"Sheep's Eyes and the Lickerish Tooth?"

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

I just got cast in "Guys and Dolls" as Arvide (well, in our show, they changed it to Arvetta, because it's a girl), and I was teaching myself my song, "More I Cannot Wish You."

Well, one part of the song goes,

"Standing there, gazing at you
With the sheep's eyes and the lickerish tooth."

I've never heard such a weird lyric before. What does it even mean? Is 'lickerish' even a word at all, or some weird misspelling of 'liquorice?' And why would someone have liquorice teeth? Can anyone explain this, especially someone who's done the show before.

[Juliash]

Its licorice tooth, like a sweet tooth and then sheep's eyes is like wide eyed and youthful. In my score it says licorice. Lickerish is probably just antiquated...

basically he/she is saying that they've known sarah for a long time...

...does that help? :)

[Jon]

Google is your friend.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

*Eyebrow raise* You resurrected the thread just to tell me this?

Haha, anyway, I searched the phrase on google, and the only result I got was this thread. My libretto spells the word 'lickerish' rather than 'liquorice,' which I guess is okay, because neither one makes much sense.

[Paul W. Thompson]

If Loesser spelled it that way, he must have wanted to be sure it was pronounced that way.

But yes, that is a very odd and obtuse lyric. Not one of his best. I would treat is as if the two of you knows what it means, like it's an inside joke or a reference to an earlier conversation. What else can you do, hand her some licorice and make baaing sounds?

[stagedoor09]

OH MY GODDDD!!! I was just Arvide at Stagedoor Manor!! It was a blast!! Go You for getting such a fun part. Anyway, I had the same question about those lyrics and my director provided the same definitions as the poster above and I also noticed they're examples of innocence, in a way. Idk, but its open for interpretation!

[thetheatrekook]

I always assumed it was part of the description of the guy Arvide would wish on Sarah - standing there, gazing at you, with a longing gaze (sheep's eye), and a sweet smile (licorice tooth), and strong arms (and a strong arm? i don't remember the exact lyric) to carry you away...

[Speed]

My husband is auditioning for the role next week. I can't believe no one checked the dictionary. Here is the definition of lickerish:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lickerish?s=t

[Sutton Ross]