What’s playing at The Kennedy Center? I’ll tell you what’s playing at The Kennedy Center! A musical by Frank Loesser set in New York in the 20’s & 30’s with sinners and saints at the plot’s center— that’s what’s playing at The Kennedy Center. What’s in the Eisenhower Theater? I’ll tell you what’s in the Eisenhower Theater! It’s a star-studded cast, singing and dancing their hearts out to entertain you— that’s what’s in the Eisenhower Theater. It’s Guys & Dolls, as the first in this season’s ‘Broadway Center Stage’ series, Directed by Marc Bruni, with Musical Direction by Kevin Stites, and Choreography by Denis Jones, starring James Monroe Iglehart, Jessie Mueller, Steven Pasquale, Phillipa Soo, Rachel Dratch, Kevin Chamberlin, and Fred Applegate, just to name a few. It’s a stellar presentation of an unadulterated, unaltered, musical theatre classic— a textbook production of Guys & Dolls with a live 22-piece orchestra direct on stage in full view and it is an evening of entertainment like no other!
When the curtain rises, Scenic & Projection designer Paul Tate DePoo III’s magic comes to life. Immediately you see the 22-piece live orchestra in their black tails, configured in two tilt-rake-angle boxes (an allusion or representation perhaps of the Madison Square Garden Cube) and the crowd just goes wild. DePoo has a few typical ‘fly-in’ scenic pieces, as well as a few roll-on set pieces, but most of the scenery and the show’s overall aesthetic is crafted by way of projection, sliding, gliding, and zooming the show through the streets of New York City and of course to Havana, Cuba. DePoo’s work is stunning and create a real sense of atmosphere without hampering the stage down with intense blocks of scenery. And it’s an impressive touch to have that live orchestra in full view, as if they were the big-band of days gone by. Lighting Designer Cory Pattak compliments DePoo’s work with effective choices, many of which are subtle in their illumination, though there are several which serve to highlight particular dance routines.
The show’s costumes are eye-popping. Costume Designer Mara Blumenfeld captures the crisp essence of street gamblers circa the 1920’s & 1930’s, putting each of our ‘guys’ in wonderfully vibrant, fully-saturated colors in patterns of either checkerboard or pinstripes. There’s lots of bright colors— like the purple with accenting pink shirt and blue neck-tie seen on Nathan Detroit— and the vivacity of the show’s sartorial selection matriculates its way over into the ‘dolls’ costumes as well. Between the hot-box dancers and the street girls you get a world of era-appropriate styles and colors. Even the mission dolls get robust burgundy to help them pop in this colorful world that Blumenfeld has fabricated.
Denis Jones’ choreography is energetic, exciting, and has the audience completely enthralled by the time the show blows into he second act for “The Crapshooter’s Dance.” Featuring the guys of the ensemble (Colin Cunliffe, Michael Fatica, Tommy Gedrich, Nathan Lucrezio, Deon Ridley, Matthew Saldivar, Akron Watson, Anthony Wayne, Tanner Wilson), this dance routine has acrobatics, gymnastics, and an indefatigable energy that just bowls the audience over, resulting in a thunderous ovation. Jones’ choreography speaks to the times as well as Frank Loesser’s music and you get a series of styles peppered throughout the performance— like the Cuban-infused tango routine during “Havana” or the Vaudeville style splashy moves featured during “Take Back Your Mink” at the top of Act II— making for a most enjoyable evening of theatrical dancing spectacle.
Musical Director Kevin Stites brings together some of the most glorious harmonies— particularly when the men of the show come together with one voice for “The Oldest Established”— creating sounds that just fill you with the joys of existing. Stites is the on-stage orchestra conductor, bringing that 22-piece orchestra to vibrant life, making them an integral part of the performance, as if a live-orchestra were billed as a performance character in the credits. The Orchestra— (Violin: Oleg Rylatko, Richard Chang, Timothy Macek, Victoria Noyes, Viola: Allyson Goodman, Cello: Igor Zubkovsky, Bass: Robert D’Imperio, Reeds: David Jones, Matthew Belzer, Benjamin Bokor, David Brown, Keith Daudelin, Horn: Peter de Boor, Trumpet: Fred Irby, III, Michael Rossi, Joshua Kauffman, Trombone: Lee Rogers, Percussion: John Spirtas, Joseph Connell, Keyboard: Greg Jarrett, Chris Youstra) has the audience in sonorous approval right from the Overture through to the finale. It’s an astonishing thing to hear and see and fits flawlessly into Director Marc Bruni’s vision. Bruni runs a tight ship; the pacing is expedient; the performances are sensational and the overall experience is one of pure theatrical joy.
