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On Broadway

 "Guys and Dolls" is so masterful, it's able to break the rules. Famously, it assigns its 11:00 number to a minor character. This is not "Rose's Turn." It's just a high-energy diversion shortly before the conclusion of the evening.


Nicely-Nicely Johnson, an unreformed thug, needs to find a stalling tactic at a prayer meeting. So he imagines what a conversion experience *might* look like. And he does some playacting.

I dreamed last night I got on the boat to Heaven--
And, by some chance, I had brought my dice along.
And there I stood, and I hollered, "Someone, fade me."
But the passengers, they knew right from wrong.

This show is a celebration of language: "So nu?" "I got the horse right here," "Luck, be a lady tonight," "Take back your mink," "If I were a banner, I'd wave." I imagine Frank Loesser did a little dance of joy when he landed on the following: "Someone, fade me." And it doesn't matter if we're unaware of the meaning. And Loesser *knows* that this doesn't matter.

And as I laughed at those passengers to Heaven....
A great big wave came and blew me overboard!
And as I sank....and I hollered, "Someone, save me...."
That's the moment I woke up, thank the Lord!

It's fun just to appreciate Loesser's verbs--"laughed," "blew," "sank," hollered," "save me" .....

"Guys and Dolls" is like a mini Sistine Chapel for Broadway.

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