Some musicals survive because audiences remember the songs. Others last because there is still something beneath the familiar tunes worth rediscovering.
The Yavapai College production of Guys and Dolls aims to do both. The classic Broadway musical brings gamblers, showgirls, missionaries and hopeless romantics back to the streets of New York. But behind the familiar title and songs, including “Luck Be a Lady,” is a production that’s spent months developing a much larger world around them.
For Logan Wolfe, assistant director and scene-shop supervisor, choosing a Golden Age musical makes sense for the college’s main stage. These are shows audiences know and often have a personal history with. “Everyone knows Guys and Dolls,” Wolfe said. Mention the title to someone familiar with theatre and chances are they can tell you when they saw or performed in it, or immediately name a favorite song. That familiarity creates its own challenges. Rather than simply reproduce a version audiences may have seen before, Director Heather ‘Scottie’ Scott and the production team began asking what still makes these characters interesting today. The production’s central question became: what would you gamble for love?
The original musical comes from a very different social era, and Wolfe said part of the appeal is recognizing that distance rather than pretending it’s not there. Ideas and humor that were commonplace decades ago can look different to a contemporary audience. The team chose to draw the focus toward the relationships under the comedy: people making bets, manipulating situations, falling in love and eventually being forced to recognize the humanity of the people standing in front of them. That work started long before the formal rehearsal period.
During the summer semester the leads worked through improvisation and character exercises, developing histories and motivations not necessarily outlined in the script. Wolfe describes many of the written roles as closer to archetypes when taken only from the page. By filling in what had happened before they entered the scene — where they came from, what they want and why they react as they do — the actors have been working to turn those archetypes into people. The same attention extends far beyond the principals. In this production the audience may want to occasionally stop watching whoever is speaking.
Throughout the background, ensemble members have developed their own miniature stories. A character seen early in the show may continue changing throughout the evening without ever speaking a line. Relationships begin in the background of one scene and develop somewhere else later. One character gradually acquires pieces of a suit throughout the production, eventually appearing transformed.
Wolfe said the intent is to make the stage feel populated with people rather than extras waiting for the next musical number. “You feel like you’re in New York,” he said.
There may even be a few surprises for attentive theatregoers. Props and Costumes Supervisor April Siebersma said the creative team has tucked small visual references and Easter eggs into the world, including nods to films such as The Truman Show and horror movies. Visually, realism isn’t exactly the goal. This New York exists somewhere between Broadway, Technicolor and animation.
Costume Designer Adriana King and Supervisor Connor Ratajski help shape a world filled with bright, heightened color, while Scene Designer Ben Naasz brings exaggerated shapes and flared edges that deliberately push the environment away from everyday reality. Siebersma described it as almost an alternate universe, recognizable but heightened. Wolfe said that stylization serves another purpose. In a world that already looks larger than life, characters suddenly breaking into song seems perfectly natural. Think less photographic New York and more Who Framed Roger Rabbit — a real place that has somehow slipped sideways into a theatrical universe.
Even the scene changes are designed to remain inside that universe. Rather than routinely stop the action for blackouts, the production works to hide transitions inside the performance. A subway grate may erupt with steam, light and sound while the stage transforms around it. Set pieces move while something else keeps the audience’s attention. That builds another performance most theatregoers never see: the backstage choreography. Wolfe describes those transitions as their own kind of dance. Large objects must move into exact positions quickly and safely; Siebersma points out that the crew has only a fraction of the rehearsal time the actors receive. After performers have worked for months, crew members may have little more than a week to learn movements, cues and timing. That precision also depends on Stage Manager Connie Arnold and the crew coordinating the production’s many moving pieces. This Guys and Dolls is particularly demanding overhead. Rather than relying primarily on scenery rolling on and offstage, the production makes extensive use of the theatre’s fly system. Some transitions involve multiple scenic elements moving nearly simultaneously; Wolfe said one of the largest currently requires eight separate items moving at the flyrail. If everything works correctly, the audience barely notices. That invisibility is part of the craft. It’s also where a Yavapai College production becomes more than a show.