The star-studded cast includes a wholesomely paternal performance from Fred Applegate as Arvide Abernathy, delivering a sweet rendition of “More I Cannot Wish You” in a lilting Irish fashion, complete with vocal affectation. Applegate switches on the hardened exterior when it comes to threatening Sky Masterson, creating a nice humorous moment for the audience to enjoy as they watch this delightful, sweet grandfather character turn into a biting rogue ready for action when it comes to protecting Miss Sarah Brown. Rachel Dratch shows up as the cameo character, Big Jule, and while Dratch doesn’t have any particular solo numbers, her arrival on the scene is both hilarious and well timed. Painted up like a Marlin Brando gangster, with vividly animated facial expressions to match, all of the scenes including Big Jule and Harry The Horse (Jimmy Smagula) bring barrels of laughter for all to enjoy.
Kevin Chamberlin gives a nice spin to Nicely-Nicely Johnson. Comically charming and delightfully expasperative, Chamberlin gives this gangster a polite and playful side. With that timeless New York accent and an keen understanding of just how to speak to his fellow crapshooters, Chamberlin is the perfect fit for this fun-loving role. The audience is first graced with his voice during “Fugue For Tinhorns” (which is a trio of babbling about racehorses featuring Chamberlin, and Matthew Saldivar as Benny Southstreet and Akron Watson as Rusty Charlie) where he provides a trio-style harmony sublimely. Later, we get Chamberlin’s breakout solo number, “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat!” which features him belting, clapping, cheering, and whizbanging his way through this up-tempo, high-spirited number. (This number also features some glorious rafter-ringing soprano feature sounds from Allison Blackwell as Agatha.)
You couldn’t ask for a more convivial and honestly adorable Nathan Detroit than the one you get from James Monroe Iglehart. Immensely talented, Iglehart delivers Nathan Detroit as the character is written, loveable and laughable and yet so very infuriating. His comic timing is flawless and the chemistry he fabricates between his character and Jessie Mueller’s Adelaide is wild and fiery. You get Iglehart’s robust voice taking vocal lead during “The Oldest Established” but get to hear those smooth, swoon-worthy sounds that Iglehart is so very capable of during his duet with Mueller’s Adelaide, “Sue Me.” Playing opposite of Iglehart in the hot-box-dancing doll role of Adelaide, Jesse Mueller is really a pip, to quote one of her many songs. Masterfully delivering the iconic, nasal-New-York-doll sound that so frequently accompanies the Adelaide character, Mueller is a fan-favorite at this performance. Singing and belting (and coughing and sneezing and wheezing…per the script, Miss Mueller isn’t actually sick!) all through “A Bushel and a Peck” and “Take Back Your Mink” she delights the audience with her high-strung comic characterizations. But it’s her solo— “Adelaide’s Lament” that has the audience roaring their approval as it is the trifecta of performance, comedy, and vocal talent. You get to see this trifecta, albeit in miniature, again during her duet with Sarah Brown, “Marry the Man Today”, near the end of the production.
Frosty, frigid, and downright cold, Sgt. Sarah Brown (Phillipa Soo) is the epitome of a mission doll of the time. What’s wild about Phillipa Soo’s approach to the role is how quickly she transitions from resistant and resilient to gooey-eyed ingenue gal in love, and straight back again once she believes she’s been duped! Soo takes the audience and her fellow characters on a roller coaster ride, transitioning the character with practiced ease from one state to the next. And her vocals are flawless. True soprano sound (not just the belting mezzos that most recently have been populating Broadway musicals of the times) rings like lusty bells pealing their way through songs like “I’ll Know” and “If I Were a Bell.” It’s the quintessential Sarah Brown performance from Phillipa Soo; this is one doll you will not wish to miss on stage.
And if Phillipa Soo is giving the quintessential Sarah Brown, then Steven Pasquale is the textbook Sky Masterson that Frank Loesser dreamed about when writing the music and lyrics for Guys & Dolls. The way Pasquale delivers the exacting cadence and patois of his lines is phenomenal. It’s like being sucked through a time portal to an actual street in New York City at the height of gangsters and gamblers. And when he sings, your heart just melts. Half crooner, half rogue-gambler, and all heart, Pasquale lets loose into “My Time of Day” and you can just feel the smooth, reverent and buttery blends of notes pouring into your ear as if he were singing a personal concert just to you, his favorite doll. You feel the weight of the world being held in suspense when Pasquale launches into “Luck Be A Lady” and you get the spine-tingles and the goosebumps as he vocally soars his way through the number. Perfectly charismatic with undertones of real love when it comes to interacting with Phillipa Soo’s Sarah Brown, even and especially when he’s being a bit cold with her, there aren’t enough words to cover how brilliant of a performance Pasquale is giving in this production of Guys & Dolls.
So luck be a lady— that gets you some tickets to the Broadway Center Stage series’ production of Guys & Dolls this fall at The Kennedy Center.
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes with one intermission
Guys & Dolls plays through October 16, 2022 as a part of the Broadway Center Stage series in the Eisenhower Theatre at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street NW, Washington, DC. For tickets call the box office at (202) 467-4600 or purchase them online.
