The plot revolves around two couples including the unlikely pairing of straight-laced Save-A-Soul Sergeant Sarah Brown and sky-high gambler Sky Masterson. Tayler Mettra is Sarah whose stiffness and notable lack of interest in the confessing gambler Sky Masterson provides a stark contrast to her amusing transformation once she’s had a couple glasses of Bacardi-flavored milk in If I Were a Bell. She’s also got a beautiful voice. As Sky, Justin Whitaker also has a good singing voice making for some great duets – especially the ballad I’ve Never Been in Love Before. He also uses his voice to imitate his father giving him advice – a voice that sounds a lot like Marlon Brando in a humorous nod to the film version of the show.

And then there’s the other couple, the hilarious pairing of floating crap game organizer Nathan Detroit and his fiancé of fourteen years, lead nightclub dancer Miss Adelaide. Robert Anderson is a thoroughly likeable Nathan – an average, imperfect Joe who likes his role of running the game (he leads a teary-eyed sentimental tribute to the “oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York”), loves Adelaide, and just can’t seem to be completely successful in either endeavor. Nina Herzog is a dynamite Adelaide with tons of personality and originality. She mouths the words to the silly love poem she wrote as Nathan reads it, turns in a hilarious solo lamenting her psychosomatic cold from being forever a fiancé and never a bride, and is so genuinely sad over her final breakup with Nathan in the Sue Me scene that for the first time it actually choked me up a bit. A triple threat, she also nails the role dancing-wise and vocally whether she’s leading her flirty and talented Hot Box Girls (great, playful choreography by Gemma Hebson) or belting out her plot to Marry the Man Today and change him tomorrow with fellow gambler-lover Sarah Brown.

Supporting cast members are led by Nicely-Nicely Johnson and Good Time Charley, with Lamont O’Neal and Javier Lacayo combining for a lively title song duet and getting the show started by teaming up with Matthew Lindgren with some horse handicapping in Fugue for Tinhorns. Lamont O’Neal is a master of comedy and expressions, with eyes that speak volumes – one of those actors that makes you want to laugh every time he walks out onto the stage. And he leads the cast in an exuberant retelling of his dream in Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.

Performs November 1 - 4, 2007.

Rob Hopper
National Youth Theatre