Also joining in will be soap star Susan Lucci, NYPD tenor Daniel Rodriguez, Loni Ackerman (Evita), Sal Mistretta (Sunset Boulevard) and the Chancel Choir of the Abyssinian Baptist Church for the concert staging of the musical, benefiting the Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center at Weill Cornell Medical Center/ New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Cyma Rubin produces.
Proceeds from the benefit — to take place at the Imperial Ballroom at the Sheraton New York — will help the Center provide critical health services to New Yorkers in a modern, patient-centered environment.
Lisa Shriver directs and choreographs the show with musical director Joseph Baker. Cocktails will be served at 6:30 PM, dinner at 7:30 PM and the show begins at 9 PM. For tickets ($1,000-$5,000) to An Evening of Music from Guys and Dolls at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, 811 Seventh Avenue (at 52nd Street), call (212) 813-3864.
Set in New York's Broadway of long ago, Guys and Dolls features a score by Frank Loesser and a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows based on Damon Runyon's story and characters. The classic musical includes such memorable songs as "Luck Be a Lady," "I've Never Been in Love Before," "A Bushel and a Peck,""I'll Know" and the showstopper "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat."
The original Broadway production of Guys and Dolls opened at the 46th Street Theatre in Nov. 1950, running 1,200 performances before closing Nov. 28, 1953. Among the premiere cast were Robert Alda, Isabel Bigley, Sam Levene and Vivian Blaine — who reprised her role in the 1955 film starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra. The 1992 Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of the musical, directed by Jerry Zaks, starred Peter Gallagher, Josie de Guzman, Nathan Lane and Faith Prince, who won a Tony for her performance.