Salvation Army babes and bad boys ...
Here's a recipe for romance and fun, one that's on display in the delightful who-needs-Broadway-we-have-DHT production of Guys and Dolls currently at Diamond Head Theatre in Honolulu.
Take one bad boy (gambler Sky Masterson), add one good girl (Save-a-Soul Mission doll Sergeant Sarah Brown), throw in a supporting cast of lovable gamblers and leggy Hot Box nightclub dancers (led by the wonderfully comic Adelaide, who's been engaged to Nathan Detroit for 14 years) and a cop named Brannigan who's trying to bust the floating crap game, put all this in Damon Runyon's New York, and then mix well.
At the center of this, of course, is the unlikely romantic pairing of good girl Sarah and bad boy Sky. Or is it unlikely? Haven't we seen this countless times before, in books and plays and films, not to mention real life? You may have an explanation for why good girls are attracted to bad boys, but all I know is that it happens, and that it makes for good romantic comedy. If opposites attract, what could be more attractive than the smooth gambler and the proper young woman in the Salvation Army uniform?
Sky makes a bet with Nathan Detroit (who needs to win the bet to finance his floating crap game) that he can take any babe to Havana. Nathan thinks he has a sure thing when he names the Salvation Army doll Sarah Brown as the babe. Poor Nathan, of course, has not allowed for the famous attraction of bad boys and good girls. Sky pursues Sarah. Sarah resists the dinner-in-Havana date at first, but then agrees to it when Sky offers to produce a dozen genuine sinners (his gambler friends) for Sister Sarah's mission.
The scene in the Havana club is a riot. Sarah falls in love with Sky, but not before she falls in love with the adult beverages they drink together ("Cuban milkshakes," the secret ingredient being Bacardi). Sarah lets her hair down, dances wildly, and sings "If I Were a Bell," as we realize that whatever setbacks await Sky and Sarah, they're well on the road to a happy ending.
And so, 60 years after Guys and Dolls opened on Broadway, we are treated to classic romantic comedy, complete with the songs of Frank Loesser and a very talented cast. The gamblers sing and dance (notably "Fugue for Tinhorns" and "Luck Be a Lady"), the Hot Box dancers sing and dance ("A Bushel and a Peck" and "Take Back Your Mink"), and Sarah and Sky sing of love from their first meeting ("I'll Know"). This convention in musicals of the leads singing a love song in Act I before they fall in love, or declare their love, has given us some strong ballads. One telling example appears in the first act of Carousel, where Rodgers and Hammerstein have the romantic leads sing "If I Loved You."
The title character in George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara (1905) is a Salvation Army babe. In the 1941 film version of Shaw's play, Wendy Hiller plays Major Barbara. Rex Harrison (long before he became Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady), plays Adolphus Cusins, a scholar of Greek literature who, in the film version, is mesmerized by Barbara when he first sees her preaching in the streets with the Salvation Army band. Adolphus immediately claims he is a sinner and joins the Salvation Army (and the mission's band) in order to be near Major Barbara. Not exactly a bad boy, but something of a sneaky fish-out-of-water character.
So why do bad boys set foot in a mission and fall for a Salvation Army babe? Is it the uniform? And why does the babe fall for the guy? Has all the preaching about sin made her curious? Is it the danger he represents? Do we even stop to ask why? The audience is buzzing, the overture begins, and the show must go on.
Tags: Diamond Head Theatre, Guys and Dolls, Major Barbara, Romance
