Starring Lyric ALL-STARS:
Nestor Torres, Sarge, Lorrianna Colozzo & Karin Leone;
Narrated by Knight Kiplinger,
Featuring
Greg Rice,
The Salvation Army of Martin County
& The Craig Turley Orchestra!
You don’t need to be a gambler to roll the dice on The Lyric’s All-Star production of Guys & Dolls in Concert this April! The deck is stacked in your favor when Lyric headliners bring to life an irrepressible cast of characters in a dazzling concert version of the beloved American musical classic.
Combine the pizzazz of Damon Runyon’s now-legendary characters with a dazzling score by Frank Loesser, a brilliant book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, and appearances by all of your Lyric favorites and the result is Guys and Dolls in Concert at The Lyric. The smash hit numbers keep coming in this lively and uplifting concert production of the luminous musical comedy, telling the story of a group of small-time gamblers and the ladies in their lives. The score includes favorites such as a “A Bushel and a Peck,” “Luck Be A Lady,” “Take Back Your Mink,” “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” and “If I Were A Bell.”
This one of a kind production boasts the talents of Lyric headliners such as Grammy winner, Nestor Torres as Sky Masterson, comedian Sarge as Nathan Detroit, opera darling Lorrianna Colozzo as Sarah Brown, music theatre veteran Karin Leone as Adelaide; featuring T.V. personality Greg Rice and narrated by the incomparable, Knight Kiplinger. There’s even a special appearance by the Martin County’s own Salvation Army. Bringing the Frank Loesser’s dazzling score to life is the world renowned, Craig Turley Orchestra!
Frank Loesser’s beloved Broadway musical Guys and Dolls has remained a perennial favorite in the American musical theater canon. The musical is an adaptation of short stories by Damon Runyon set in the colorful world of New York City in the mid 20th century. The romantic and funny story is populated with gangsters and gamblers, missionary dolls and showgirls, and one of the great musical scores in the history of American theatre.
If you are looking for a winner, this is one safe bet!
Sure to be the hottest ticket in town!
More on the Cast...
Grammy winner Nestor Torres stars in the role of suave gambling giant Sky Masterson. Torres, internationally renowned as a Latin jazz flute sensation, will impress Lyric audiences with his acting & singing chops. Nestor’s gift for spoken word, musicality and his undeniable charisma result in a seamless transition into musical theater. Devout Nestor Torres fans will be thrilled to know that his famous flute skills will be showcased as well, cleverly integrated into the story and award winning score. Mr. Torres has been nominated for several Latin Grammy Awards, Torres won it in 2001 for his CD This Side of Paradise. Torres’s most recent Grammy®-nominated CD, Nouveau Latino, heralds the flautist’s exuberant return to his Salsa and Latin Jazz roots. In addition to his achievements in the studio and on the stage, Torres has received numerous awards and commendations, including two honorary doctorates for his commitment to youth, education, and cultural exchanges.
Effervescent opera darling, Lorrianna Colozzo, plays Sky’s love interest Sarah Brown, a Sergeant in the Save-A-Soul Mission. Lorrianna, no stranger to Lyric audiences, has made a name for herself as an opera diva with her sublime soaring soprano voice. However, her musical theater credits are plentiful, having first burst onto the New York scene performing roles including the leading ladies in Anything Goes, Grease, Pajama Game and Chess. Lorrianna began studying singing at the age of twelve under the direction of Helen Boatwright and Dan Marek of The Mannes School of Music. She is a graduate of The Peabody Conservatory of Music where she studied with Phyllis Bryn- Julson and Stanley Cornett. In 2000 she continued her studies with Maestro Anton Guadagno of The Palm Beach Opera. She has been featured in numerous operatic and musical theatre roles nationwide including Fiordiligi Cosi fan Tutte, The Cunning Little Vixen, and Nanetta in Falstaff. Lorrianna has been an award winner in The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Comedian, pianist, singer and force of nature, Sarge plays career gambler and kind-hearted shyster, Nathan Detroit. Sarge is an entertainer who has performed worldwide to adoring audiences. His sidesplitting comedy, booming vocals and stunning display of dexterity as a pianist have wowed crowds for decades. Sarge in the role as Nathan is inspired casting, playing to all of his strengths. This colorful character role is traditionally played by high energy comedians, the likes of Sam Levine, Bob Hoskins and Nathan Lane; Sarge’s gregarious nature and raucous comedic antics make him an ideal successor. Of course, audiences will be delighted to see Sarge take to the keys in numbers like “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat” and “Adelaide”. Sarge has opened for some of the biggest names in music - Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, Paul Anka, The Beach Boys, The Four Tops, Taylor Dayne, Donna Summer and Wayne Newton, just to name a few. From Radio City Music Hall to Major League Baseball's All-Star game to entertaining our nation's troops in Iraq, Sarge leaves ‘em clamoring for more.
