Skip to main content

Guys and Dolls

 Certain critics have recently ranked the best opening numbers in Broadway history; of course, "Hairspray" and "Oklahoma" and "Sweeney Todd" all performed well. Marc thought the number one slot would go to "The Sound of Music"; I was thinking of "Chicago" or "The Music Man." In fact, the spot went to "Fiddler on the Roof."


On further reflection, I'd give my vote to "Guys and Dolls"--a show that didn't get a mention in the top ten. Frank Loesser wrote "Guys and Dolls"; Loesser was a favorite of Sondheim's.

Loesser immediately plunges you into the world he is creating; he gathers a group of racetrack low-lifes, who sing about horses. Each guy is certain he can see the future. "I got the horse right here. The name is Paul Revere...." "For Paul Revere, I'll bite; I hear his foot's all right....Of course it all depends if it rained last night...." "I'm picking Valentine....The guy has got him figured at five to nine....."

This is a "fugue," which we would normally link with an orchestra. But Loesser is saying there is something symphonic--something poetic--about normal life. He hears an orchestra at the tracks--and, because of his work, we can hear the orchestra, as well.

This is magic.

"Guys and Dolls" will be in DC--with Phillipa Soo and Jessie Mueller--within the next several months. (I'd put money on a Broadway transfer.)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Host a Baby

-You have assumed responsibility for a mewling, puking ball of life, a yellow-lab pup. He will spit his half-digested kibble all over your shoes, all over your hard-cover edition of Jennifer Haigh's novel  Faith . He will eat your tables, your chairs, your "I {Heart] Montessori" magnet, placed too low on the fridge. When you try to watch Bette Davis in  Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte , on your TV, your dog will bark through the murder-prologue, for no apparent reason. He will whimper through Lena Dunham's  Girls , such that you have to rewind several times to catch every nuance of Andrew Rannells's ad-libbing--and, still, you'll have a nagging suspicion you've missed something. Your dog will poop on the kitchen floor, in the hallway, between the tiny bars of his crate. He'll announce his wakefulness at 5 AM, 2 AM, or while you and another human are mid-coitus. All this, and you get outside, and it's: "Don't let him pee on my tulips!" When...
3 comments
Read more

Josh at Five

 Joshie's project is "flexibility"; the goal is to see that a plan is just an idea, not a gospel, not a guarantee. This is difficult. Yesterday, we went to a restaurant--billed as "open," with unlocked doors--and the owner informed us of an "error in advertising." But Joshie couldn't accept the word "closed." He threw himself on the floor, then climbed on the furniture. I felt for the owner, until he nervously made a reference to "the glass windows." He imagined that my child might toss himself through a sealed window, like Mary Katherine Gallagher, or like Bruce Willis, in "Die Hard." Then--thank the Lord!--I was able to laugh. The thing that really has therapeutic value for Joshie is: a firetruck. If we are out in public, and he spots a parked truck, he wants to climb on each surface. He breathlessly alludes to the wheels, the door, the windows. If an actual fire station ("fire ocean," in Joshie's parla...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Anniversary

 What do gay men give each other, after seven years of marriage? Tickets: Bernadette Peters, in concert. Stephen Sondheim identified BP's "Sunday in the Park" performance as one of the three or four great achievements he himself had witnessed, in musical theater history. Other actors speak of Bernadette as a teacher. Andrew Rannells has described a wish to see BP in "Follies," alone, just on a quiet afternoon, when "BP might break my heart." Victoria Clark has written about studying BP--collecting insights--in the same way the novelist Jami Attenberg has borrowed extensively from "Olive Kitteridge," by Elizabeth Strout. No one is better at seeming wounded. BP has such extraordinary access to personal pain, you feel you're overhearing a private confession. I have loved her work from my high-school years onward. My spouse allowed me to screen a clip from "A Little Night Music"; he watched from start to finish, without fidgeting or...
Post a Comment
Read more