Pine-Richland Rocks the Boat with Guys and Dolls
Online Ticket Sales
Spaghetti Dinner
GIBSONIA, Pa., February 15, 2019 – Pine-Richland High School students are taking audiences back in time to 1950s New York City for five performances of the classic musical Guys and Dolls. Performances will be open to the public 7:30 p.m. each night on March 8 and March 9 and March 15 and March 16, 2019, and a 2 p.m. matinee on March 16. Senior citizens are invited to a complimentary performance on March 7 at 4 p.m. The choral boosters will be hosting a spaghetti dinner fundraiser on March 16 from 4:30-6 p.m. Visit www.pinerichland.org/musical for ticket and dinner sales.
Regarded as one of the best musical comedies to ever hit the stage, Guys and Dolls ran for 1,200 performances when it opened on Broadway in 1950 and won the coveted Tony Award for Best Musical. With music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, the musical is based on two short stories written by famed newsman and author Damon Runyon. It has had several successful Broadway and London revivals, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Marlon Brando, Gene Simmons and Frank Sinatra.
“It’s such an upbeat, charming show about luck, love, and the foundation of dreams,” said Director Sarah McGraw. “It’s a humorous, energetic and touching story about the bright lights and shady back rooms of the Broadway underworld.”
Guys and Dolls is a love story at heart. It features gambler Nathan Detroit, played by senior Seamus Daniello, who is always searching for the next venue for his floating crap game. But the authorities are onto him, making it very difficult to find a place willing to take the risk of hosting the game. Nathan’s fiancé and nightclub performer Adelaide, played by senior Amara Busa, grows increasingly frustrated because they have been engaged for 14 years, and he still has not married her. She spends a great deal of time her time lamenting whether or not to stick around, as it is affecting her health and well being.
In need of dough to secure a gambling venue, Nathan bets the notorious high-roller, Sky Masterson, played by senior Tyler Hepler, that Sky can’t convince straight-laced missionary Sarah Brown, junior Meghan Wilson, to join him in Havana, Cuba, for dinner. Sky and Sarah, a most unlikely match, begin to fall in love with each other almost from the first moment they meet. This quartet is surrounded by a host of fun-loving characters, including Nathan’s loyal friend and lackey Nicely-Nicely Johnson, played by senior Declan Allwein.
Guys and Dolls takes the audience from Broadway to Havana to the sewers of New York City but eventually, everyone ends up right where they belong. The show is set to a golden era score that includes “Luck Be a Lady,” “Sit Down, You’re Rockin' The Boat,” "Fugue for Tinhorns, and “The Oldest Established.”
The cast includes 56 Pine-Richland High School students, and the show features a 26-member student orchestra and all-student stage crew. Producer Kathy Morrissey said she marvels at the students’ talent and their commitment to making the musical a spectacular production.
“Our wonderfully talented cast will have audiences tapping their feet and smiling from ear to ear with the big and brassy production they have worked so tirelessly on,” Morrissey said.
