Guys And Dolls

You'd think that a pedigreed reinvention of "Guys and Dolls," such as the one that came to the Orange County Performing Arts Center last night, couldn't possibly miss--and you'd be partially right. Director Jerry Zaks' much-awarded creation first splashed its Day-Glo colors all over Broadway in April, 1992.

Beau Bridges will receive a lifetime achievement award from Theatre West at its 50th anniversary gala celebration this week in Hollywood. Bridges will receive the inaugural Betty Garrett Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday at the Taglyan Cultural Complex. The actor is expected to receive  tributes from his "Norma Rae" costar Sally Field and from TV producer Norman Lear. The award is named after the late actress who helped to found the theater company. Bridges appeared in a number of Theatre West productions, including 2010's "Acting -- The First Six Lessons," in which he costarred alongside his daughter, Emily.

Deese guys in Buena Park Civic Theatre's revival of "Guys and Dolls" wouldn't fool nobody, no time, nowhere. Bookies and bums dey ain't. And despite their spirited efforts, this version of "Guys and Dolls" stubbornly remains rooted in Buena Park rather than in 1950s New York.

Seeking to boost its relatively healthy business for classic movies on DVD, Warner Bros. has signed a multiyear deal to release 73 classic films produced by industry legend Samuel Goldwyn. Among the titles Warner is licensing from the producer's son Samuel Goldwyn Jr. are best picture Academy Award winner "The Best Years of Our Lives," the Lou Gehrig biopic "The Pride of the Yankees" with Gary Cooper, the musical "Guys and Dolls" with Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, and Danny Kaye's "Hans Christian Andersen.

Jean Simmons, a radiant British actress who as a teenager appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in "Hamlet" and emerged a star whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s in such films as "Guys and Dolls, "Elmer Gantry" and "Spartacus," has died. She was 80. Simmons, who won an Emmy Award for her role in the 1980s miniseries "The Thorn Birds," died Friday evening at her home in Santa Monica, said Judy Page, her agent. She had lung cancer. "Jean Simmons' jaw-dropping beauty often obscured a formidable acting talent," Alan K. Rode, a writer and film historian, told The Times in an e-mail.

About 150 guys and dolls turned up for a cast party to celebrate the opening of "Guys and Dolls," the Tony Award-winning revival of the Broadway musical, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. The post-performance gala, staged by the center's board of directors and underwritten by John and Donna Crean, was held Tuesday at Randell's jazz club in Santa Ana.

NOTHING could have kept William Shatner away from the 15th annual Night at Sardi's Benefit for the Alzheimer' Assn. Shatner presented an award to Wells Fargo exec Shelley Freeman. "When I was asked to present, I said, 'Wild horses could not keep me away. Domestic horses, burros, donkeys, zebras could not keep me away!' " But Shatner didn't join 6. Dick Van Dyke, 7. Eric McCormack, 8.

"Broadway lived within an exuberant whirl of energy," writes Jerome Charyn, chronicling the real-life figures of Manhattan's Jazz Age myth, "a signage that lit the night, and a social order that included apartment hotels and rooming houses, delicatessens and vaudeville palaces, nightclubs and cabarets, where one might meet struggling chorines, retired actresses coughing their lungs out in a room that faced a wall, Jack Johnson shadowboxing in some...

Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen's obscenity-laced blowup Sunday was nothing compared with the blowup some of his team members performed that day. The Chicago Sun Times reported that Major League Baseball is investigating the appropriateness of a locker room stunt in which White Sox players placed unclothed inflatable female dolls on couches and surrounded them with "strategically placed" bats in an effort to break a slump that has the team...

It's no coincidence that the two most accomplished productions in the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera's history--"42nd Street" and "Singin' in the Rain"--were the work of director/choreographer Jon Engstrom. Engstrom's flair for eye-popping production numbers set new quality standards for the civic light opera's shows. And true to form, Engstrom's gift for coaxing professional-caliber dancing out of amateur ensembles catapults "Guys and Dolls" to dazzling heights of showmanship.

Jean Simmons, a radiant British actress who as a teenager appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in "Hamlet" and emerged a star whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s in such films as "Guys and Dolls, "Elmer Gantry" and "Spartacus," has died. She was 80. Simmons, who won an Emmy Award for her role in the 1980s miniseries "The Thorn Birds," died Friday evening at her home in Santa Monica, said Judy Page, her agent. She had lung cancer. "Jean Simmons' jaw-dropping beauty often obscured a formidable acting talent," Alan K. Rode, a writer and film historian, told The Times in an e-mail.

If a Hollywood genie ever offers to cast your movie musical with an international assortment of Oscar winners, tell him to get lost. The wisdom of this advice is borne out by "Nine," the jumble of a film of Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston's Tony-winning musical. Directed by Rob Marshall and starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the creatively stymied, unstoppably adulterous Italian auteur Guido Contini, the movie is certainly fascinating to watch from an acting standpoint. With an all-star lineup of Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Judi Dench and Sophia Loren -- a Golden Globes table to die for -- how could it be otherwise?

"Guys and Dolls": A review of the "Guys and Dolls" performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Monday's Calendar omitted the first name of the musical's composer, Frank Loesser.

For the young Jessica Biel, taking voice lessons was like trying on her mother's high heels. One day Jessica's mother needed to go to a voice lesson, but couldn't get a baby-sitter. So she took 8-year-old Jessica along. Jessica wanted a crack at it too, so her mother gave her the appointment. And so Biel's love of singing was born.

It's sometimes difficult to gauge what winning a Tony Award means, but the impact of not winning one can be very clear: Two Broadway productions that were blanked at Sunday night's ceremony have announced they are closing. Producer Howard Panter said Tuesday that the Broadway revival of "Guys and Dolls," starring Oliver Platt and Lauren Graham, would fold Sunday after a run of 113 performances. The producers of "reasons to be pretty" said Monday the play would close at the end of the week.

Broadway bound: Lauren Graham, who played Lorelai Gilmore in the TV series "Gilmore Girls," will star as Miss Adelaide in the Broadway revival of "Guys and Dolls" that is set to begin previews in New York Feb. 3. Oliver Platt was previously announced in the role of Nathan Detroit.

Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen's obscenity-laced blowup Sunday was nothing compared with the blowup some of his team members performed that day. The Chicago Sun Times reported that Major League Baseball is investigating the appropriateness of a locker room stunt in which White Sox players placed unclothed inflatable female dolls on couches and surrounded them with "strategically placed" bats in an effort to break a slump that has the team...