As Miss Adelaide, the nightclub chanteuse and Nathan’s long-suffering fiancée of 14 long years is music theatre veteran, Karin Leone. Karin was most recently seen on The Lyric stage in last season’s rock musical Next to Normal. A Stuart native, Ms. Leone returned to her hometown, after 8 years of performing nationally in venues in New York, Chicago & Los Angeles and the Kennedy Center. Leone has been described as having “the panache of the quintessential brassy, Broadway belter”, by famed Theatermania critic, Peter Filichia. She has been twice nominated by the Star Ledger, for Best Actress in a Musical, for her performance as Rita LaPorta in Lucky Stiff and again for the Vagina Monologues. In Los Angeles, Karin was nominated for Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best Actress in a Musical in The Kid from Brooklyn. Karin Leone attended Shenandoah Conservatory and now works for The Lyric Theatre.
As our host for the evening, we welcome the incomparable Knight Kiplinger, who will read the narrator, as well as playing Arvide Abernathy, Sarah’s wise grandfather, who encourages her to find her true love in “More I Cannot Wish You.” Mr. Kiplinger is best known as editor in chief of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, Kiplinger.com and the Kiplinger Letter, America’s leading business-forecasting publication. Knight has covered business, economic and political trends for nearly three decades, as a newspaper reporter, Washington bureau chief and editor. He is the author of several books, most recently World Boom Ahead, and is a frequent guest on major television and radio programs. What you may not know is that he is also a baritone in The Washington Chorus, an acclaimed symphonic ensemble. He has performed under the batons of such renowned conductors as Mstislav Rostropovich, Seiji Ozawa, and Marin Alsop, at venues ranging from the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall to the great cathedrals of Europe, as well as singing on the Grammy winning “Best Classical Recording” of 2000.
Television personality, Greg Rice joins the cast as Big Jule, a big time craps player from Chicago who uses a gun and doesn’t like to lose! Greg and his twin brother John rose to fame with an appearance on The Merv Griffin Show and secured their place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's “Shortest Living Twins”. The Rice brothers are household names in Palm Beach County, where they prospered in real estate, ran a motivational company and attained celebrity as the improbable television pitchmen for a local pest control company. Greg Rice became Hulett's marketing director, while John wrote the commercials. Both starred in the ads, which featured them as wacky send-ups of various household insects. The Rice brothers also appeared on ''Real People," the ''Maury Povich Show," ''That Quiz Show," and in 13 episodes of ''Foul Play," a sitcom that featured them as landlords.
Onstage with our spectacular cast is The Craig Turley Orchestra, conducted by Music Director, Emily Croome. For more than two decades, The Craig Turley Orchestra has accompanied prominent artists and entertainers including Bernadette Peters, Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Mathis and Mannheim Steamroller. Mr. Turley and a 14 piece orchestra will share the stage with the actors, bringing out every cheeky nuance of Frank Loesser’s irreplaceable score. Hit songs include: “Luck be a Lady”, “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat”, “If I Were a Bell”, “Take Back Your Mink” and many more.
Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ enduring book, based on a super-vivid story and characters of Damon Runyon, will be abridged in this concert version of the musical, with the focus being on the music. Guys and Dolls in Concert is directed by Jared Walker and choreographed by Elizabeth Casalini.
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