ADRIAN — Chris Sancho, director of the Croswell Opera House’s upcoming all-area high school musical “Guys and Dolls, ” really doesn’t like to refer in order to her cast as “students. ”
“I call them ‘young professionals, ’” she said. “This is a really talented group. ”
The 1950 musical comedy about gangsters, gamblers and the women in their lives opens at 7: 30 p. m. Saturday, Jan. 21. Additional performances are at 2: thirty p. meters. Sunday, January. 22; 7: 30 p. mirielle. Friday, Jan. 27, and Saturday, January. 28; plus 2: thirty p. m. Sunday, Jan. 29.
Tickets range from $12 to $25 for adults and are $12 for students and are available by calling 517-264-7469 or online at croswell. org .
“Guys and Plaything, ” with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling plus Abe Burrows, was based on two Damon Runyon short stories and material found in other Runyon stories. It won the particular 1950 Tony Award for Best Musical and in 1955 was adapted into a film starring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine.
Sancho described the show as “one of the best, most popular, and character-filled and character-driven” musicals ever written, plus said her young forged members have really risen to its challenges.
For one thing, the particular Runyonesque dialogue is very different from what actors possess to learn for other shows. Then there’s the 1950s-vintage way the characters carry themselves. And then, too, there’s the fact that stylistically it’s quite unlike modern musicals.
“The popular style of music theater will be pop belt, and that’s not this, ” Sancho said. “But (the actors) adapted like champs. ”
Students from eight high schools within Lenawee, Jackson and Washtenaw counties make up the particular cast.
Lila Brighton (Onsted) plays Sarah Brown, leader of a local mission who wants in order to save the souls of the gambling crooks that inhabit the girl neighborhood. Unexpectedly, Sarah falls in love with gambler Sky Masterson, played simply by Luke Gorsuch of Knutson.
Jon Antalek (Adrian) is Nathan Detroit, a gambler and organizer of an illegal floating craps game, while Abby Knight (Adrian) is his longtime fiancee, nightclub singer Miss Adelaide.
Oden Berthelsen (Tecumseh) and Jamari Williams (Adrian) play bettors Nicely plus Benny Southstreet. The show’s other gamblers and gangsters are played by Tyler Condon, Alex Pizaña, Gage Sterling and Nicholas Trevino of Adrian and Jonathan Dahn plus Julia Jones of Tecumseh. Chance Adkins (Adrian) is usually the policeman Lt. Brannigan. Marley Jacobson and Aiden Ketola associated with Adrian play Cartwright and Abernathy, who are from the particular same mission as Dorothy, and Lauren Howard plus Rosemary Olsaver of Adrian are the Mission Band.
Also in the cast are Madeline Bough, Amelia Bowman, Madelyn Bowman, Grace Steinke, Isabela Guerrero, Trenton Miller, Sage Pizaña, Astrid Thomas and Ella Trevino, all of Adrian; Lilian Schmid associated with Blissfield; Evan Schultz of Britton; Trent Umpstead associated with Saline; Claire Cousineau, Jenna Ferguson, Zara Garrison, Camdenne Kruse, Genevieve Lucas, Macy Schmidt plus Abigail Van Camp, all of Tecumseh; Meredith Baughey of Tipton; and Chase Kulik of Willis.
Deb Calabrese is the choreographer, and Adam Miller is the music director.
“I has been super happy with the particular turnout we had for auditions, ” Sancho said. The result is a highly diverse throw, and the girl said it makes her especially delighted that some of them are students whose previous experience was in the chorus associated with a Croswell show and now they get to have featuring roles.
Everything that has made “Guys and Dolls” a classic with regard to more than 70 years is within this production. The only real adjustments the creative team made are intended to move things along more quickly, by upping the overall tempo plus taking out some of what it usually takes to change scenes.
Sancho also added a few touches that the lady thinks the particular audience will find especially fun. For example , the raid scene, where the gamblers are usually leaving the scene from the craps sport one step ahead of the police, “is slightly cartoonesque, ” she said. “It’s complete physical comedy mayhem. ”
She has her own connection to this particular show besides as the director. Back in 1992, also at the Croswell, she was Miss Adelaide in order to Tobin Ost’s Nathan Detroit. “So this holds a special place in my heart, this display, ” she said.
“I call it a love letter to New York City in the particular 1950s … and the love notice to the generation that lived through that will time. ”
She offers enjoyed teaching her young cast how to bring that era to life onstage.
“It’s fun to go through this particular show on an educational basis, ” she stated. “… I love the whole concept of actually getting to go back in time — the fashions and the fads as well as the way (people) spoke. ”
The latter — the particular characters’ speech patterns — has been specifically interesting regarding the younger actors to work on. Between the fact that Runyon wrote dialogue the way he did, and the way people spoke in general 70 years ago, “that was really fun for the kids to learn, ” Sancho said.
To help them do that, the girl turned to a rather unique source. “I asked all of them to proceed and find old Warner Brothers cartoons, like Bugs Bunny, along with gangsters within them, ” in order to study their dialect.
As soon as rehearsals began, the students knew that they were going to have got to work hard.
“I told them right from the start that we were approaching this as a professional show, ” she mentioned. “People coming to see this will get the particular same quality show as any other here at the Croswell. I’ve held the solid to a high standard. ”
The particular results have really pleased her.
“This is 1 of the finest shows that I’ve ever had the opportunity to direct, ” the lady said.
If you go
WHAT: “Guys and Dolls, ” this year’s all-area high college musical
WHEN: 7: 30 p. m. Saturday, Jan. 21; 2: 30 p. meters. Sunday, January. 22; seven: 30 g. m. Friday, Jan. 27, and Sunday, Jan. 28; 2: thirty p. mirielle. Sunday, Jan. 29
WHERE: Croswell Opera House, 129 E. Maumee St., Adrian
TICKETS: $12-$25 for all adults, $12 for students
HOW TO ORDER: By calling 517-264-7469 or online at croswell. org
