Considered by many to be the perfect musical comedy, Guys and Dolls ran for 1,200 performances when it opened on Broadway in 1950. It received nearly unanimous positive reviews from critics and won a bevy of awards, including Tony Awards, Drama Desks and Oliviers.

 

Set in Damon Runyon's mythical New York City, Guys and Dolls is an oddball romantic comedy. Gambler, Nathan Detroit, tries to find the cash to set up the biggest craps game in town while the authorities breathe down his neck; meanwhile, his girlfriend and nightclub performer, Adelaide, laments that they've been engaged for fourteen years. Nathan turns to fellow gambler, Sky Masterson, for the dough, and Sky ends up chasing the straight-laced missionary, Sarah Brown, as a result. Guys and Dolls takes us from the heart of Times Square to the cafes of Havana, Cuba, and even into the sewers of New York City, but eventually everyone ends up right where they belong.

 

"Count me squarely in the Guys and Dolls camp. If there’s a flaw to be found in the 1950 “musical fable of Broadway,” based on characters created by journalist/short story writer Damon Runyon, it’s not in Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ drum-tight book. And it’s certainly not in Frank Loesser’s honey of a score." - New York Stage Review