A wedding veil and the excessive spending of money are two things that are hard to imagine being apart from each other—except in the case of Broadway’s Guys and Dolls musical.
Taylor Theatre’s opening show on Grandparents Day boasted a sold-out audience that was ready to cheer on an energetic cast. The cast and crew went on to perform five more shows on the weekends of April 25-27 and May 2-4.
Guys and Dolls explored the contrasting interests of charismatic gambler Sky Masterson, portrayed by junior Gavin Kastner, a musical theatre major, and the idealistic mission worker Sarah Brown, played by senior Ris Bland, also a musical theatre major.
The themes of the show have been globally recognized due to their captivating insight on the dynamic of men and women in relationships, Kastner said.
While the faculty at Taylor Theatre maintained integrity to the playwright, they also focused on making the characters as authentic as possible.
Kastner brought his role to life by creating a storyline that explored the multi-faceted character of the suave Masterson. The narrative uncovered the reality that Masterson wasn't a complete person because he was a self-serving individual—until Sarah Brown stood in his way. In the number “Luck Be a Lady,” Masterson grappled with a revelation that he could lose something tangible and real for the first time.
“(Masterson) needed someone from a world that's completely not his to show him that there is still truth and value and beauty to both kinds of living,” Kastner said.
The actors’ performances emphasized the stark differences of people groups isolated from one another because of fear and unfamiliarity, sophomore Grace Bradshaw, a musical theatre major, said. The polarization in these relationships was relieved at the end of the story when Brown and Masterson got married, as the characters learned to love one another despite their differences.
Bradshaw played the dramatic role of Miss Adelaide with a comedic flair, bringing the character to life with a nasally accent, voluminous hair and nervous movements.
At the beginning of the rehearsal process, Bradshaw said she received feedback that she was apologizing for her presence on the stage. She realized that she needed to lean into the confident aspect of Adelaide.
“I think sometimes Adelaide is played off as dumb or a pushover,” Bradshaw said. “But she knows what she believes and she stands for (that), and she doesn't apologize for who she is.”
While Bradshaw’s character often encountered grief and rejection, she also produced many comedic breaks that made the audience laugh—and sometimes made her lose focus.
At one point in the musical, Bradshaw recalled crouching across from sophomore TJ Fausnight, singing a note two inches away from him, and struggling not to laugh. In the song “Bushel and a Peck,” she threw corn on the stage in different directions—one of many moments she described as “really fun.”
Towering above the merriment below was a background set with jagged lines and yellow lights. Designers took creative liberties with it, displaying a futuristic dystopian society, sophomore Cam Damesworth, a musical theatre major and set builder, said.
While Damesworth played the role of Nicely-Nicely Johnson, he also put in over 100 hours working on building the large, moving set pieces that were attached to tracks above the stage with a team in six weeks.
This departure from the original Broadway design resembled Roku City with its vibrant neon cityscape, Damesworth said. It was meant to highlight the nature of the characters rather than the spectacle of New York.
While the show was almost three hours long with its intermission, audience members remained engaged with the characters' lively dances, arguments, songs, and the occasional loud muttering of lines as they withdrew into the backstage curtains.
As the stage lights glanced off the set of Taylor Theatre’s Guys and Dolls production for the final time, actors joined their shaking hands together, raising them to the roof.
