2003 Year in Review

Guys & Dolls a Big Hit

On May 9th and 10th, Morrison High School presented the musical Guys and Dolls, by Damon Runyon through a special agreement with Music Theatre International. The play began on Broadway, where Nicely-Nicely Johnson (Bert Thorndike), Benny Southstreet (Adam Fitzwater), and Rusty Charlie (Dana Wolf) sang about gambling. Later in the scene, Nathan Detroit (Brian Prange) is busy trying to find to find a place to host a Crap Game, which is illeagal in New York, for about a dozen gamblers (John Benson, Lloyd Deshane, Brad Benson, Adam Jevne, and Ben Vandermyde). Adelaide (Ginny Rumfelt), Nathan's fiancee for 14 years, strongly dissaproves of Nathan shooting crap. After that, a Love story between Sky Masterson (Eric Bees), a high class gambler and Sarah Brown (Beth Janicek), the head of a mission, evolves from a bet between Sky and Nathan. The pressure is put on Nathan as Harry the Horse (Larry Gatz) brings Big Jule, (Charlie Gatz) a high roller from Chicago to play in the grap game. At First the gamblers play in the mission, but have to move to the sewer where Big Jule loses all his money, and Sky Masterson makes a bet with the gamblers to go to a prayer meeting, which he promised Sarah he'd provide some sinners. Sky wins the bet, and the Crap shooters go to the meeting and confess sins. At the end of the play, Sky has joined the Mission Band (China Rumfelt, Katey Miller, Amanda workman, Laura Prange, Anrea Tomasino Katie Bunt, Adam Heusinkveld) and has also gotten married to Sarah. At the end, Nathan finally gets married to Adelaide.

The show was great and included many songs throughout the show. Also, the Hot-Box Dancers(Sarah Porter, Jennifer Brands, Erica Sanchez, Leslie Wilkens, Monique Vos, Heidi Benson, Emily Miller, Jamie Ware) performed two songs which were coreographed by Tyler Smith.

The pit band was led by Dave Bean and Darlene Palmer was the director for the play. Hundreds showed up between the two nights, and the cast was congratulated with a standing ovation both nights. Sadly through budget cuts, there is a possibility that there will be no play next year, but we all hope for the best.

by Larry Gatz, theCity1.com
May 14, 2003