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Home , Abe Burrows, Cactus Flower (play), Chicago (musical), Cy Feuer, Frank Loesser, Greenwillow

Wurtele Thrust Stage / June 22 – Aug 25, 2019

Guys and Dolls A Musical Fable of Broadway based on a story and characters of music and lyrics by book by and directed by KENT GASH

PLAY GUIDE Inside

THE PLAY Synopsis, Setting and Characters • 4 When a Gamble Pays Big: The Story of • 5 Responses to Guys and Dolls • 7

THE AUTHORS Damon Runyon • 9 Responses to Damon Runyon • 10 Loesser, Swerling and Burrows • 12 Responses to Loesser and Burrows • 13

CULTURAL CONTEXT Selected Stories by Damon Runyon • 15 Runyonese Slang in Guys and Dolls • 16 People, Places and Things in the Play • 17 How to Play Street Craps • 19

BUILDING THE PRODUCTION From Director Kent Gash • 20

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION For Further Reading and Understanding • 22

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Guthrie Theater Play Guide Copyright 2019

DRAMATURG Carla Steen GRAPHIC DESIGNER Akemi Graves CONTRIBUTORS Kent Gash, Carla Steen

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2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER “A musical is what happens when text collides with motion collides with song collides with spectacle. And spectacle can be the human heart; it doesn’t necessarily have to be a helicopter crashing. You can go see ballet in its purity; you can go to a recital to hear music by itself. But what the American musical does so thrillingly is bastardize these forms into something that is exhilarating and compelling and deeply moving.”

George C. Wolfe, quoted in “The Greatest Musical: ‘I Can’t Live With Not Being Among the Finalists,’” New York Magazine, January 7, 2011

PHOTO: RODNEY GARDINER AND KIRSTEN WYATT IN GUYS AND DOLLS (T CHARLES ERICKSON) About This Guide

This play guide is designed to fuel up on a play before you see it your curiosity and deepen your onstage. Or perhaps you’re a fellow DIG DEEPER understanding of a show’s history, theater doing research If you are a theater meaning and cultural relevance for an upcoming production. company and would like so you can make the most of your We’re glad you found your way more information about theatergoing experience. You might here, and we encourage you to this production, be reading this because you fell in dig in and mine the depths of this Dramaturg Carla Steen at love with a show you saw at the extraordinary story. [email protected]. Guthrie. Maybe you want to read

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PHOTO: THE CAST OF GUYS AND DOLLS (T CHARLES ERICKSON)

Synopsis SETTING Several locations on Broadway near Times Square, , and “You’ve seen me roll for a hundred G’s. But I’ve Havana, Cuba, in the mid-1950s got a little more than dough riding on this one.” – Sky Masterson to Harry the Horse in Guys and Dolls CHARACTERS Nathan Detroit, a gambler who runs a floating craps game The city that never sleeps is home to a colorful, comic world Miss Adelaide, his fiancee of gamblers, missionaries and nightclub dancers. Among them Benny Southstreet, one of are Nathan Detroit, who runs the oldest established permanent Nathan’s gambler friends floating craps game in ; his ever-loving showgirl Nicely-Nicely Johnson, one of fiancee of 14 years, Miss Adelaide; Sky Masterson, a high-stakes Nathan’s gambler friends gambler who’ll bet on just about anything; and Miss Sarah Brown, Lt. Brannigan, a Manhattan a sergeant in the Save-A-Soul Mission who hopes to save the police officer denizens of Broadway from their sinful ways. Mimi, a Hot Box dancer with Adelaide Nathan operates his craps game on the down low to avoid both Miss Sarah Brown, a sergeant at the police and Adelaide, who makes him promise to end the the Save-A-Soul Mission game. There are a lot of big players in town, but he can’t find a Arvide Abernathy, her grandfather place to hold the game. To get the dough he needs to secure Martha, a missionary a location, he bets Sky that he can’t take Sarah to Havana. Sky Agatha, a missionary accepts the challenge and promises Sarah that he’ll deliver a General Matilda B. Cartwright, dozen genuine sinners to her upcoming prayer meeting if she has the head of the Save-A-Soul Mission dinner with him. She accepts only after learning the mission might Sky Masterson, a gambler close. Angie the Ox, a gambler Rusty Charlie, a gambler Meanwhile, Adelaide and the cops both stumble upon Nathan Harry the Horse, a gambler planning the craps game. To get him out of a pickle, Nathan's visiting from fellow gamblers say they’re throwing him a bachelor party, and Big Jule, a gambler visiting he agrees to elope with Adelaide. But when Nathan finally lands from a place for his craps game, it blows up both men’s romances and Joey Biltmore, owner of the only the biggest bet of all can bring the dolls back to their guys. Biltmore Garage

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When a Gamble Pays Big: By Carla Steen The Story of Guys and Dolls Dramaturg

The names of and Ernest H. Martin may not appear as authors of Guys and Dolls, but without the young producers’ inspiration and perseverance, the musical comedy wouldn’t exist. In 1949, Feuer and Martin were coming off the modest success of their first foray into producing withWhere’s Charley? — an adaptation of Charley’s Aunt — with music and lyrics by fellow Broadway newcomer Frank Loesser. While they were looking for their next project, Martin’s wife Nancy suggested they consider the anthology of short stories she was reading: Damon Runyon’s Guys and Dolls.

