A production of the Broadway musical “Guys and Dolls” is coming to the Downtown Theater Center Aug. 3-5.
The show is being produced by Hidden Talent Community Theater, a group of students from Bellefonte, Bald Eagle and Penns Valley high schools, led by Penns Valley student Zachary Floray, who serves as student director. Floray directed the group’s first musical, “Annie,” last year.
The theater group allows students from 10 to 18 years old in the three school districts to perform. The group began rehearsals for the show in May; it holds weekday evening rehearsals in Trinity United Methodist Church in Bellefonte.
Nicole Goodman, who has choreographed several musicals at Penns Valley, serves as choreographer for the production.
The show will feature a pit orchestra composed of local students and adults, directed by Mya Good.
Set in Depression-era Times Square, “Guys and Dolls” is about a couple of big-city gamblers and the women who love them. It tells the overlapping stories of high-roller Sky Masterson, who falls in love with mission worker Sarah Brown, and lovable scoundrel Nathan Detroit, engaged for 14 years to Miss Adelaide, a headliner at the Hot Box Club. Nathan runs a famous floating craps game, and an ongoing plot line involves his quest for a safe place for the game as Adelaide continues her quest to get him to marry her. Meanwhile, Sarah, mistakenly believing that Sky set up an illegal game at the mission, tries to fight her affection for the charismatic crapshooter.
“Guys and Dolls” premiered on Broadway in 1950, running for 1,200 performances and winning the Tony Award for best musical. The musical has had several Broadway and London revivals, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra.
The show features musical numbers that have become standards over time, such as “Luck Be a Lady” and “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat.”
Tickets for “Guys and Dolls” are available at the door and online here at $9 for adults, $7 for students and $5 for those age 12 and under. Shows will be presented at 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 3, 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 4 and 4 p.m. on Aug. 5.
