'Guys and Dolls' ready to roll the dice at Corn Stock

At the risk of being branded a heretic or something and dragged away, Chip Joyce is changing things around in “Guys and Dolls,” the next show at Corn Stock Theatre.

Now wait: he isn’t changing anything in the script or any of the songs. That’s something he says you just don’t do with a Broadway classic like “Guys and Dolls.”

“Some think of this as the perfect, quintessential American musical and to mess with it would be heresy or something. That’s why it is one of the only shows that never gets changed when it has a Broadway revival. That presented somewhat of a dilemma,” said Joyce, directing for the second time in three years under the Corn Stock tent in Upper Bradley Park.

Still, because it is a well-known musical that has been done many times throughout the region in high schools, “I wanted to find a fresh take on the show. I wanted to inject new life and energy into it and make it something people want to see like they are seeing it for the first time. We stay true to the script, without question. But maybe we look at some of things in the script a little different,” he said.

Like how some lines and even characters are interpreted. “I like going with the idea that it’s the women who are the smart ones and the men … well, not so much. The way the lines are delivered, the way the characters are portrayed, the reactions to some of the lines all help to give it a new look and feel. Take Adelaide, for example. She is not written as a bimbo but that’s how she usually is played. Not in our show,” he said.

The last time “Guys and Dolls” was done as an adult show in Peoria was more than a decade ago at Peoria Players Theatre. Corn Stock last produced it in 1993 at the tent.

But it became a staple in high schools, colleges and youth productions until just a few years ago, about the time of the latest Broadway revival in 2009.

But many of the songs from one of the best-known Broadway are still easily brought to mind. “Luck Be a Lady,” “Adelaide’s Lament,” “A Bushel and a Peck,” and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.”

“These are songs people know even if they’ve never seen the show,” Joyce said.

“Guys and Dolls” features the music and lyrics of Frank Loesser and the book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrow. The musical is based on the short stories of fiction writer Damon Runyon and tells the stories of gangsters, gamblers and their gals from the New York underworld of the 1930s. Or at least how fiction writer Damon Runyon perceived them, Joyce said. “Damon Runyon was a Midwestern writer who moved to the big city. He developed a very romanticized idea of the city, portraying it almost like the old wild west,” he said.

The mixture of the words and the slang, which Joyce said audiences will recognize as words we use still today, make the show appealing, he added.

It was first produced on Broadway in 1950 and swept the Tony Awards. The 1955 film starred Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons, Vivian Blaine and even Marlon Brando in a singing role as Sky Masterson.

The Corn Stock cast is mostly local community theatre veterans, meaning a lot of local star power.

Jarod Hazzard portrays Sky Masterson, Mike Reams is Nathan Detroit and Alex Monsoori, a professional opera singer making his Corn Stock debut, is Nicely-Nicely Johnson.

Kim Behrens makes her Corn Stock debut as Miss Adelaide, Tonya Davis is Sarah Brown and Trish Ballard is General Matilda Cartwright.

Others in the cast include veterans Bob Parkhurst, Aaron Elwell, Nathan Irwin, Matt Stubbs, Kyle King, Eric Gore, Susan Knobloch, Laura Miller-Monsoori and Jennifer Morris.

Joyce said he couldn’t have asked for a better turnout at auditions. “This is a show people want to do. Mike Reams, this is his fifth time in this show. On the other hand, Nathan Irwin has done countless shows through the years but this is his first opportunity to be in ‘Guys and Dolls.’ So our cast is stacked,’ he said.

Laura Weaver Hughes is the music director and the choreographer is Heather Klaus. There were with Joyce the last time he directed at the tent – in the 2012 production of “Hair.”

“The three of us are really going in the opposite direction this time, but that really appealed to us.
It’s a fun show. We think audiences will really like it,” he said.

Tickets are on sale at the Corn stock box office. They are $18 for adults and $12 for students. They can be ordered online at www.cornstocktheatre.com or reserved by calling 676-2196. 

About the Author

Paul Gordon is the editor of The Peorian after spending 29 years of indentured servitude at the Peoria Journal Star. He’s an award-winning writer, raconteur and song-and-dance man. He also went to a high school whose team name is the Alices (that’s Vincennes Lincoln High School in Indiana; you can look it up).