Characters carry the show in Scera’s ‘Guys and Dolls’

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    By MARY FLEMING

    “Guys and Dolls” is a surprising success for Scera’s new indoor theater in Orem. Though not exactly a Broadway production, the talented cast won’t leave you disappointed.

    The most entertaining of these characters was Miss Adelaide (Jayne Luke). Adelaide is a feisty gal who has been engaged to her gambling fiancee for 14 years. Now she finds herself with a chronic cold that her doctor says is a result of insecurities caused by her long engagement.

    Adelaide’s plight is comically portrayed by the bouncy Luke who flitters and flirts her way around the stage. As a very petite woman, she is a delight to watch.

    Adelaide sings of her misfortune in “Adelaide’s Lament.” She finds in her book of psychology that merely from “waiting to see if her wedding is on or off, a person can develop a cough.”

    But her loving, yet scared fiancee, Nathan Detroit (David Whitlock), has his own set of troubles. He has run the “oldest, established, permanent, floating, crap game in New York” for years, and now with many big gamblers in town, he can’t locate a place for the game without $1,000.

    In desperation, he bets Sky Masterson, played by BYU student Dallyn Vail Bayles, that Sky cannot cajole a strait-laced lady missionary into going to dinner with him in Havana, Cuba.

    The missionary, Sarah Brown, is a lovely lady played by BYU student Hailey Jones-Smith.

    Jones-Smith sings of her future true love, insisting he will be nothing like Mr. Masterson. She tells him she will know when he comes along. But after Sky kisses her, the dedication to her imaginary man begins to fade. Jones-Smith belts out her high notes in a way to impress the harshest of critics.

    Against her will, she falls for the gambler Sky Masterson and ends up in Havana. The couple tour around Havana and end up in a bar. After she drinks several non-virgin pina coladas unawares, Sister Brown is more than ready to profess her love to Sky.

    The dancing from all cast members was visually entertaining. It wasn’t professional theater, but the musical as a whole was a good production for a community theater. The strongest asset was the talented voices and personalities that characters like Adelaide added to it.

    “Guys and Dolls” plays through April 10, Mondays and Thursdays through Saturdays. Show time is 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $8. For reservations, call 225-2569. The theater is at 745 S. State St. in Orem.

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