GUYS AND DOLLS
Times Square- the words alone summon visions of neon lights, show marquees, gawking tourists, and mind-bending chaos. Though Times Square has always been a famous New York icon, its identity and populace has evolved over the course of the past century. Long before Times Square became the over-commercialized tourist mecca of today, before the dark and truly dangerous era of the 1970s , and even before the glamourous Square of the 1950s, the Broadway of the 1930s and 40s attracted a strange crowd. One could expect to see a cross-section of the classes - high and low, socialite and two-bit criminal - out on the streets together. As night fell, however, the socialites returned home, while the criminals and grifters were just starting their day.
Author Damon Runyon made his living and his name writing about the lower class of New York. His stories gave everyday people a peek into the lives of the mysterious troublemakers that both intrigued and frightened them. Runyon's colorful gangsters and criminals captured the hearts of readers, and created a new literary genre. "Runyonesque" is now used to define a specific type of character - the lower-Manhattan delinquents of his short stories. "Runyonese" refers to the type of speech found in a Runyon short story - slightly uneducated, peppered with colorful slang, and always in present tense. The high point of the stories' publication saw well-to-do New Yorkers speaking in dock slang and trying their own delicate hands at gambling. Although Runyon's short stories had quite a following, it was Frank Loesser's musical tour-de-force Guys & Dolls that took Runyon's tales to their greatest glory.
When Guys & Dolls premiered in November of 1950, the theatre-going public fell in love. The entertaining tale of luck, love, and self-reinvention is relatable enough - these themes resonate in all of us. However, it was the make-believe world - not New York City, but truly Runyonland - that won audiences over. The high-class theatre-goers of 1950 had heard only rumors of this gritty world with floating crap games and low-class gangsters like Big Jule. Their obsession was evident enough - Guys & Dolls swept the 1951 Tony Awards, taking Best Musical, Best Choreography, Best Director, Best Actor in a Musical, and Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. The original production ran for over three years - quite a feat in the 1950s. Just as the infatuation with the musical began to wane, the film adaptation - featuring superstar Frank Sinatra as leading man Nathan Detroit - was released, reigniting the obsession at a nation-wide level.
One reason for the massive popularity of Guys and Dolls is the fantastical nature of "Runyonland." Though there are lines in the musical that place it in the early 1950s, it seems much closer to the 1920s in which Runyon’s short stories take place. The New York City of Guys and Dolls is an idealized New York, not the real Big Apple. The small-time con men and gamblers like Nathan Detroit can run their business without any real fear of police persecution, and dangerous criminals like Big Jule are a rarity. The musical takes the best portions of three decades – the 1920s, 30s, and 40s – and the best of the Broadway area, and combines them to create the big, glittering, New York-like fantasyland in which characters like Adelaide and Nathan live. The New York created by Runyon and Loesser is enticing – who wouldn’t want to live such a colorful, exciting world? Guys and Dolls allows audiences to do just that – if only for a few short hours.
Author Damon Runyon made his living and his name writing about the lower class of New York. His stories gave everyday people a peek into the lives of the mysterious troublemakers that both intrigued and frightened them. Runyon's colorful gangsters and criminals captured the hearts of readers, and created a new literary genre. "Runyonesque" is now used to define a specific type of character - the lower-Manhattan delinquents of his short stories. "Runyonese" refers to the type of speech found in a Runyon short story - slightly uneducated, peppered with colorful slang, and always in present tense. The high point of the stories' publication saw well-to-do New Yorkers speaking in dock slang and trying their own delicate hands at gambling. Although Runyon's short stories had quite a following, it was Frank Loesser's musical tour-de-force Guys & Dolls that took Runyon's tales to their greatest glory.
When Guys & Dolls premiered in November of 1950, the theatre-going public fell in love. The entertaining tale of luck, love, and self-reinvention is relatable enough - these themes resonate in all of us. However, it was the make-believe world - not New York City, but truly Runyonland - that won audiences over. The high-class theatre-goers of 1950 had heard only rumors of this gritty world with floating crap games and low-class gangsters like Big Jule. Their obsession was evident enough - Guys & Dolls swept the 1951 Tony Awards, taking Best Musical, Best Choreography, Best Director, Best Actor in a Musical, and Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. The original production ran for over three years - quite a feat in the 1950s. Just as the infatuation with the musical began to wane, the film adaptation - featuring superstar Frank Sinatra as leading man Nathan Detroit - was released, reigniting the obsession at a nation-wide level.
One reason for the massive popularity of Guys and Dolls is the fantastical nature of "Runyonland." Though there are lines in the musical that place it in the early 1950s, it seems much closer to the 1920s in which Runyon’s short stories take place. The New York City of Guys and Dolls is an idealized New York, not the real Big Apple. The small-time con men and gamblers like Nathan Detroit can run their business without any real fear of police persecution, and dangerous criminals like Big Jule are a rarity. The musical takes the best portions of three decades – the 1920s, 30s, and 40s – and the best of the Broadway area, and combines them to create the big, glittering, New York-like fantasyland in which characters like Adelaide and Nathan live. The New York created by Runyon and Loesser is enticing – who wouldn’t want to live such a colorful, exciting world? Guys and Dolls allows audiences to do just that – if only for a few short hours.