“Guys and Dolls” showcased the incredible acting, singing and musical abilities of the New Trier performing arts students and felt like nothing short of a professional production.

The musical was based on the story and characters created by Damon Runyon with  music and lyrics by Frank Loesser.

The curtain opens to Nathan Detroit (Lucas Kane/Jacob Shaw) who’s desperately searching for a place to host his crapshoot game.

While Detroit eventually finds someone willing to rent out their garage to house the game, he’s unable to pay the $1,000 needed to secure the space.

To get the needed money, Detroit takes on the ultimate task: outsmarting Sky Masterson (Andrew Phillips/Alvie Smith).

Detroit bets Masterson $1,000 that Masterson cannot win the affections of Sarah Brown (Lily Piekos/Maliha Sayed) and get her to agree to go to Havana, Cuba with him.  Detroit is sure he’ll get his needed money by the end of the next day.

Masterson accepts the challenge, saying that he can easily win the heart of any doll.  He’s unaware that Brown is a very religious woman with no intention of falling for a gambler.

While Detroit is waiting for his “easy” winnings to role in, he’s struggling with his own love life.  Engaged to his fiancée Miss Adelaide (Emma Fitzgerald/Georgia Cienkus) for fourteen years, he’s desperately trying to put off their marriage for even longer.  Adelaide, on the other hand, is determined to elope with her fiancée, despite his obvious apprehension.

Tensions rise when Adelaide discovers Detroit is still organizing crapshoot games after promising her that he had changed.

As Adelaide is trying to tie the knot with Detroit and Masterson is busy trying to win the affections of Brown, Brown is struggling with her own problems.

Despite devoting her whole life to Save-A-Soul Mission, she fears her efforts are doing no good and begins questioning herself.

To make matters worse, General Cartwright (Donna Kang/Catherine Dohrer), Brown’s supervisor, stops into town for a visit and demands to see the good work that the Mission is doing.  If she isn’t pleased, Cartwright threatens to close down the Mission altogether.

As the musical goes on, all of the characters’ separate lives and problems converge, despite all of them having seemed to be opposites at the beginning of the show.

Going into “Guys and Dolls”, I was a little nervous.

I was convinced by a friend to attend, and wasn’t sure if I would understand the storyline, seeing as I had never even heard of the musical until a few weeks earlier.

I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.  From the very first scene, I was captivated by the music, costumes and intricate set, all of which made their debut during “Runyonland.”

During this instrumental number, a whole host of characters moved across the stage, talking, bumping into one another, and really creating the hustle-and-bustle vibe of a real city street.

An added bonus was that I got to see my classmates in a completely different element.  I was shocked by the talent that I saw.

Maliha Sayed, who played Brown in the Friday/Sunday cast, continued to shock me with her incredible voice throughout the show.

She hit intensely high notes and made it look like she was doing so with ease.  Just watching her sing made me feel as if I was going to lose my own voice.

Furthermore, throughout the entire show, I couldn’t help but appreciate the different sets that were used.

Each one looked like a set taken straight off of a Broadway stage and I could tell how much time and effort it must have taken to make them.

My favorite set, which made many reappearances throughout the show, would have to be the “Broadway” set.

It consisted of brightly colored buildings with realistic signs and lights.

Every detail was thought of to make the whole stage look like a real city street.  Just looking at it, I felt transported.

Overall, I have nothing but good things to say about “Guys and Dolls” and am still in awe of the talent that I saw throughout the musical.