Runyon was a newspaper columnist agreed to an unusual contract that Feuer and Martin weren’t satisfied and sports writer who had, would allow them to name the with the results. They realized the beginning in the 1930s, created specific story later. story needed an early significant a popular series of short stories bet to establish the stakes. chronicling the lives of fictional They promptly called Loesser, Swerling didn’t agree, so they characters who populated Times who agreed to do the project in parted company. Square and Broadway. In dozens of action if not in words. Martin joked hired a new book writer, Abe stories and with a distinctive comic about Loesser’s inability to make Burrows, who was Feuer’s high voice, Runyon wrote about the an official commitment: “Several school classmate and a popular gamblers, dancers, safecrackers, of our shows, he didn’t agree to radio personality and comedy pickpockets, coppers and other do them until after they got on writer. There was just one problem: denizens of what became known the stage! He never said, ‘Okay, He had never written a Broadway as Runyonland. I’ll write Guys and Dolls.’ Never. show. Feuer and Martin convinced One day he hands us four songs, him that taking on a high-risk Feuer and Martin loved Runyon’s and now we knew he was doing challenge was perfectly fitting for a stories and, without an idea of it!” Loesser wrote several songs, story about gamblers. what the plot would be, knew their including “Fugue for Tinhorns,” next show would be titled Guys before there was even a plot for Not only did Burrows have an and Dolls. Runyon had passed the show. uncanny ability to capture the away in 1946, so they contacted spirit, tone and language of his estate to secure the rights. Not Feuer and Martin finally identified Runyonland without directly unsurprisingly, the estate agent the Runyon story to adapt — quoting or parodying the stories, asked which story they wanted “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown,” he was also able to write a book to adapt, as many of them had which introduces the Save-A-Soul that incorporated Loesser’s songs, already been optioned for movies. missionary and her encounter which were originally written for But the producers hadn’t gotten with the high-flying gambler Sky Swerling’s book. “Frank Loesser’s that far; they just knew they Masterson. The producers hired songs were the guideposts for wanted the style, characters and film writer Jo Swerling to draft the the libretto. It’s a rare show that is verve of Runyon’s stories. They musical’s book (or libretto), but done this way,” Burrows recalled in

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 5 his memoir, noting that songs are usually written to follow a story. “We did it in reverse. Most of the scenes I wrote blended into the songs that were already written.”

Feuer and Martin sent Burrows’ completed scenes to George S. Kaufman — the only director they seriously considered for the Guys and Dolls opened on Broadway on project. Though ironically not a November 24, 1950, to almost universal critical fan of musicals, Kaufman agreed and popular acclaim, winning five to the project and suggested and running for three years. many changes and improvements, including the addition of a second storyline to parallel the Miss Sarah Brown/Sky Masterson romance. to focus on casting and arranging to almost universal critical and Thus, Nathan Detroit and his for rehearsals and out-of-town popular acclaim, winning five Tony perpetual fiancee Miss Adelaide tryouts. In Philadelphia, the script, Awards and running for three were born out of Runyon’s story songs and performances were years. Burrows and Loesser would “Pick the Winner.” (A third story, fine-tuned. “Fugue for Tinhorns” collaborate more, when Feuer “Blood Pressure,” also fuels the finally settled into place as the and Martin had the idea that the world of Guys and Dolls, though opening number, and “The Oldest book How to Succeed in Business characters from the musical can be Established” was written to provide Without Really Trying: The Dastard’s found in numerous Runyon stories.) a first-act introduction to the Guide to Fame and Fortune could endearing gamblers. be turned into a musical befitting Kaufman oversaw Burrows as the new era of the Kennedy he wrote the rest of the book, Guys and Dolls opened on administration — yet another which allowed Feuer and Martin Broadway on November 24, 1950, gamble with a big payoff.

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Responses to Guys and Dolls

I don’t think I ever had more fun at right to. And I am ready to up and Runyon, by adding a number of a musical comedy than I had the drop on my knees before Frank characters from Runyon’s other other night, when an association Loesser, who writes the music and stories. That Nathan Detroit and of strangely gifted men put on lyrics. In fact, this Loesser is maybe Adelaide are in love, as are Sky a Broadway epic known as Guys the best light composer in the Masterson and Sarah Brown, is an and Dolls. There have been loftier world. In fact, the chances are that accepted fact from early on in the moral and aesthetic experiences, Guys and Dolls is not only a young play. The audience does witness like and ; masterpiece, but the Beggar’s the capitulation of Sarah, but it there have been more enduring Opera of Broadway. is not a slow process and not a musical accomplishments, like dramatic issue. At issue are the ; there have been Kenneth Tynan, in his 1952 review of the obstacles to true happiness. Nathan occasions when the humor was London production of Guys and Dolls, has a compulsion to run a floating clearly on a more ambitious level, reprinted in , New York: dice game, and the unpredictable like Of Thee I Sing; there have Atheneum, 1961 exigencies of this profession been more sensational individual interrupt his relationship with performances, like practically Adelaide: Their wedding has been anything involving Miss Ethel [Loesser’s] previous effort, postponed for fourteen years. On Merman. There has, however, Guys and Dolls, had opened in the other side, Sarah, a Salvation been nothing I can remember that November 1950 and would run Army mission officer, is put off by sustained a higher general level of 1,200 performances, a tremendous Masterson’s principal activity of sheer entertainment. popular and critical success in high-stakes betting. the mature strain of musical Wolcott Gibbs, “Bouquets, Brickbats and comedies descending directly from There is no question that Guys and Obituaries,” The New Yorker, December 2, 1950 Oklahoma!, including Kiss Me, Kate, Dolls is a consummate example of and continuing into the 1950s. It the comic love-story formula at its is mature in the sense that the best. Perhaps its greatest virtue is Guys and Dolls, at which I am techniques of musical-dramatic the translation of Runyon’s highly privileged to take a peek last integration, so new and almost ironic language, with its curious evening, is a hundred-per-cent mysterious in Oklahoma!, are by insistence on the present tense and American musical caper, cooked now completely mastered and sophisticated vocabulary in the up out of a story called “The Idyll seem almost easy. mouths of gangsters and gamblers, of Miss Sarah Brown,” by the late into musical numbers. Damon Runyon, who is such a Guys and Dolls is a typical example scribe as delights to give the English of the embellished love story Joseph P. Swain, The Broadway Musical: language a nice kick in the pants. … tradition against which The Most A Critical and Musical Survey, New York: Happy Fella stands out so clearly. Oxford University Press, 1990 Personally, I found myself laughing The libretto of Abe Burrows makes ha-ha last night more often than a a double plot of “The Idyll of Sarah guy in the critical dodge has any Brown,” a short story of Damon

