Go down to the video store and rent the 1950s movie version of “Guys and Dolls” starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra. It isn’t a perfect version – there were some very minor changes to the story and some larger changes to the score – but it’s pretty darned good and will clarify the story for you completely.
How does Sky convince Sarah to go to Havana with him? He promises to bring in enough “bonafide sinners” to fill her prayer meeting and save her mission (which is in danger of being closed because of the lack of clients) in exchange for her company to Havana. In Havana, she gets a little tipsy and they fall in love.
How does Nathan get the money for his game? Does Sky lose the bet and have to pay him? Nathan doesn’t need the money as it turns out – while Sky and Sarah are in Havana, Nathan breaks into the mission and holds his craps game there. Later, Sky does pay off the bet, claiming that he didn’t win it (take Sarah to Havana) at all.
Why does Nathan so quickly fall in love with Adelaide after ignoring her for 14 years (preceeding the song Guys & Dolls)? He’s been in love with her all along – they were engaged for 14 years – he just didn’t want to get married. He doesn’t want to lose her, and when she finally puts her foot down, he – reluctantly – marries her at the end.
Why do Nathan & Nicely Nicely Johnson wind up at a prayer meeting (the song Sit Down You’re Rockin the Boat)? Sky tracks everybody down at the second craps game – the one at the mission on the night Sky and Sarah went to Havana had been broken up by the police – and bets them all $1000 against their presence at the prayer meeting on one roll of the dice.
Sky rolls for $100,000 at some point during the craps game (the song Luck Be a Lady Tonight). Before the song, he says “I’ve got a little more than dough riding on this bet.” What does THAT mean? And how does his roll turn out? Does he win? See above. He has both his honor as a gambler and her love riding on the roll. Remember, he had promised Sarah the sinners in exchange for her company to Havana. And, she was mad at him, thinking he had known that Nathan planned to use the mission for the craps game and that Sky had taken her to Havana to get her out of the way.
The photo on the last page of my CD notes shows Sky in what looks like a bus driver’s uniform. Does he give up gambling for Sarah and get a straight job? In the play, Sky (and Nicely-Nicely, who undergoes a conversion experience during “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat”) appear in Salvation Army uniforms (which look a little like bus uniforms, I guess) in the final scene, and Nathan appears in an apron – looking as if he owns or works in a store. So, yes, in the play they both seem to have gone straight after marriage. This isn’t so obvious in the movie, BTW – the wedding is the final movie scene and both Sky and Nathan are wearing their regular gambler suits (although Nicely-Nicely is wearing a Salvation Army uniform and playing in the band). Both Nathan and Sky are delivered to the wedding, BTW, in a paddy wagon by Sergeant Brannigan, who gives Adalaide away. Nathan tries to make a break for it, but Sky grabs him and hauls him up to Adalaide to do his duty.
God, I love this play! I’ve seen it at least a dozen times. Twice in touring Broadway versions (in San Diego and in Boston), once in London (with a wonderful tap-dancing Sky), and in various dinner theatres, high school productions, and community theatre productions. I’ve never seen a bad version – they were all fun. The best Nicely-Nicely I ever saw was in a community-theatre version in Newport, RI.
