Guys and Dolls opens next Friday

If you're looking for a sure bet for family entertainment, you can't lose with the Empress Theatre's production of Guys and Dolls. The show opens Friday, February 27, and runs every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday through March 30.

Come watch as Nathan Detroit, host of the longest continously running floating crap game in New York, finds himself in a bet he just can't afford to lose, and a situation where he can't possibly win. See the indomitable Miss Sarah Brown try to reform the gamblers on Broadway. Based on the short story "The Idylls of Miss Sarah Brown" by Damon Runyon, with book by Jo Swerling and Abe Bellows, with music by Frank Loesser, this classic musical can't lose.

Directed by Shawn Maxfield, with musical direction by Trent Oliphant, and staring many of your favorite Empress stars, you'll want to reserve your seats early, and come back more than once. And you'll want to bring all of your friends. Call the box office now, (801)347-7373) to reserve your seats. Or click on the link on the left.

Hurry while there are still seats left!

Family Friendly Standards

One of the things OHPAA prides itself on is production of "family friendly" live entertainment. So I was a bit surprised when someone commented that they thought our current show, The Foreigner, "violated OHPAA's standards." I've never seen The Foreigner any where else, so I don't know if other productions of it have included offensive content, but I have no problem taking my children to see the Empress Theatre's production. In fact, my five under-twelve children have seen it three times. I suspect the comment was made based more on reputation than on the actual production on the Empress Theatre's stage.

The Foreigner does present the Klu Klux Klan and a scheming minister as the bad guys. And it uses deception as a major plot device. And there is the matter of a pregnant debutant...

Okay, so...

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat presents attempted fratricide, slavery, the deception of Jacob, and the summary execution of the baker; not to mention a half naked Joseph cavorting about on the stage. And what about that whole scene with Potiphar's wife?

Shakespeare's classic Much Ado About Nothing is all about deception and, oh yeah, eveasdropping on other people's conversations, though sometimes the conversations were designed to be overheard. The false accusation that Hero is "a committed stale" who knows the comfort of "a luxurious bed" is equally a depiction of a moral question. (Don't even get me started on Midsummer Night's Dream and the whole sleeping with the donkey thing!)

What makes the character of Owen Musser different than the character of Borachio? How is the Reverned David Marshall Lee different than Prince John the bastard. How do we find the scheming of Joseph's brothers to be acceptible on the stage while rejecting the scheming of Owen and David as improper content?

Guys and Dolls is all about gambling and depicts a crap game in a sewer. My Fair Lady uses the deception of passing 'Liza off as nobility and Alfred's panhandling of Higgins. In Oklahoma Curly suggests that Judd suicide and Judd has his "glass," presumably pornographic, in the smoke house; and don't overlook the knife fight and the "trial" Curly goes through after he kills Judd; or anything at all about Ado Annie...

Arranged marriages, Tevye's dream and a pogrom in Fiddler on the Roof; Sound of Music deals directly with the German takeover of Austria, and the von Trapp's flight from the very racist and brutal Gestapo. (As racists working under Hitler, the Nazi's did more damage than the Klan ever imagined. The KKK is ugly, the Gestapo was ugly, efficient, and had state sanction.) Polygamy and sexism are central to the plot of The King and I.

Yet each of these shows is considered a "classic" of American Musical Theatre.

Where and how then do we draw the line? What content is objectionable? What content is acceptable?

OHPAA is actually in the process of developing a formal set of standards, and we'd like your input as to what they should be.

Please leave your comments, but I ask that you follow a few simple rules: first, if you are going to comment on Foreigner, tell us if you've seen the Empress Theatre production of The Foreigner or if your comments are based on some other production. Second, please explain why you think a particular bit of content is objectionable as family entertainment, and whether or not you would consider it objectionable in other contexts. Finally, no dis-ing a show just because you don't like it; keep the comments centered on what type of content you consider appropriate for families and what you consider inappropriate.

I won't promise to post all coments, but I will promise to pass all on-topic comments on to the board and the standards committee. And I will post all comments that further a healthy discussion. And lets all keep in mind that not everyone will agree on every point.