Harper director wants new generation to resonate with ‘Guys and Dolls’

Harper College aims to make a new generation of audiences fall in love with the story and characters from a classic musical with its upcoming production of “Guys and Dolls.”

The show opens Friday, March 7, and performances run through Sunday, March 16, at 1200 W. Algonquin Road, Palatine, in the performing arts center in Building R. Friday and Saturday performances are at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets, $15-$25, are available at events.harpercollege.edu.

Director Kevin Long answered some questions about the production and what audiences can expect.

Why did you choose “Guys and Dolls” for Harper's spring musical?

This is one of the Great American Book Musicals. For some of us, it’s a rediscovery of this great musical. I also felt it was time for a new generation of audience goers to fall in love with these wonderful characters: Nathan, Sky, Sara the missionary, and Adelaide the “long-suffering, well known fiancée.

There is a subtitle to the show: “A Musical Fable of Broadway.” This show is a fable for today. We live in a world that is pushed deeper into extreme positions and polarized beliefs: “right” and “wrong” postures and each “side” despises the other “side” with little hope for reconciliation.

“Guys and Dolls” is a cautionary fable of binary thinking: gamblers vs. missionaries; saints vs. sinners; criminals vs. law; good vs. evil. “Guys and Dolls” shows us the dangers of polarization.

“Guys and Dolls” beckons us to open our hearts to the power of forgiveness and to the power of transformation, balance, and redemption. The show asks to open our hearts to empathy and understanding. Even if we no longer live in the late 1930s, the humanity of these characters feels timeless. This musical is joy unparalleled with incredible music, brilliant dialogue and lyrics, and a message of healing in our current troubled times.

For those who aren't familiar, please describe the plot.

Classic Broadway at its showstopping best! Hailed by many as the perfect musical comedy, this Tony-winning favorite follows a rowdy bunch of gamblers, gangsters, and sassy showgirls in a wild game of chance — then love sneaks in! Set in bustling 1930s Manhattan, “Guys and Dolls” features some of Frank Loesser’s most memorable songs, including “I’ve Never Been in Love Before” “Luck Be a Lady” and “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat.”

How many students are involved with the production? Who plays the lead role(s)?

There are 13 students involved in a cast of 26. Leading roles include Sarah Briedenbach as Sarah Brown, Andrew McCarthy as Nathan Detroit, Oli Hoeye (a Harper student) as Miss Adelaide and Jon Cunningham as Sky Masterson. Briedenbach, McCarthy and Cunningham are community members, not Harper students.

Student cast members include Alice Brown, Bill Brown, Gio de la Torre, Bruno Diaz, Capian Donoho, Elizabeth Khouri, Adam Kowalski, Francine Posadas, Aahib Rao, Emily Rose, Enzo Rotteveel, Aaron Suggs, Jr.

How will your play differ from the original?

Great question. I have had friends say, “OK — what are you going to do with ‘Guys and Dolls?’” Well, I do want to make sure people truly enjoy their experience with us — to laugh, to deeply feel, and to walk out of the theater elated.

For me, I love the source material of original Damon Runyon stories. Runyon’s writing is unique, eccentric, and has such great original humor. His stories are great chronicles of New York life in the 1930s.

With that in mind, I want to explore the musical within that context of Broadway in its early heyday. I’d like to create our show by driving the deep, specific needs of the characters — based on the original stories and the musical’s text and lyrics. I am asking the actors to work on the show grounding themselves in sincerity and truth. Not “comedy.”

These characters don’t know they are in a “musical comedy.” They are fighting in the high stakes game of life. So I have given the cast the original Runyon stories so that they can find out specifically who and what their character is all about. We need to approach this with a high degree of specificity. The death of comedy is to play comedy. We play the specific grounded truth and the comedy bubbles up from that.

As a result, I’ve set the show back in the time that the short stories were written — the late 1930s. We are trying to capture the dynamic energy of Times Square in late 1930s as well as the intimacy of the two love stories. All this lead me to original photos of Times Square in the 1930s in the book “Changing New York” by Bernice Abbott. Her book features a collection of photos of Times Square in the late 1930s for the WPA. New York was a bustling place in the 1930s. But the spectacle of Times Square looks a bit more seedier.

I also loved the original artwork that accompanied the publishing of Runyon’s stories in Collier’s magazine. The artwork was created by Robert Harron and Harry Beckoff. This gave me the color palate, feel, and mood of the time as well.

What do you think audiences will enjoy most about this play?

In addition to what I wrote above, I think the audience will simply fall in love with this musical theater classic. How can you have a bad day when you hear this glorious music? In addition, here are my director’s notes from the program.

Damon Runyon said: “I'm inspired by love, by the moments that we commit to something with all our heart — be it a person, a project, an animal, anything really. It's undeniably inspiring, that acknowledgment of existence, that I love, that I care. That fills me with purpose.”

“Guys and Dolls” focuses more on the theme of love rather than just “gambling.” It delves into the gamble we take when falling in love, especially with someone who appears to be an unlikely match. This is evident in the relationships of Sarah Brown and Sky Masterson, and Miss Adelaide and Nathan Detroit.

Initially, these couples believe they have their lives perfectly mapped out. However, each character reaches a crossroads where they must choose between staying in their comfort zone or taking a chance on a potentially brighter future. “Do I hold onto what I know, or do I roll the dice and take a chance on something better?”

Love weaves its way through the lives of these colorful characters. As we delve into their relationships and experience one of the most glorious musical scores ever written for the theater, we celebrate the transformative power of love and the connections that bind us all.

In addition to the regular performances

There will be closed caption performances of “Guys and Dolls” on Sunday, March 9, and on Saturday, March 15.

Coffee with the Director and Dramaturg will take place at 1 p.m. on Sundays before the 2 p.m. show.