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Guys and Dolls achieves its musical shares her chorus and verse as well power and unity from the rhythms as chapter and verse. associated with specific characters. The “guys” and “dolls,” even when Following Sarah’s more “doll-like” singing their so-called fugues, acknowledgement of her changing display a conspicuous amount feelings toward Sky in “If I Were a of syncopation and half-note Bell,” Sky is almost ready to initiate and quarter-note triplet rhythms their second , “I’ve Never working against the metrical grain. … Been in Love Before.” But first he needs to tell Sarah in “My Time of The clearest and most consistently Day” (pre-dawn) that she is the drawn rhythmic identity occurs first person with whom she wants in Adelaide’s music. Even to share these private hours. The when “reading” her treatise on metrical irregularity, radical melodic psychosomatic illness in “Adelaide’s shifts and above all the harmonic Lament,” this convincing comic ambiguity that mark his world heroine adopts the quarter-note before he met Sarah capture the triplets at the end of the verses. essence of Sky’s dramatic as well as … By the time she translates the musical personality. symptoms into her own words and her own song, the more common Geoffrey Block,Enchanted Evenings: The rhythmically conventional eighth- Broadway Musical From Show Boat to note triplets are almost unceasing. Sondheim and Lloyd Webber, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009 In order for Loesser to convince audiences that Sarah Brown and PHOTO: JUSTIN KEYES AND THE CAST OF GUYS AND DOLLS (T CHARLES ERICKSON) Sky Masterson are a good match, he needed to make Sarah become more of a “doll” like Adelaide; conversely, he needed to portray Sky as more gentlemanly than his crapshooting colleagues. He accomplishes the first part of this task by transforming Sarah’s rhythmic nature, giving the normally straitlaced and rhythmically even “mission doll” quarter-note triplets in “I’ll Know” and syncopations in “.” …

After audiences learn from his dialogue with Sarah that Sky’s interest in and knowledge of the Bible sets him apart from the other “guys,” his music tells us that he capable of singing a different tune. His very first notes in “I’ll Know” may depart form Sarah’s lyricism, metrical regularity and firm tonal harmonic underpinning, but after Sarah finishes her chorus, audiences will discover that Sky

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Runyon was born in Kansas in 1880 and grew up in Colorado. Following in the footsteps of his newspaper editor father, Runyon was a full-time reporter by age 15. Just shy of 18, he lied about his age so he could join in the war against Spain in 1898. After a few itinerant years, he spent four years working at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver before joining New York American as a sportswriter in 1911.

His career took off in New York, where his vivid writing found an eager audience. His first Broadway short story, “Romance in the Roaring Forties,” was published in Cosmopolitan in 1929 and met with immediate approval. More stories followed during the next decade and proved so popular that many were adapted into films, includingLady for a Day and Little Miss Marker. His stories were published in magazines, most often Collier’s, before being collected and published as anthologies. He continued Damon Runyon writing newspaper columns, and selections of his favorites were Damon Runyon (1880–1946) characters on real-life also published as collections. was a newspaper columnist people — including Walter Well-regarded as a journalist, and sportswriter who Winchell, Arnold Rothstein, remarkable for his sports writing carved out a niche in Al Capone and others — but and indelible for his short stories, Runyon is a singular voice among American letters when he the world they inhabit in his American writers. His career began writing short stories stories is an invention all his was cut short when he died of about the characters he own. Usually narrated by an throat cancer at age 66. After encountered on Broadway unnamed character sitting his death, Runyon’s friend and fellow journalist Walter Winchell around Times Square. The in for Runyon himself, launched the Damon Runyon world he wrote about was the stories are dotted Cancer Research Foundation in so original and specific with slang, street idioms, his honor. that it became known present-tense verbs and as Runyonland, and the a strong sense of honor language he used was among gamblers, thieves dubbed “Runyonese.” and other shady characters. He based some of his

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PHOTO: THE CAST OF GUYS AND DOLLS (T CHARLES ERICKSON) Responses to Damon Runyon

Ask any of us who jot down notes about Broadway, the prize ring and bookie, fight managers, theatrical for the various gazettes in New the banditti — embroidered in a agents, promoters, synthetic big York our idea of a big-time, first- language rich with style — came a “shots,” the habitués of the wide rate, Grade-A reporter — and book by Damon called Guys street — an enthralling luster for eleven times out of ten, the retort and Dolls. a host of readers. His appellations will be “Damon Runyon!” … for these characters were known to Stop reading this foreword and schoolboys and college students. He was content, until recently, it phone for a copy of it — and A man was a “guy”; a girl, “doll”; appears, to rest on his laurels as then thank Walter. Particularly, money, “potatoes.” … a sports chronicler for the more “Romance in the Roaring Forties,” widely read journals throughout which is in it, and then choke from And Damon Runyon was as much the country. When you discussed laughing — but loud! I say — send a part of the New York scene as his sports and sports experts — you for Guys and Dolls now — because Broadway creations. Consuming naturally discussed Damon Runyon. after you’ve ached all over reading quarts of coffee (he never touched You’d think a fellow who enjoyed it — you will be better prepared to liquor), he would sit for long hours that distinction would take the laugh convulsion in this, running into the early dawn, playing at that. his newest hit. host to a never-ending procession of characters. Then suddenly like an old Dempsey Walter Winchell, in the foreword to Blue left hook — he startled his best Plate Special by Damon Runyon, 1934 The setting invariably was Lindy’s critics and severest friends with restaurant on Broadway, “Mindy’s” magazine articles. The sort that not of many of his short stories, where only were read and enjoyed, but It was Damon Runyon’s gifted pen his mad and enticing assortment the sort that tilted circulation. From that gave Broadway’s characters of characters met. In Lindy’s these delightfully comical stories — the gambler, the race-track where one “tore a herring” with

