GUYS AND DOLLS To Open This Month at Fox Theatre

The company's winter season will open February 11 and 12 with its first-ever musical theater production, Frank Loesser's Tony Award-winning Guys and Dolls.

Making their Peninsula Ballet Theatre debuts, the company welcomes Bay Area director and choreographer, Broadway veteran Gary Ferguson, and Bay Area music director Adam Green, leading a cast of talented Bay Area actors, musicians and the Peninsula Ballet Theatre's company of dancers.

Peninsula Ballet Theatre Executive Director Christine Leslie said, "When we learned that our home venue, Redwood City's Fox Theatre, no longer had a producer of musicals, we knew we could step into that spot. It became obvious: PBT is an organization of dance artists and our mission is to bring the highest quality dance art productions and training to the residents of the greater Peninsula. We've been teaching musical theater, jazz and more for years with many of the Bay Area's leading artists, so it seemed like a good time to produce a musical."

This hilarious musical comedy from 1950, is one of the most often revived shows at London's West End and New York's Broadway, where it's original run spanned some 1,200 performances. The beloved musical score counts some of the most memorable songs from the Broadway songbook including "Luck Be a Lady Tonight," "A Bushel and a Peck," "I've Never Been in Love Before," "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," and "If I Were a Bell." The extraordinary popularity of Guys and Dolls inspired a 1955 film adaptation starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine.

In this so-called "music fable of Broadway," the high-minded lowlifes and spunky do-gooders of Damon Runyon's world come colorfully alive in such characters as Sky Masterson, the bet-on-anything gambler; Nathan Detroit, the perpetually harried organizer of the oldest established permanent floating crap game In New York, who bets Sky that he can't make the next girl he sees fall in love with him; Miss Sarah Brown, of the Save-a-Soul Mission on Times Square, who is the next girl Sky sees and who does succumb; and Miss Adelaide, the main attraction at the Hot Box nightclub, whose perpetual cold stems from her being engaged to Nathan for 14 years.

Following Guys and Dolls, Peninsula Ballet Theatre will conclude the company's 54th season March 11 and 12 with one of the most charming and captivating fairy tales in the classical ballet repertoire, Cinderella. Artistic Director Gregory Amato has choreographed an all-new version based on the original story by 17th century French writer Charles Perrault, with dance narrative inspired by the original 1945 Sergei Prokofiev premiere by Nikolai Volkov for the Bolshoi Ballet.

Commenting about his new Cinderella, Amato said, "I always come back to Prokofiev's incredible ballet music for this classic fairy tale. The haunting undertones of yearning, the melodious themes of love and the brilliance of his comedic genius are in evidence throughout. I look forward to sharing this new interpretation for Bay Area ballet lovers."

Single tickets for both programs range from $35 to $70 and may be purchased by visiting peninsulaballet.org. All performances will be presented at the Fox Theatre, 2215 Broadway, Redwood City.

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