Guys & Dolls

1950

Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser
Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows

At Ohio Light Opera, Loesser is more—“a bushel and a peck” more! No American musical has garnered more unanimously glowing accolades than Frank Loesser’s 1950 musical fable Guys and Dolls. Based on the stories and characters of famed writer Damon Runyon, the music, lyrics, and book bristle with the seedy street life of New York City. The show’s characters have assumed legendary recognition: gambler Sky Masterson has fallen hard for Save-A-Soul Mission reformer Sarah Brown; bookie Nathan Detroit has been engaged for 14 years to nightclub chanteuse Miss Adelaide, who laments her psychosomatic cold that has lasted just as long; and horseplayer Nicely-Nicely Johnson provides a revivalist confession (“Sit down, you’re rockin’ the boat”) when forced to give testimony at the Mission. Song hits include: “Luck Be a Lady,” “If I Were a Bell,” “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” and “My Time of Day.”