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consummate ease, Damon Runyon and thirties and half cooked up in the essential Runyon opening. would raptly absorb Broadway’s his own head. … The Narrator has to be careful; he newest additions to the English is telling stories, often, of what language, listen to the latest The Narrator is, crucially, one elaborate politesse it takes to keep departures from the conventional. of the lowest-status figures in from getting killed, and his care is A Runyon short story or article Runyon’s bicameral world, where the source of a lot of his comedy. would ultimately blossom forth. the petty hustlers and horseplayers A wise guy on the lower end of who haunt Lindy’s by day are set the totem pole is of necessity an “Damon Runyon, 62, Columnist, is Dead,” against their sinister opposites, hit expert in courtesy. … , December 11, 1946 men and gangsters, who mostly hail from Brooklyn and and Reading the thirties stories straight Of all the pop formalists, the purest arrive at night. (The chorus dolls through, one is startled by the and strangest may be Damon of the Hot Box nightclub move lack of characterization. Runyon Runyon, the New York storyteller, between the two.) doesn’t really study gangsters; newspaperman and sportswriter he just makes up a cookie-shape who wrote for the Hearst press for “One evening along about seven called Gangster and bakes extras more than thirty years, inspired a o’clock I am sitting in Mindy’s as needed. The lack of sentiment couple of Capra movies and died in restaurant putting on the gefilte and the love of language are what’s 1946. Runyon’s appeal … came from fish, which is a dish I am very fond new in his work. Where the other his mastery of an American idiom. of, when in come three parties newspaper-made writers tended We read Runyon not for the stories from Brooklyn wearing caps as to be, as newspaper columnists but for the slang, half found on follows: Harry the Horse, Little still are, moralistic — Lardner, Broadway in the nineteen-twenties Isadore and Spanish John” — that’s although a master of common speech, is intent on unmasking the cruelty beneath the cheerfulness of American life — Runyon’s stuff is strictly amoral, with a tearjerking moment set down here and there like last night’s carnation floating by in the gutter. No one grows or changes or learns, everyone’s motive is mercenary, everyone is flat as a pancake, no moral drama takes place — all the life is in the language. Like Wodehouse, whom he in some ways resembles, Runyon inherited a comedy of morals and turned it into a comedy of sounds, language playing for its own sake.

Adam Gopnik, “Talk It Up,” The New Yorker, March 2, 2009

PHOTO: JOEL LIESTMAN AND JON ANDREW HEGGE IN GUYS AND DOLLS (T CHARLES ERICKSON)

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Loesser, Swerling and Burrows

Composer in the Air Force, Loesser found his Loesser’s work also included a film and lyricist voice as a composer, writing more score for Hans Christian Andersen Frank Loesser than 100 wartime songs, including in 1952; the musical The Most Happy (1910–1969) “Praise the Lord and Pass the Fella in 1956, for which he wrote was a natural Ammunition,” “What Do You Do in the music, lyrics and book; a failed musician who the Infantry?” and “Ballad of Rodger musical, , in 1960; resisted the Young.” After the war, he continued and How to Succeed in Business formality of the to write both music and lyrics, Without Really Trying in 1961, for field for many years. His father and including “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” which he and Abe Burrows received brother were pianists, but Frank’s for the filmNeptune’s Daughter. the Pulitzer Prize. tastes were eclectic. He dropped out of college at age 15 and held a His first Broadway musical was Loesser established his own music variety of non-music jobs. Where’s Charley? in 1948, which publishing company, Frank Music, was followed by Guys and Dolls two which enabled him to retain control In 1936, he headed to Hollywood years later. The songs from Guys over his own work and provided him and wrote song lyrics for film in and Dolls are often cited as among a means to aid younger musicians. the pre-war years. While serving the best created for musical theater. He died of lung cancer at age 59.

Born in Russia, sketch writer who grew After moving to Hollywood and Jo Swerling up on the of New working on scores of films, he (1897–1964) York City. He began his career in returned to Broadway in 1950 and was an the 1920s as a reporter and feature co-wrote the book for Guys and American writer and eventually became a Dolls with Abe Burrows, which playwright, playwright, launching his career won them a Tony Award for screenwriter, with The Street Cinderella, an early Best Musical. lyricist and Marx Brothers comedy.

Abe Burrows radio comedy and was its chief writer Swerling’s book wasn’t working. He (1910–1985) was for four years. established a lengthy career in the born and raised theater as a director, playwright and in New York His break as a performer came when play doctor. City, where he was a writer for “The he launched Show” and warmed up the studio Burrows' work also included the a career on audience. CBS radio executives took musicals Can-Can and Wall Street notice and offered Burrows his own (both with scores by Cole Porter); before becoming a radio writer and show. “The Abe Burrows Show” Say, Darling, with songs by Adolph comedian working the Borscht Belt. launched in 1947 and quickly gained Green, Betty Comden and Jule a national following, which led to Styne; his own adaptation of Jane In 1938, he moved to Hollywood a second show, “Breakfast With Austen’s ; to write for “The Rudy Vallee-John Burrows,” and forays into television and How to Succeed in Business Barrymore Show.” Burrows became with “This Is Show Business” and Without Really Trying, which he also a much-desired party guest, as his “Abe Burrows’ Almanac.” directed. His memoir, Honest, Abe: Is quick wit allowed him to write songs There Really No Business Like Show on the spot. (The Abe Burrows Song Burrows broke into Broadway when Business?, was published in 1980. Book was published in 1955.) In 1941, the Guys and Dolls producers hired He passed away in 1985. he helped create the “Duffy’s Tavern” him to write a new book after Jo

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Responses to Loesser and Burrows

Abe Burrows, the playwright, play Were Right.” He takes between 55 Guys and Dolls, in which he sensed doctor, director, songwriter, piano seconds and two minutes to write the rhythms of American speech player, radio and television writer, songs, exclusive of titles. and captured them in that score. and radio, television, nightclub, summer-hotel and house- Gilbert Millstien, “The Ratiocinating Composer , president party performer, is essentially a Mr. Burrows,” The New York Times, emeritus of The , who Renaissance-type man who thinks March 16, 1952 collaborated with Loesser on the song fruitfully in the historical present, “In Love With a Memory of You,” quoted in communicates in a rich vulgate “Frank Loesser, Composer, Dead,” The New and, in moments of excitement, You can’t be condescending about York Times, July 29, 1969 lapses into words like “teleological” Frank’s musical genius. He was one or references to Carlyle, Sir William of the greatest songwriters the Osler, Horace, Max Beerbohm, ever produced. His The public Loesser was a cerebral, James Stephens and Dr. Morris songs were authentic Americana. tough, sharp man with wit and Fishbein, which he did the He reached the top of his form with charm. In a working relationship, other day.

