nicely-Nicely Johnson; and Bob Goodwin is appropriately Santa Claus-ish as Sarah Brown’s sweet grandfather, Arvide Abernathy.

In the chorus, Scott Simmons executes flips and leaps of such breathtaking exuberance that it’s difficult to watch anyone else.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

* “Guys and Dolls,” Buena Park Civic Theatre, Buena Park Community Recreation Center’s Patio Stage, 8150 Knott Ave. 8:15 p.m. Friday-Saturday; also 8:15 p.m. Thursdays beginning Aug. 14. Ends Aug. 30. $12. (714) 562-3844. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Barry Scott Silver: Nathan Detroit

Dawn VascoL: Miss Adelaide

Matthew John Snyder: Sky Masterson

Christine Winton: Sarah Brown

Jim Hatcher: Nicely-Nicely Johnson

David A. Van Patten: Benny Southstreet

Bob Goodwin: Arvide Abernathy

Gino England: Big Julie

Ivar Vasco: Harry the Horse

Larry Salazar: Angie the Ox

Keith Brewer: Lt. Brannigan

Tim Howell: Joey Biltmore

Duane Thomas: Rusty Charlie

Montez Brewer: Gen. Matilda B. Cartwright

Christina Buma, Diana De Luna, Andrea John, Jennifer Mohr, Stacie Stewart, Lisa Zandy: Hot Box Girls

William Cardamis, Joseph Creagh, Timothy Espinosa, Vincent Cleope Gomez, Scott Simmons, Duane Thomas: Dancing Guys

A Buena Park Fine Arts Commission program. Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, based on characters by Damon Runyon. Directed by Ken Roht. Choreographed by John Charron. Musical director: Darin Presley. Lights: Jim Book. Sound: Rick Lunn. Sets: Mike Hays. Scenic design: John Zalewski. Costumes: Carol Young. Stage manager: Steve Cisneros. Executive producer: Joane Evans.