Off the Wall’s Rocking ‘Guys and Dolls’

Bright, simple colors reach out into the audience, an elevated walkway splits the front few rows to create a kind of thrust/proscenium hybrid, and simple iconography turns the intimate Off the Wall Theatre into an idealized musical-theater version of mid-20th-century New York for the production of Guys and Dolls.

The classic Broadway musical has a patchwork feel to it; many of the best songs fail to illustrate anything particularly central to the story. Off the Wall does a nice job of bringing the musical together, though the music still outshines the story. The charismatic Karl Miller brings sympathy to the role of Nathan Detroit. He’s cleverly mismatched against Kristin Pagenkopf as Detroit’s fiancée, Miss Adelaide. A more traditional romantic connection takes place between Parker Cristan’s Sky Masterson and Sharon Rise’s Sarah Brown. Musical director Matt Zembrowski sits behind a piano in the role of Nicely Nicely Johnson.

Director Dale Gutzman brings the show’s choreography into the audience via the elevated walkway, though it tends to look a bit awkward. The production’s best musical number by far is a high-energy staging of “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat,” led by Zembrowski as Nicely Nicely at the piano. Despite having to work in a very tight space, the rhythmic grace of a talented cast comes together quite brilliantly in “Sit Down.” A very precise Dane Bauman, in the role of Hyper Howie, serves as the focal point among the rhythmic mass of energy moving about the stage.

Off the Wall’s production of Guys and Dolls runs through Dec. 31. Call 414-327-3552 for tickets.