Mid Term Research Project – Musical Theatre
Cassandra Kurnath
Musical Theater
November 1, 2019
Guys and Dolls is a musical which opened in New York on November 24, 1950 and ran
for almost three years. The composer and lyricist were one in the same, Frank Loesser, who is
considered “the most versatile of all Broadway composers. Each of his five Broadway musicals
… is endowed with its own unique sound and style.”
1
Guys and Dolls was one of his greatest
masterpieces, winning a Tony Award for Best Musical.
It is very difficult to explain in short, the style of Loesser’s techniques in his music. Many
of the lyrics reflected Runyonesque language – English, 1920s slang, and words simply made up
by Damon Runyon. He mixed love type songs like “If I Were a Bell” with humorous numbers
like “A Bushel and a Peck” and “Take Back Your Mink.”
These songs also needed dances and Milton Greenwald (Michael Kidd) was the
choreographer. He won the first of his five Tony awards for his spirited, athletic routines for
Guys and Dolls, like in the crap game dance, and successfully merged classical ballet techniques