PHOTO: JEREMIAH JAMES AND OLIVIA HERNANDEZ IN GUYS AND DOLLS (T CHARLES ERICKSON) Burrows is currently only co- writing, rewriting and directing , a musical comedy opening on Broadway this week, and appearing every Wednesday night on a television quiz show known as “The Name’s the Same.” When Jamie is out of the way, he will write and direct The Baker’s Wife, after which he intends to finish his autobiography (he has been under contract to a publisher for roughly four years and has long since spent the advance) and write a new batch of songs. He already has a title for one of them: “Yesterday They Told You You Wouldn’t Go Far. Last Night You Opened and They

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he was a demanding perfectionist different concept and a new story Loesser was one of the very few with a short fuse on his temper, line — the business of the wager, lyricists who were genuinely funny. his anger directed against himself Sky betting all the horse-players The lyrics of Gershwin and Hart as much as anyone else. But all their souls. But by this time Frank received appreciative smiles and of these qualities were surface. had written an entire score … to sometimes even chuckles, but not Somewhere, buried very deep, was the original wrong book! Then Abe the kind of hearty laughter that a gentle something that wanted to rewrote the book to suit Frank’s songs like “Adelaide’s Lament” “make them cry.” … score, keeping all of Frank’s songs! got. Even Porter, Harburg and In other words, Frank’s instincts Berlin got laughs only occasionally. Frank was one of the song men on it were so right that Burrows The reason for this can in part be in the musical theater who “did it actually fashioned the new book attributed to Loesser’s blossoming all.” A man with the technique and from song to song, created scenes when musicals were becoming talent to cover the whole range of about the songs that Frank had more grounded in character what is needed to get a musical already written! after the Oklahoma! revolution. show on. Ballads, character things, If the character was funny, as in group songs, comedy numbers and Producer Ernest H. Martin, quoted in “‘Guys “Adelaide’s Lament,” then the lyric anything else, including a good and Dolls’: Frank Loesser” by Max Wilk, didn’t have to generate guffaws overture. There haven’t been many They’re Playing Our Song, New York: entirely on its own. And if the men who could “do it all” and, Da Capo Press, 1997 situation was funny as well, the among the few who could, Frank lyrics didn’t have to do anything at ranks with the greatest. all except emphasize it. … You’d think that for my initial Abe Burrows, “Frank Loesser: 1910–1969,” professional outing the first lyricist Most impressive to me are the The New York Times, August 10, 1969 I’d imitate on the way to finding ideas behind Loesser’s songs. The my own niche would be Oscar concepts of “Make a Miracle” from Measured quantitatively against Hammerstein II, but as most of the Where Charley? and “Fugue for the large output of some of his lyrics for Saturday Night indicate, Tinhorns” from Guys and Dolls, more prolific contemporaries, the my model turnout to be Frank among many others, are so strong volume of what [Loesser] left Loesser. This was an unconscious that the lyrics need not be brilliant behind is, alas, small. But apply the choice, although it may have in execution: They can ride on their yardsticks of quality, of execution, been influenced by my knowing notions alone and bring the house of brilliance of idea, and it’s an that Loesser had turned Saturday down. Which they did, and still do. entirely different horse race. In that Night down when Lemuel Ayers sweepstakes Loesser moves ahead appropriately enough had offered , : of the field and stays there. In the it to him. More likely, it’s because Collected Lyrics (1954–1981) With Attendant argot of the Broadway types he so I knew and admired his work, Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, deftly portrayed in Guys and Dolls, especially the urban songs, like Whines and Anecdotes, New York: Alfred A. Loesser has class, he has style, he those in Guys and Dolls. Knopf, 2010 has that extra-special something that is blue-ribbon all the way. Loesser … was a master of conversational lyrics, though with a Max Wilk, “‘Guys and Dolls’: Frank Loesser,” difference: He tailored his lyrics to They’re Playing Our Song, New York: the individual characters at hand. Da Capo Press, 1997 … When they were characters he could understand instinctively, urban or raffish or both, as inGuys The first book that we had done and Dolls or How to Succeed in [for Guys and Dolls], by Jo Business Without Really Trying, Swerling, wasn’t right. We wrestled Loesser was able to perform the with it for weeks, but it didn’t rare trick of sounding modestly capture the Runyon quality at conversational and brilliantly all. So we finally brought in Abe dexterous at the same time. … Burrows to rewrite it based on a

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Selected Stories by Damon Runyon

“ROMANCE IN THE the U.S. Vice President. The 1933 “LITTLE MISS MARKER” (1932) ROARING FORTIES” (1929) filmLady for a Day, directed by Sorrowful is left with a little Waldo Winchester takes a fancy to , is an adaptation of girl as a marker for a bet. He Miss Billy Perry, Dave the Dude’s this story. grows attached to her, takes her doll. Instead of roughing Waldo home, moves apartments and up, as the narrator expects, Dave hires a chauffeur and nurse. She the Dude arranges for the couple “THE HOTTEST GUY IN THE gets pneumonia after running to get married. But at the last WORLD” (1931) barefooted from the apartment to minute, Waldo’s wife Miss Lola Big Jule’s been in Canada the Hot Box in search of Sorrowful, Sapola shows up, tipped off by the recovering from a gunshot wound and she dies several days later. Her narrator. Dave the Dude and Miss and shooting rats. He’s “hot” to father shows up (too late), claiming Billy Perry get married instead. the cops, but he’s come back to amnesia and saying now everything visit his sick mother and see Kitty will be fine. Sorrowful asks for the Clancy. Keeping a low profile deuce the man owes him and walks “BLOOD PRESSURE” (1930) because Lt. Brannigan lives near away. This story was adapted into The narrator, just diagnosed with his mother, he walks over with the the 1934 film of the same name high blood pressure, spends a narrator. They encounter a circus starring Shirley Temple. harrowing evening on the town gorilla holding a baby on Madison with Rusty Charley: Nathan Square Garden. Big Jule shoots the Detroit’s craps game, Ikey the gorilla between the eyes and saves “THE IDYLL OF MISS SARAH Pig’s stuss game, a run-in with the baby, who turns out to belong BROWN” (1933) coppers at Knife O’Halloran’s and to Lt. Brannigan and Kitty. Sky Masterson is the highest player then to Charley’s house, where his and falls hard for mission worker wife attacks both Charley and the Miss Sarah Brown, but when she narrator with a bat. The next day, “THE SNATCHING OF finds out he’s a gambler, she rejects the narrator has a huge bump on BOOKIE BOB” (1931) him. At Nathan Detroit’s craps his head but his blood pressure It’s 1931 and money is scarce, so game, a chance remark sets Sky is down. This is one of the source Harry the Horse, Spanish John and betting on Brandy Bottle Bates’ stories for Guys and Dolls. Little Isadore kidnap people for soul, but Bates keeps winning. ransom. They snatch Bookie Bob, Sarah enters, throws the dice who can’t call his wife, so he calls against a deuce and wins Sky’s soul. “MADAME LA GIMP” (1931) his partner Sam Salt, who can’t get They get married and Sky joins the Dave the Dude pulls off an the money for a day or two. To pass mission: “I never seen a guy look elaborate hoax to make Madame La the time, the guys place bets with happier,” says the narrator. Turns Gimp appear to be a high-society, Bob, but keep losing. Bob pays 25 out Bates’ dice were loaded. This well-married woman because her G’s for the ransom, but the guys is the primary source story for the daughter, her daughter’s fiance and owe him 50 G’s, plus a commission Sky Masterson/Miss Sarah Brown the fiance’s family are visiting from to be paid to the finger (who said storyline in Guys and Dolls. Spain and Madame La Gimp has Bob would make a good snatch), told her daughter a pack of lies. He who turns out to be Bob’s wife. gets an apartment at the Marberry, and Broadway regulars pretend to be everyone from the husband to

