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On this day in New York · November 24, 1950

Guys and Dolls Opens on Broadway

A show built out of Damon Runyon's crapshooters and mission dolls opened on 46th Street and turned out to be one of the best musicals New York ever produced.

Guys and Dolls Opens on Broadway
Wikimedia Commons / Frank Loesser

The facts

Opening night
November 24, 1950
Theatre
46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers Theatre)
Original run
1,200 performances
Tony Awards
Won 5 in 1951, including Best Musical

Guys and Dolls opened at the 46th Street Theatre on November 24, 1950, with a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows and songs by Frank Loesser, directed by George S. Kaufman and choreographed by Michael Kidd. The story, drawn from Damon Runyon's tales of Times Square gamblers and the Salvation Army-style mission dolls who try to save them, starred Robert Alda as Sky Masterson, Sam Levene as Nathan Detroit, Isabel Bigley as Sarah Brown and Vivian Blaine as Miss Adelaide. Critics recognized immediately that something unusual had landed on Broadway, a musical comedy with real wit and real music instead of the usual formula. It ran 1,200 performances and swept the 1951 Tony Awards, taking home five including Best Musical.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. we might as well admit that Guys and Dolls is a work of art. It is spontaneous and has form, style, and spirit.

    Brooks Atkinson, reviewing the original production for The New York Times, 1950

    Source: Wikipedia

Why it still matters

Guys and Dolls became the template for the modern American musical comedy, proving a show could be funny and tightly built and still make Times Square gamblers sing like they meant it. It's been revived on Broadway four times since, and the neighborhood it romanticized is still the one every visitor thinks they know.

Sources

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