"Guys and Dolls," Magic Circle

A nice evening with the DMTC crew last night, checking out "Guys and Dolls," at Magic Circle's Roseville Theater. This was their closing night for the show, and we had friends and acquaintances to see in performance.

In general, it was a very good show. As Jan repeatedly mentioned, it was so nice seeing the show when Sky Masterson and Sister Sarah Brown (Steve Campbell and Jennifer Schmelzer) seemed to have that magical quality known as "chemistry." Casting "chemistry" is very hard, and Magic Circle did a good job. Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide (Doug Kester and Christi Axelson) were also well cast. Doug Kester seemed to have some of that Bob Amaral energy about him: someone said he works primarily in the Lodi area.

It was great seeing friends again: David Holmes, Bob Eggert, Richard Spierto, Keri Newton, Samantha Ellinwood, and Brent Null. I was particularly happy to see that David hadn't moved to Idaho after all: he is a major asset in the Sacramento area. Bob Eggert sang beautifully: he said he's now performed the show about 80 times now as his alter-ego Arvide Abernathy. As a former drunk in both DMTC's and Woodland's "Guys and Dolls," I particularly liked Bob Gerould's imaginative rethinking of the character as a high-society tippler: in hat and tails, like that cartoon character from "Monopoly." Also, the kitchen "jewelry" was also a very nice prop!

I also enjoyed meeting new people, particularly Alexander Dominitz (Harry the Horse), who now begin attending Yale, majoring in Theater, PLUS an amalgam of subjects that sounded, upon Babelfish translation, kind-of-like pre-law. Alexander has been doing a lot of work at Sacramento Theater Company.

Most of the DMTC crew liked the dancing (choreography by Stephen Hatcher), but I thought it was too restrained. It was as if Stephen was working against a constraint of some sort. The hard part was figuring out what the constraint was.

Often in these shows, the dance corps is not given priority: amateur musicals tend to attract singers and actors instead, who may be too old, too young, too lame, too halt, too slow to provide first-rate dance entertainment. But I don't think that was the problem here. There were some fine dancers available, the J's in particular (Jacob Keller and Jordan Tillotson), plus Melinda Olivera and her gloriously-long legs.

I think the problem may have been the rapid tempo chosen by musical director Jennifer Vaughn. The Broadway revival of "Guys and Dolls" featured an alarmingly-rapid tempo, which goes well with the mid-20th-Century-urban setting of the show, but necessarily requires everyone to make adjustments to suit. Dancers can't attempt as much, and actors can't milk the songs for humor (noticeable with Christi Axelson's portrayal of Adelaide - Adelaide's various laments were too quick).

In any event, the show was excellent!


Doug Kester and Christi Axelson take their bows as Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide.


David Holmes as Benny Southstreet.