The show runs Oct. 9-10, 15-16 at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 11 and 18 at 2:30 p.m. at the Old Armory Theater in downtown Williston.
“It’s a Broadway classic from the mid-1950s which was the heyday of Old Broadway,” said director B. Michael Quale.
The musical premiered on Broadway at the 46th Street Theater, opening on Nov. 24, 1950. It ran for 1,200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and has had several Broadway revivals as well as several West End productions.
It was filmed in 1955, starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine. The musical is based upon short stories by Damon Runyon, who wrote about the seamier side of life, Quale said.
“The characters are almost cartoonish,” he added.
The production is a character-driven musical which takes place in New York City and revolves around a group of crapshooters who are illegally shooting craps in the street.
“Nathan Detroit (played by John Breslin) is the person responsible for finding a place to play the game and that’s where the story starts, he has to find a place,” Quale said.
Detroit is in love with Adelaide, played by Kayla Stamp, to whom he has been engaged for 14 years.
“They are always going to get married,” Quale said. “In fact, one of the songs’ lyrics says ‘they are headed to Niagara for the 14th time.’ But it’s the crap games that come up and he can’t ever seem to commit. They’re both very sweet characters.”
But in any good musical, you can’t have just one love story going on, and this is no exception.
Sky Masterson, played by JC LeBar, is a professional gambler who travels the country and he arrives in New York City where he runs across a mission doll, “which is like the Salvation Army, it’s the group that runs the local mission for the down and out on the street,” Quale said.
He meets Sarah Brown, portrayed by Paula Swenson, who works at the mission.
“She’s out on the streets preaching and Sky Masterson is attracted to her. They’re a very unlikely couple. She thinks he is using her for less than admirable purposes and, in fact, at the end of the production they end up with a craps game going on in the mission,” he said.
There are 20 other very interesting, colorful characters in the production, Quale said, with an added bonus of a group of dancers.
“We’ll be doing specialty dances with a group from Dance Fever. Angela Ekblad is working with them and they’ll do some featured dancing,” he said.
Costume-wise and set-wise, Quale described the production visually as a cartoon.
“The music is some of the best and most enjoyable to perform and to listen to in the genre of musical,” he said.
“That’s why it’s been revived twice in the last 15 years and is a stable of community theaters and community college and high school theater.”
He describes the show as family friendly.
“It is very much suitable for the entire family,” he said. “There is enough going on that this would be a good show to expose younger people to community theater. Kids would do fine with this one.”
Tickets for the show, or a season pass, can be purchased through the box office by calling 577-3179, or going to the group’s website at www.entertainmentinc.org.
There are five shows to the season, including A Christmas Story, Dial “M” for Murder, Boeing-Boeing, and The Odd Couple (Female Version).
“This is the show that we bring in the majority of our funding for the year through season ticket and patron sales,” helping them set the budget for the remainder of the year, Quale said. “We get very good support” from the community.
This production is sponsored by American State Bank & Trust of Williston.
The box office is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday through the run of the show. Tickets can also be purchased at the door.
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