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“BROADWAY COMPLEX” (1933) Runyonese Slang in Guys and Dolls Drama critic Ambrose Hammer has a professional conflict with actor Fergus Appleton, who according to Hoyle parlay wants to marry Hammer’s boss’s A phrase meaning “according A series of cumulative bets, daughter Florentine. Emcee Cecil to the rules,” derived from usually on horse races; the Earl has a complex that makes him Edmond Hoyle (1672–1769), an winnings from one race are believe he’s other people. Fergus authority on card playing used to stake the next and can manipulates Cecil into believing result in a higher payout he’s a murderer in order to kill action Fergus’ invalid wife and free him to Gambling opportunities tinhorn marry Florentine. Hammer learns A second-rate class of of the plot and convinces Cecil that bum steer gambler, derived from the he’s Don Juan. As a result, Cecil Bad information or advice dice game chuck-a-luck where wins the girl and Hammer doesn’t gamblers shook dice in a lose his job. clocking metal can Watching, noticing weight for age “PICK THE WINNER” (1933) dodge A way of saying “All things The narrator goes to Miami with Trick or gimmick to elude or being equal,” derived from Hot Horse Herbie and his fiancee cheat horse racing, in which some of 10 years, Miss Cutie Singleton. horses carry extra weight so Herbie convinces a professor from fade me the race is more equitable and Princeton to place bets. Before To bet against the player competitive a big race, Cutie’s fortune teller holding the dice describes winds, which Herbie well-heeled interprets to mean that Breezing heat is on Wealthy Along will win (which doesn’t Police pressure happen). The professor and Cutie elope, and he later writes Herbie to high players say that he took “winds” as a clue Gamblers playing for big to bet on Mistral, who won 10 to 1. stakes This is the primary source story for the Miss Adelaide/Nathan Detroit lettuce storyline in Guys and Dolls. Money, especially paper bills

marker An IOU for gambling debt

no-good-nik An unreliable person

Nu A expression meaning “What can you do?”

one hundred percent Completely, with no artifice

paint cards A poker term for face cards (jack, queen and king)

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PHOTO: THE CAST OF GUYS AND DOLLS (T CHARLES ERICKSON) People, Places and Things in the Play

PEOPLE Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego East Cicero, Illinois The horses that were part of Cicero is a suburb of Emily Post (1872–1960) Sky’s winning parlay, named after Chicago. There is no East Cicero, Author of Etiquette in Society, in three figures from the book of so it could be a way of saying Business, in Politics and at Home, Daniel in the Bible. Refusing to “Chicago” in code. which was published in 1922 and bow down to the Babylonian king became an enormously popular Nebuchadnezzar, the three Jewish Havana guide to manners. men were thrown into a fiery The largest city and political and furnace and believed God would cultural center of Cuba, located Galahad protect them. Nebuchadnezzar about 1,300 miles from New York A knight from Arthurian legend and then saw four figures in the fire, the City. The U.S. and Cuba had close the son of Lancelot, who achieved fourth being God. When he brought ties until 1959, and Havana was a supreme spiritual love through his them out of the fire, the three men a popular tourist destination for quest for the Holy Grail. His name were not even singed. Americans, especially in winter. is usually connected to courtesy, nobility and integrity. Klein’s PLACES Short for S. Klein department store, Guy Lombardo (1912–1977) which opened on Union Square in A big band musician from Canada Biltmore Garage 1910 and was known as “a magnet famous for his long-running annual The six-floor garage shared by the for bargain hunters.” radio broadcasts on New Year’s Commodore and Biltmore Hotels Eve that featured his band playing near Grand Central Terminal in “Auld Lang Syne.” midtown Manhattan. The Biltmore was built in 1913; the Commodore and garage were built in 1919.

