Guys and Dolls: a toast to old New York

For Christina O’Dell there is something about the romantic Broadway musical Guys and Dolls that puts it in a class of its own.

“It’s become a perennial favourite. So many jazz standards have come out of it – Luck Be a Lady, If I Were a Bell and I’ve Never Been in Love,” says O’Dell who landed the lead role in ELOPE Musical Theatre’s production due to open tomorrow night for a 10-day run at the Timms Centre.

A speech language pathologist at Hillview Elementary School, the former St. Albert resident morphs into a novel triple-threat performer at night. Just prior to joining ELOPE, she completed two stints with Edmonton Opera Chorus in Barber of Seville and Lucia di Lammermoor.

It was clearly O’Dell’s emotion driven vocal power that landed her the role of Sarah Brown, an upstanding mission worker who catches the eye of roguish gambler Sky Masterson.

The biggest craps game is coming to town and gambler Nathan Detroit tries to borrow dough from Sky. However, Sky falls hard for the straight-laced Sarah and shifts his focus.

Frank Loesser’s well-crafted popular score, inspired by Damon Runyon’s idealized rough-and-tumble 1950s New York, reflects the likeability of its virtuous do-gooders, charming gamblers and easy-going cops.

For O’Dell, Guys and Dolls is an opportunity to step away from classical opera to indulge in her roots.

Referring to I’ve Never Been in Love, she says, “There’s a wonderful record Chet Baker recorded that I used to hear as a kid. But I didn’t know where it came from. When I opened up the score, I was so excited to see it and have a chance to sing it.”

Loesser’s score also contains the catchy Fugue for Tinhorns mixed with romantic songs such as I’ll Know and If I Were a Bell. And then there’s a trio of classic comic numbers, Take Back Your Mink, A Bushel and a Peck and Adelaide’s Lament, all involving Miss Adelaide, a nightclub singer engaged to gambler Nathan Detroit for 14 years.

O’Dell credits music director Binaifer Kapadia for her unbiased influence.

“She’s so open. She lets you play and explore and she works with what the actor has. She let me play with the operatic sound and drop it into a jazzier belt.”

Runyon created a mythic landscape and perhaps that’s why it’s so natural for characters to break into song O’Dell muses.

“We are so excited to work with fantastic sets and lights. The choreography is stellar and the cast has done a stellar job in absorbing the characters and we’ve done an amazing job of interpreting the score.”