Guys and Dolls

This article is about the musical. For other uses, see Guys and Dolls (disambiguation).
Guys and Dolls
Original 1950 Broadway cast recording
MusicFrank Loesser
LyricsFrank Loesser
BookJo Swerling
Abe Burrows
Basis"The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown"
by Damon Runyon
"Blood Pressure"
by Damon Runyon[1]
Productions1950 Broadway
1953 West End
1976 Broadway revival
1982 London revival
1992 Broadway revival
2005 West End revival
2009 Broadway revival
2015 West End revival
2023 London revival
AwardsTony Award for Best Musical
Tony Award for Best Book
(1982) Olivier for Outstanding Musical
Tony Award for Best Revival
Drama Desk Outstanding Revival
(2005) Olivier for Outstanding Musical

Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon,[1][2] and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, such as "Pick the Winner".[3]

The show premiered on Broadway on November 24, 1950,[4] where it ran for 1,200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical has had several Broadway and London revivals, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, and Vivian Blaine, who reprised her role of Adelaide from Broadway.

Guys and Dolls is considered one of the greatest Broadway musicals. In 1998,[5] Vivian Blaine, Sam Levene, Robert Alda and Isabel Bigley, along with the original Broadway cast of the 1950 Decca cast album, were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

  1. ^ a b Nadel, Ira Bruce. Double act: a life of Tom Stoppard. Methuen, 2002. p. 542.
  2. ^ "Damon Runyon". Authors. The eBooks-Library. Retrieved 2008-07-20.
  3. ^ Stempel, 435
  4. ^ "Guys and Dolls (Playbill)". Playbill.
  5. ^ "GRAMMY Hall Of Fame". GRAMMY.com. 2010-10-18. Retrieved 2019-10-31.