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Mindy’s Roxy Bromo Fizz Runyon’s name for Lindy’s deli at The largest movie theater in the A nickname for Bromo-Seltzer, Broadway and 51st Street, which world when it opened in 1927 at an antacid composed of was opened by Clara and Leo 50th Street and 7th Avenue in New acetaminophen (pain reliever), Lindemann in 1921 and became a York City. It seated nearly 6,000 sodium bicarbonate (antacid) and popular hangout for Broadway and people and offered standing room citric acid that was advertised vaudeville folk. Lindy’s was known for 500 more. as a remedy for headaches for its cheesecake, enormous exacerbated by an upset sandwiches and apple pancakes. Saks stomach and jumpy nerves. A Manhattan department store that New Rochelle opened in 1924 by rival retailers A suburb of New York City in Horace Saks and Bernard Gimbel The oldest clothing retailer in the Westchester County, just north of on 5th Avenue between 49th and U.S. It was founded in 1818 in the city. 50th Streets. New York City and considered “The authority on classic Niagara Saratoga American style.” Refers to Niagara Falls, a city in Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga western New York that has been Springs, New York — a horse racing craps game a popular honeymoon destination track located about 165 miles north A dice game where bets are placed since the 1800s. of New York City. based on the probability that a pair of dice will result in certain numbers. Pimlico Scarsdale Some numbers (7) will occur more Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, An upper-class suburb of New York frequently than others (2, 12). Craps Maryland, which has hosted the City in Westchester County, just evolved from a parlor game that the annual Preakness Stakes horse race north of the city. French brought to the U.S. in the since 1873. early 19th century. The numbers 2, Wanamaker’s 3 and 12 were called “crabs,” and in A department store founded by New Orleans, players began calling An art deco theater in New John Wanamaker in Philadelphia, the game “craps.” York City that opened in 1932 Pennsylvania, in 1876. There used as a destination for quality to be a Wanamaker’s at Broadway Equipoise entertainment. It was conceived and 8th Street in Manhattan, but it Also known as “Big Chocolate,” this by John D. Rockefeller as the closed in 1954. thoroughbred racehorse won 29 cornerstone of Rockefeller Center. stakes from 1930 to 1935.

Rogers Peet folderol An American ready-made men’s THINGS A useless ornament or accessory; clothing company founded in 1874 a trifle. by Marvin N. Rogers and Charles Bacardí Bostwick Peet with a motto of A brand of rum made by the Gideon Bible “Honesty, quality, respectability and Bacardí family in Santiago de Cuba, Gideons International does its customer service.” Cuba, beginning in 1862. Christian evangelical work in part by distributing copies of Bibles and Roseland Barbasol the New Testament. Because most A ballroom that opened at A brand of shaving cream early Gideons were travelers, the Broadway and 51st Street on developed by Frank Shields in 1919. idea to put Bibles in hotel rooms December 31, 1919. It had two In the 1950s, the formula changed was proposed to help them “be bands and held various from a thick cream to a fluffy foam more effective witnesses.” The contests and other stunts to with the arrival of aerosol cans. Bible Project launched in 1908 and boost attendance. has since supplied more than two billion Bibles or New Testaments.

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la grippe Influenza or the flu; from the How to Play Street Craps French “to seize.” Street craps, or shooting dice, is played without a Hollanderize it craps table, so it differs slightly from casino craps. A. Hollander & Son, located on West 29th Street in Manhattan, Needs Big Jule’s $500 bet. If Big Jule was the leading fur cleaner of its • A pair of identical dice wins, Benny loses. day. Their process included putting • Players to make wagers the furs in a drum with sawdust on the numbers rolled First Roll and chemicals and swirling them All three outcomes are at play around to keep them fresh. Basics in the first roll (also known as Craps is based on how often the “come out” roll): a natural, a Howard Johnson’s different combinations of point or craps. A chain of American restaurants numbers appear when the dice founded in 1925 in New England are rolled. For example, 2 • If they roll a natural (7, 11), that began as an ice cream store. (1 + 1) and 12 (6 + 6) each have the shooter wins. The first Howard Johnson’s opened only one possible combination, • If they roll craps (2, 3, 12), on Times Square in the late 1940s while 7 has six combinations the shooter loses. on Broadway and 49th Street. (1 + 6, 6 + 1, 2 + 5, 5 + 2, 3 + 4, • If they roll a point (4, 5, 6, 4 + 3). So rolling a 7 is more 8, 9, 10), play continues. In morning line likely than rolling a 2 or 12. order to win, the shooter must A list created by a bookie before roll that same number again a race of all the entries and their Rolls in craps fall into before rolling a 7. No money odds, which is posted before three categories: is paid out yet. betting begins. • A natural (7, 11) Point Rolls streptococci • A point (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) The shooter now needs to roll A strain of bacteria that can • Craps (2, 3, 12) the point (in Big Jule’s case in cause rheumatic fever, scarlet Guys and Dolls, a 10) before fever, puerperal fever, strep throat, No roll is necessarily a bad rolling a 7. There aren’t new tonsillitis and other infections roll — it all depends on the bet. wagers — this is all still playing affecting the upper Someone may win when craps out the first roll. Any other respiratory tract. is rolled while someone else number has no payout, but may lose. shooting continues until either Telegraph a 7 or the point is rolled. The Morning Telegraph, a New York Betting newspaper that was published The shooter is chosen. Anyone Additional first rolls may be from 1897 to 1972 and considered can be the shooter and anyone played as long as there are “America’s oldest authority on can win on any roll. The shooter players willing to bet. In Guys motion pictures, theatre and turf” makes a bet first, followed by all and Dolls, after playing for (“turf” meaning horse racing). the other players in a clockwise 24 hours, Big Jule still forces direction. The other players can additional first rolls, eventually Vitalis cover part or all of the shooter’s betting only with Nathan. Sky A tonic for men by Bristol- wager, but betting continues gets the highest-stakes first roll Myers that offers a greaseless until the whole of the shooter’s after singing “.” way to style hair. wager is covered. The musical doesn’t say what Sky rolls, but it has to be a 7 or 11 In Guys and Dolls, Big Jule says, for Sky to win on one roll of “I’m shooting five hundred,” and the dice. Benny Southstreet responds with, “Take two hundred.” In this case, Benny is covering $200 of

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 19 BUILDING THE PRODUCTION

From Director Kent Gash

My relationship with Guys New York City is one of the most believe that, then we haven’t told and Dolls began at age compressed and stimulating cities the right story. It’s a celebration 14 when I played the role in the world. It’s like the genie in of people realizing their capacity of Nicely-Nicely Johnson Aladdin: This gigantic presence to love and finding their authentic has to fit into this tiny space. I’ve selves within that love. in a citywide summer lived in the city since 1982, and theater program in Denver, there’s still a sense that everyone Love is a powerful thing in Guys and Colorado. What I loved is striving to be the world-class Dolls. It changes many people and about the musical then version of themselves. Guys and many souls, including ours. That’s a still remains: It’s funny, Dolls embodies this idea, as we see side of the musical we sometimes fast and colorful, and it crapshooters, nightclub dancers forget. It’s easy to remember the and missionaries alike hustling to flash, the dancing and the jokes. But represents a version of be their best and achieve a certain beyond the fun and nostalgia is its New York City that is full level of respectability. heart. There are some extraordinary of rhythm, resilience and things to be learned from Guys and an aspirational energy. There’s a real code of honor among Dolls about camaraderie, loyalty, Damon Runyon’s characters. Your honor, friendship and love.

