Review: Comedy and voices lift uneven ‘Guys and Dolls’ at Westcoast Black Theatre

No matter how well it’s performed, you can usually count on “Guys and Dolls” to provide some laughs and a tune-filled score to lighten the darkest days. And after the last couple of stressful weeks surrounding Hurricane Ian, the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe’s season-opening production creates a spirit of joy that will send you home on an upbeat note, even if there are a few bumps along the way.

The 1950 musical about gamblers and the women who love and want to tame them has a famous score by Frank Loesser and a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows that is one of the funniest ever to light up Broadway. This production, directed and choreographed by Jim Weaver, is inspired by a 1976 Broadway revival that featured an all-Black cast and some new, livelier arrangements that gave the score a slightly more contemporary feel at the time.

The setting also was moved from Times Square to Harlem, though it’s hard to tell (aside from signs for the Cotton Club and Apollo Theatre) on the effectively minimalist set by Donna and Mark Buckalter. (And I wondered all night why there was a painted marquee for the Broadway play “Life with Father,” which had a long run in the 1930s.)

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The focus is on two couples. One is about the long-engaged showgirl Miss Adelaide and her fiancé of 14 years, Nathan Detroit, who struggles to find a place to hold the “oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York.” The other depicts the budding and unlikely romance between the missionary Sarah Brown and the high-rolling gambler Sky Masterson, who seems ready to be tamed.

The Buckalters, lighting designer Michael Pasquini and projection designer Alex Pinchin create a mostly open playing space for Weaver to maneuver the cast from street corners to the Save a Soul Mission and elsewhere with little wasted time. That means there’s room for the numerous dance routines that never quite have the energy of the singing. Dancing was a highlight of a 2016 production at Asolo Repertory Theatre.

So the opening number “Runyonland,” which is supposed to set a tone for life in the early 1950s and the story, doesn’t seem clear, and the “Crapshooters Ballet” looks belabored because you can see the effort the cast members – many of whom can move but are not skilled dancers – are putting into each action.

Weaver has more success in scenes set at the Hot Box Club, where Miss Adelaide and her three chorus members sing and dance to “Bushel and a Peck” and “Take Back Your Mink.”

The production does feature some strong performances from actors who bring out laughs in even the most familiar lines. The characters border on caricature and some actors are more successful at creating believable portraits even with exaggerated and comical “New Yawk” accents.

Kirstin Angelina Henry brings a soaring voice to such songs as “I’ll Know” and “If I Were a Bell” as Sarah, and she matches the voice with a performance that nicely shifts from uptight repressed sternness, to a looser, more aware young woman during a whirlwind trip to Havana.

As Sky, Brian L. Boyd is at his best singing “Luck Be a Lady,” with all the high stakes he has placed on a single bet. It has the kind of power and passion that you might wish came through in his part of the duet “I’ve Never Been in Love Before.” While Henry is ecstatic, this Sky looks more confused than happy.

Marta McKinnon, who was fun a few years ago in the company’s “Little Shop of Horrors,” gets the humor and heart of Miss Adelaide’s dilemma of loving a man who can’t be who she wants. Warren G. Nolan Jr. plays Nathan as a lovable, hen-pecked, eager-to-please operator trying to please Adelaide and make money from his craps games so he can keep her happy. You can enjoy the heightened extremes of their relationship in the wonderful duet “Sue Me.”

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Leon S. Pitts as Nicely-Nicely Johnson leads a rousing version of “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” which takes on a gospel flair.

Since the Westcoast Theatre space was remodeled and expanded a few years ago (right before the pandemic shut down operations), the band has worked from a special room on the second floor with the music piped in downstairs. Music director Christopher Jordan leads the band, but the sound, as usual, is a bit muffled and distant, lacking the punch we experienced when the musicians were in the room with us.

Though it drags on occasion, the production does leave you feeling good through its humorous, romantic comedy and some of Broadway’s greatest songs.

‘Guys and Dolls’

Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, book by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling. Directed and choreographed by Jim Weaver. Reviewed Oct. 8. Through Nov. 20. Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, 1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota. Tickets are $50, with discounts for full-time students and active military. 941-366-1505; westcoastblacktheatre.org

Follow Jay Handelman on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Contact him at jay.handelman@heraldtribune.com. And please support local journalism by subscribing to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Review: ‘Guys and Dolls’ opens Sarasota's Westcoast Black Theatre season