This refers to a musical performance whose music and the lyrics were done by Frank Loesser. The book was written by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling. This music is centered on the two short stories that were written by Runyon Damon by the tittle “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown” and “Blood Pressure” (Loesser, p 34). Most of the characters and its plot is borrowed from other stories written by Runyon known as “Pick the Winner”. The producer was Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin. The main director was George S. Kaufman. The musical ran for over 1200 performance, and managed to win five awards in 1951including an award as they Best Musical.
The musical was composed based on the gangsters, gamblers as well as other character in the New York underworld. These were the central theme of the musical (Lower, p 84). This show fits on the historical and cultural context as during that time, there was much crime as well as gambling taking place. The well-known song in this musical is “Adelaide” that was written by Frank Loesser (Loesser, p 39). As noted above most of the characters are borrowed from the short story written by Runyon known as “Pick the Winner”.
The original musical was premiered on the Broadway on November 24th 1950 at the 46th Street Theatre (Lower, p 135). Motown musical style arrangement which was done by Danny Holgate found its way into the score. Currently, this show is not done often. By last year in April, a one-night-only performance was done at the Carnegie Hall, which featured Nathan Lane, Patrick Wilson, Megan Mullally and Sierra Boggess (Lower, p 192). Currently, there is no any noteworthy production of this musical on record that has been done due to its nature. The record was done long ago thus there is not any noteworthy production that is being done currently.
- Loesser, Susan. A Most Remarkable Fella: Frank Loesser and the Guys and Dolls in His Life. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp, 2000. Print.
- Lower, Cheryl B, and R B. Palmer. Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Critical Essays with an Annotated Bibliography and a Filmography. Jefferson, NC [u.a.: McFarland, 2001. Print.
