Mary Zimmerman-Helmed GUYS & DOLLS Begins Tonight at The Wallis

"Well, hang on to your snap-brim fedora: Ms. Zimmerman's fetching revival is as good as any production I've ever seen of the greatest of all the golden-age musicals," proclaimed the Wall Street Journal when Oregon Shakespeare Festival staged the Broadway musical classic Guys & Dolls earlier this year at its Ashland, Oregon-based theatre. Now, for a limited run, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts will present this production for the holidays in the Bram Goldsmith Theater for 24 performances beginning tonight, Dec 1 and running through Dec 20.

Guys & Dolls, based on a story and characters by Damon Runyon, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, is one of the most popular shows from the Golden Age of Broadway Musicals. The familyfriendly show features what are now some of the most iconic characters in theater history: dashing gambler Sky Masterson, Salvation Army missionary Sarah Brown, crap game organizer Nathan Detroit, and his long-suffering fiancée Miss Adelaide. The score is even more famous, with popular hits including "Luck Be a Lady", "I've Never Been in Love Before" and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat". Put your money on this musical fable of Broadway.

The cast of Guys & Dolls features Alyssa Birrer as Hot Box Girl, Tony DeBruno as Harry the Horse, Richard Elmore as Big Jule, Al Espinosa as Angie the Ox, Robert Vincent Frank as Lt. Brannigan, Rodney Gardiner as Nathan Detroit, Kristin Glaeser as Hot Box Girl, Curtis Holland as Ensemble, Richard Howard as Arvide Abernathy, Kate Hurster as Sarah Brown, Briawna Jackson as Hot Box Girl, Jeremy Peter Johnson as Sky Masterson, David Kelly as Benny Southstreet, Eugene Ma as Joey Biltmore, Robin Goodrin Nordli as Miss Adelaide, Daniel T. Parker as Nicely-Nicely Johnson, Britney Simpson as Hot Box Girl, Jonathan Luke Stevens as Ensemble, K.T. Vogt as General Matilda B. Cartwright, Joe Wegner as Rusty Charlie and Christopher H. Young as Ensemble.

Director Mary Zimmerman, an Artistic Associate of Goodman Theatre and a member of Lookingglass Theatre Company, adapted and directed Metamorphoses for which she received the Tony Award for Best Direction. She is widely known for her regional theatre productions The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, The Odyssey, Arabian Nights, Argonautika, The Secret in the Wings, Galileo Galilei, a new opera with Philip Glass, The Jungle Book, and The White Snake. She directed Henry VIII and Measure for Measure at New York Theatre Festival's Shakespeare in the Park and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala in Milan.

Mary Zimmerman said of Guys & Dolls, "The score has been called no less than 'perfect'; the characters, working in brilliant opposition to each other, have enormous charisma and charm; the language is sharp and original; the setting is nostalgic. There is endless exuberance and life to it."

Tickets range from $29.00 - $110.00 are available at www.thewallis.org, by calling 310-746-4000, or in person at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Ticket Services located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90210.

A major theatre arts organization, OSF offers a diversity of plays as well as events and activities to enhance your overall experience. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1935. Their season runs from February through early November, and they have three theatres: two indoor stages, the Angus Bowmer Theatre and the Thomas Theatre, and their flagship outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre, which opens in early June and runs through mid-October. OFS offers 11 different plays that include three or four by Shakespeare and seven by other classic writers, as well as modern and contemporary work and world premieres. When you visit you can see one or two plays or up to nine plays in one week! For more information visit www.OSFAshland.org.

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