‘Guys’ Unwisely Gambles on Timing

The biggest problem with the 50th anniversary production of “Guys and Dolls” at the Wilshire Theater is.

Timing.

Like a period in the wrong place in a sentence, just about everything in “Guys and Dolls,” starring Maurice Hines as Nathan Detroit, came about a beat behind schedule at Wednesday’s opening night performance.

This version of the show looks great, with bright, jazzy sets and delicious candy-box costumes. Costume designer Paul Tazewell adds a wide palette of rich colors to the usually white-on-black pin-striped suit always favored by stage gangsters. And scenic designer Norbert Kolb even makes a scene inside a sewer seem like a visit to some kind of pastel Oz.

But slow pacing, mostly low-energy music and dance numbers (with the exception of the sizzling “Havana”), and punch lines consistently delivered with just enough hesitation to undermine the punch keep this musical from gaining much momentum. While this version of the zany story of “the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York” has its moments--and a few standout performances, most notably Alexandra Foucard’s Miss Adelaide and Clent Bowers’ Nicely-Nicely Johnson--waiting for them is definitely a crapshoot.

The 1950 Frank Loesser musical, based on Damon Runyon’s stories about New York lowlifes, tells the story of two fast-talking gamblers, Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson (Brian Sutherland), their “dolls” and how their attempt to save the crap game--as well as to out-gamble each other once and for all--leads them to true love, kicking and screaming all the way.

They are the 1950s answer to today’s Peter Pan male. But the operative word here is “fast.” The humor in this show is more broad than witty, going for the groan instead of a nod of intellectual appreciation. You gotta keep this patter moving to make it work; he who hesitates just isn’t funny.

Hines offers a performance that is at once bafflingly muted and overblown. His Nathan Detroit is unusually soft-spoken, with a loosey-goosey style of walking and dancing, and a sleepy-eyed stare that doesn’t raise the excitement level. But he is also given to turning into a mime with exaggerated facial expressions, suddenly freezing his features in a fish-faced pout or a sheepish grin and staying that way for a few long seconds while the action stops dead around him. Once again, it’s too much time wasted on too little.

Sutherland has a little more edge--and vocal strength--as Sky Masterson, tricked on a bet into wooing prim missionary Sarah Brown, portrayed by his real-life wife, Diane Sutherland.

Oddly, there doesn’t seem to exist a huge amount of chemistry between them, but at least they throw themselves into the proceedings with gusto. Initially guilty of the same sort of tentativeness that seemed to afflict the whole cast in the first act, Sutherland comes into her own in the second act, offering a particularly warm and affecting rendition of the ultimate rationalization duet, “Marry the Man Today,” with Foucard.

Notable in smaller roles are Tad Ingram as the dry-witted Arvide Abernathy, Curt M. Buckler as the mountainous Big Jule and Donna Migliaccio as the foursquare Gen. Matilda B. Cartwright of the missionary band.

The real fun of the show, however, comes from Foucard, a blast of trashy electricity as the dancer Miss Adelaide, who has spent the last 14 years engaged to Nathan Detroit and now wants a big rock to show for it.

With a delightfully weird accent that blends Britain, Brooklyn and maybe Mars, Foucard is as outrageous as the fashion ensembles that costumer Tazewell concocts for her, each one a sort of three-ring circus of bad taste, with hat.

Also worth the wait is big-boned--OK, obese--Bowers as Nicely-Nicely, as amiably insecure as he is large and possessed of an equally large voice that’s one giant, hilarious whine. He also tears up “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat”; without him, like most of the rest of this production, the rousing musical number wouldn’t rock but just drift slowly in the wind.

“Guys and Dolls,” Wilshire Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. Through April 28. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. $47-67. Ticketmaster, (213) 365-3500 or (714) 740-7878.

Nicely-Nicely Johnson...Clent Bowers

Benny Southstreet...Darin De Paul

Rusty Charlie...Michael W. Howell

Arvide Abernathy...Tad Ingram

Sarah Brown...Diane Sutherland

Harry the Horse...Carlos Lopez

Lt. Brannigan...Paul Depasquale

Nathan Detroit...Maurice Hines

Angie the Ox...Ryan Blanchard

Miss Adelaide...Alexandra Foucard

Sky Masterson...Brian Sutherland

General Matilda B.

Cartwright...Donna Migliaccio

Big Jule...Curt M. Buckler

Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser; book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows; directed by Charles Randolph-Wright; choreography by Ken Roberson; scenic design by Norbert Kolb; lighting design by Michael Gilliam; costume design by Paul Tazewell; sound design by Christopher “Kit” Bond; musical direction by Eric Barnes. Stage manager Allen McMullen.