THEATER REVIEW / GUYS AND DOLLS : Show Reaches New Heights

It’s no coincidence that the two most accomplished productions in the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera’s history--”42nd Street” and “Singin’ in the Rain”--were the work of director/choreographer Jon Engstrom.

Engstrom’s flair for eye-popping production numbers set new quality standards for the civic light opera’s shows. And true to form, Engstrom’s gift for coaxing professional-caliber dancing out of amateur ensembles catapults “Guys and Dolls” to dazzling heights of showmanship.

From the moment the 19-member ensemble saunters into Times Square for the opening number, there’s a riveting precision of movement and depth of staging that shows the hand of a master choreographer.

And it gets better.

This colorful musical-comedy about gamblers and their gals includes a number enthusiastically celebrating an ongoing crap game that keeps shifting locations to stay one step ahead of the law, two hilarious semi-risque cabaret ballads, a sensuous tango in a Havana nightclub that erupts into a brawl, and the classic “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” in which the tough-talking mobsters find themselves at a Salvation Army meeting for repentant sinners.

But far and away the evening’s high point is an extended ballet in the New York sewers set to “Luck Be a Lady,” where the crapshooters come whirling in and out from all directions with split-second timing--this one’ll leave you winded just from watching it.

Of course, Engstrom had plenty to work with--since the show’s premiere in 1950, Frank Loesser’s music and lyrics have never lost their hit status.

And there’s an innate appeal in this “Musical Fable of Broadway” which Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows adapted from the writings of Damon Runyon. The cast of low lifes, con artists, thugs, and molls speak in the pushy cadences of street slang, and behave in accordance with their--um, alternative value system. (“Where did you get $5,000?” “I collected the reward on my father!”).

The story revolves around two couples--crap-game meister Nathan Detroit (Jae Ross) and Adelaide (Keryl Lynn Burns), the nightclub singer he’s been dangling for 13 years, and cynical wise guy Sky Masterson (Tom Zemon) and Sarah (Cathy Wydner), the Salvation Army missionary determined to redeem his kind.

Ross’ adroit comic timing is perfectly suited to Nathan’s perpetual shifty quest to cover all the angles, and Burns brings warmth and charm to Adelaide’s addled wits and mangled grammar (“After all, we are civilized people--we do not have to conduct ourselves like a slob!”). She also displays a stunning combination of humor and poignancy in the show’s best solo number, “Adelaide’s Lament”--a pastiche of psychological jargon that traces her physical ailments to her unmarried status.

Her lament illustrates one of Engstrom’s best directorial touches--allowing moments of defining emotional honesty to pierce through the whimsical comedy. Ross’s Nathan has his moment when he reads the adoring letter Adelaide’s mother has written in the mistaken belief they are married.

The other romantic duo fare more problematically. Zemon and Wydner handle their singing and dancing with professional skill, but Zemon’s boyish, untroubled good looks make it hard to buy his Sky as a confirmed hood. His inevitable surrender to Sarah’s morality is less striking as a result--it doesn’t seem like he has all that far to travel.

Because Adelaide and Nathan are the more dynamic couple, this “Guys and Dolls” has become their story, but the underlying theme of differing expectations between men and women still rings loud and clear.

“Why is it the minute you dolls get a guy that you like, you take him right in for alterations?” Sky asks Adelaide at one point.

“What about you men?” she demands in return. “Why can’t you marry people and live normal . . . Have a home, with--wallpaper and bookends!”

* WHERE AND WHEN

Performed through May 23, at the Granada Theatre, 1216 State St. in Santa Barbara, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., matinees at 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are $13-29.50. Running time is 3 hours. Call (800) 366-6064 for reservations or further information.