GUNNISON – The Gunnison Valley High School Drama Program will roll the dice Thursday through Saturday as they present their musical production of Guys and Dolls. Directed by Laura Barlow, this weekend will show GVH students shining in this 1950 classic award-winning musical.
Guys and Dolls is a musical romantic comedy involving the unlikeliest of Manhattan parings: a high-rolling gambler and a puritanical missionary, a showgirl dreaming of the straight and narrow and a crap game manager who is anything but.
Set in the Manhattan of Damon Runyon’s short stories, Guys and Dolls tells of con-man Nathan Detroit, played by Aricin Starks, and his efforts to find new life for his illegal, but notorious, crap game. When their trusty venue is found out by the police, Nathan has to find a new home for his crap game quickly, but he doesn’t have the dough to secure the one location that he finds. Problems with his fiancé Adelaide, who is played by Noelle Condie, complicate his life so Nathan turns to fellow gambler Sky Masterson, portrayed by Landry Nay, for a loan. Masterson is a high rolling gambler willing to take on any honest bet with a high enough reward attached.
Nathan bets Sky that he can’t take the “doll” of Nathan’s choosing to Havana, Cuba, with him on a date. When Sky agrees to the bet, Nathan chooses uptight Evangelist Sergeant Sarah Brown, played by Aurora Tolaman, head of Broadway’s Save a Soul Mission.
Sky thinks he’s been duped, but he’s in for more of a surprise when his efforts to woo Sarah are so successful that he falls in love with her himself.
Guys and Dolls takes you from the bustle of Times Square to the dance clubs of Havana to the sewers of New York City as it demonstrates the great lengths to which a guy will go when he truly falls in love with a “doll.”
Hannah Shell, the set captain, said that despite schedule conflicts, this amazing cast pulled through.
“This motley crew even endured sets breaking the week before the production,” Shell said.
You can watch the GVHS students “shoot crap”—as Big Jule would say—on Nov. 4 – 6 at 7 p.m. in the GVHS auditorium. The cost is $8 for adults, $6 for children and seniors, and free for students that have a GVHS activity card.
