October 11, 2012
The McGill TribuneOctober 2, 2012
By Marie Stefanakis/strong>
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The Segal Centre brings an American classic to Montreal, featuring local talent and alumni stars
Big names and voices will grace the Montreal stage this fall as the Segal Centre for Performing Arts kicks off its 2012-2013 season with its up-close-and-personal rendition of Tony-award-winning performance Guys and Dolls. A sexy comedy of skewed morality, Guys and Dolls follows two gambling gangsters, Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson, as they attempt to manipulate and one-up each other within the glamourized setting of a gritty 1940s New York City. Despite its small-scale setting, the production boasts an impressive list of seasoned Broadway and Stratford Festival veterans, all under the expert direction of Diana Leblanc.
Leading this skilled cast is Tony-nominated American actor Scott Wentworth, who portrayed the notorious Masterson in two previous runs of the musical at the Stratford Festival. Wentworth spoke fondly of his history with the show, referring repeatedly to its clever writing, humour, and edginess—all of which he believes will appeal to a wide array of audience members.
Despite stereotypes surrounding older musicals—overly extravagant and disconnected from real human experience—Wentworth claimed that Guys and Dolls manages to bypass the sentimentality and old-fashionedness typically ascribed to its contemporary productions.
“It’s about your grandparents’ world, but it’s also about everybody’s world,” Wentworth explained. He praised what he and others have interpreted as being the central message of the show: taking risks and following your bliss. Wentworth believed that this prominent theme helps the show transcend generational barriers, and will particularly appeal to university students who are contemplating their futures.
“In a way, the message [of the show] is that you have to risk something, you have to gamble something [...] if that’s what you want,” Wentworth said. “That’s a good thing to think about for those [of you] in your early 20s.”
Alongside the big Canadian names appears a group of Montreal performers and McGill graduates, most notably musical director Nick Burgess, comedian Massimo and Montreal-based actor Marcel Jeanin. Among the local talent is actor and stand-up comedian Mike Paterson, a graduate of Dawson College’s DOME theatre program. Paterson, responsible for most of what he described as the “low comedy” of the show, stressed the importance of the comedic aspects of both lyrics and dialogue. The well-written humour, he believed, played an important role in maintaining Guys and Dolls’ legacy.
Like Wentworth, Paterson believed that a modern audience will not find it difficult to relate to the show’s different characters and subplots, despite its dated setting. “Two gamblers bet that they can’t take a religious girl to Cuba, and that’s the kind of thing that I would [do] with my guy friends,” he joked.
Equipped with a stellar list of collaborators, along with a script and score which have entertained generations of theatre lovers, Guys and Dolls is likely to have something for everyone.
Guys and Dolls runs through Oct. 28 at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, 5170 Cote-Ste-Catherine. Student tickets are $29.