Even the skyscrapers are STUDIOS) DALE (NATHAN reaching for something. word is your bond. If not, you risk becoming a pariah. Today, you hear I’ve always believed that a more words like “honor” and “character” fitting title would have beenDolls GUYS AND DOLLS GUYS and they can have no meaning and Guys because the women are at all. In Runyonland, being true smarter than the men. They have of heart carries deep meaning. to be. The men are stuck in an Adelaide really loves Nathan and arrested adolescence where the wants him to marry her. And most important thing in their lives

Nathan really loves her. If you don’t is a craps game. Meanwhile, Sarah OF THE CAST KENT GASH; PHOTOS:

20 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTOS: KENT GASH; THE CAST OF GUYS AND DOLLS (NATHAN DALE STUDIOS) For example, withoutchanging and Dolls less like your grandparents’ were celebrating. Butitwillfeel creators andcelebrate what they honor theintent oftheoriginal In thisproduction, ourgoalisto playing agameorwinningbet. that love isfar more importantthan Nathan andSky come to realize men to grow up. Thankfully, both charming, loveable, knuckleheaded with Nathan. Sothey wait for these enough money to make ahome at anightclub soshecansave better place. Adelaide isworking save soulsandmake theworld a is tryingto keep amission afloat, Guys andDolls celebrating. Butitwillfeel less like your grandparents’ the originalcreators andcelebrate what they were In thisproduction, ourgoalisto honortheintent of andmore ofthemoment. andmore ofthemoment. Guys scene inHavana that reveals avery and surprisingapproach to the the words, we’ve taken aunique in theSave-A-Soul Mission —and The story spends most ofitstime but it’s somuchmore thanthat. and delighthasalways beenthere, Guys and Dolls new musical. make itfeel like you’re watching a there willbeenoughsurprisesto 1950. Andifyou’ve seenitbefore, have delighted audiences since delighted by allthethingsthat seen but fall inlove with.Ifyou’ve never Sarah Brown whoSky can’thelp self-possessed andempowered Guys andDolls ’ capacity to surprise , you’ll be musical director DariusSmith. dedicated to composer and My work onthisproduction is welcome inthat. be your truest self. Andeveryone is about what itmeansto aspire to with That hasn’talways beenthecase should bepartoftelling thestory. belongs to everyone, soeveryone and alive. It’s aclassic musicalthat City andmake thestory feel vivid look like thestreets ofNew York ensemble ofwonderful actors who That’s why we cast adiverse human experience. gain agreater understanding ofthe do thinkitexpands oursoulsaswe actually changesourminds.ButI something? Idon’tknow iftheater ignite emotionandmake usfeel save thesoul,touch thesoul, and entertainment andart?To isn’t that themission ofalltheater Guys andDolls GUTHRIE THEATER \ 21 , butit’s a story

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For Further Reading and Understanding

ALSO BY FRANK LOESSER ABOUT FRANK LOESSER, RECORDINGS AND ABE BURROWS ABE BURROWS AND GUYS AND DOLLS Guys and Dolls: a musical fable Where’s Charley? Music and lyrics of Broadway, cast album of the by Frank Loesser, book by George Abe Burrows, Honest, Abe: Is original Broadway production, Abbott based on the Brandon There Really No Business Like starring , Robert Thomas play Charley’s Aunt, 1948. Show Business?, Boston: Little, Alda, and Isabel Brown and Company, 1980. Bigley, 1951. Can-Can. Book by Abe Burrows, music and lyrics by Cole Cy Feuer, with Ken Goss, I Got the Guys and Dolls, original cast album Porter, 1953. Show Right Here: The Amazing, of the 1976 revival, arranged and True Story of How an Obscure conducted by Howard Roberts, Silk Stockings. Book by Abe Brooklyn Horn Player Became the starring Ernestine Jackson, Norma Burrows, George S. Kaufman and Last Great Broadway Showman, Donaldson, James Randolph and Leueen MacGrath, music and lyrics New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. . by Cole Porter, 1955. Keith Garebian, The Making of Guys and Dolls: the new Broadway . Book, music Guys and Dolls, Niagara Falls, NY: , 1992 revival, and lyrics by Frank Loesser, based Mosaic Press, 2002. starring , Jose De on ’s They Knew Guzman, and What They Wanted, 1956. Susan Loesser, A Most Remarkable . Fella: Frank Loesser and the Guys Say, Darling. Book by Marian and Dolls in His Life, A Portrait FILM Bissell, Richard Bissell and Abe by his Daughter, Milwaukee: Hal Burrows, music by , Leonard Corp., 2000. Guys and Dolls, written and lyrics by Betty Comden and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, Adolph Green, 1958. starring , Jean ABOUT DAMON RUNYON Simmons, , Vivian Greenwillow. Music and lyrics by Blaine, Robert Keith and Frank Loesser, libretto by Lesser Jimmy Breslin, Damon Runyon: , 1955. Samuels and Frank Loesser, A Life, New York: Ticknor & based on B. J. Chute’s novel Fields, 1991. ONLINE Greenwillow, 1960. John Mosedale, The Men Who Dozens of stories by Damon How to Succeed in Business Invented Broadway: Damon Runyon as published in Without Really Trying. Music and Runyon, Walter Winchell & Their Collier’s magazine. lyrics by Frank Loesser, book by World, New York: Richard Marek http://www.nesssoftware.com/ Abe Burrows, 1961. Publishers, 1981. www/runyon.php

Cactus Flower. Written by Abe Jean Wagner, Runyonese: The Burrows, based on a play by Mind and Craft of Damon Runyon, and Jean-Pierre : Stechert-Hafner, Inc., 1965. Grédy, 1965.

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