Tuesday, January 26, 2016
A little more than a week after releasing its production schedule for the 2016-17 theater season, the Spokane Civic Theatre announced today that it's switching things up for the last show of the current season.
In place of the originally planned closing show Ghost, the Musical, the Civic is swapping in the Broadway musical classic Guys & Dolls, hitting the main stage from May 20-June 19.
In a press release posted today on its website, Civic artistic director Keith Dixon says, "Looking at the success of last season's The Music Man and other previous spring productions, along with the community's appetite for family-centric programming, we are looking forward to bringing Guys and Dolls to our Main Stage in May."
Dixon is set to direct the production, for which auditions are to be held March 19-22.
The lively romantic comedy set in 1920s-30s New York City premiered on Broadway in 1950 and has remained a timeless classic since. It chronicles the antics of a cast of characters involved in NYC's underground; gamblers, gangsters and the like.
Among Guys and Dolls' many accolades are a Tony Award for Best Musical and a Pulitzer Prize in drama in 1951, which was actually never officially awarded (it was a no-award year for the drama category) because of McCarthyism-era tension between Guys' writer Abe Burrows and the House Un-American Activities Committee. A 1955 film adaptation of the story stars Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine.
Anyone with tickets to the previously planned Ghost, the Musical can still attend Guys & Dolls on the same night. During its run, shows are set for Thu-Fri at 7:30 pm and Sun at 2 pm.
Tags: Spokane Civic Theatre , Guys and Dolls , Keith Dixon , local theater , Arts & Culture , Image