Review: GUYS & DOLLS at Stages St. Louis is a Sure Bet

For a musical theater lover there is nothing more satisfying a well produced classic musical. You settle in your seat, the lights go down, and you hear the familiar strains of the goosebump inducing overture. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen the show; it is always a transformative experience. The unforgettable score sticks with you and you find yourself singing the iconic music for days.

Frank Loesser’s Guys & Dolls is one of those enduring classics. It is widely regarded as one of the best music comedies ever written. Rolling Stone, TheaterMania.com, and What’sonStage.com, call Guys & Dolls indispensable. It is consistently ranked in the Top 20 on many of the lists touting the best musicals of all time.

Stages St. Louis just opened a brand-new exceptional production of Guys & Dolls directed by Tony winner James Monroe Iglehart. Reflecting on last night’s press opening, it’s clear why Guys & Dolls ran for 1200 performances during its original run and has been revived on Broadway and in London’s West End eight times since 1950. It is just that good.

It is certainly easy to imagine that Iglehart went backstage following the performance and and said to his cast, “I have no notes.” The Stages opening night audience was treated to a perfect production of Guys & Dolls.

Here is a rundown of the many things that make Iglehart’s production infectious musical theater. Please excuse the insane number of superlatives that follow to describe this spectacular show.

Iglehart’s Guys & Dolls feels fresh and current. His staging doesn’t feel antiquated in any way, and he milks every laugh out of Jo Swerling and Abe Burrow’s book. The comedy in Guys & Dolls has held up remarkably well, but a lot of credit must go to Iglehart’s pacing and the comedic timing of the cast, especially Katerina Papacostas as Miss Adelaide.

Papacostas is a scene stealing star. She is a comedic genius with a gorgeous voice and vocals that soar. She does not play Adelaide as the ditzy blonde with the nasally cartoonish Brooklyn accent that you usually see from actors in this role. Instead, she relies on her sharp timing to land Adelaide’s jokes with effortless rhythm. Papacostas gets the biggest laughs of anyone in the production. Her Adelaide is a more modern, confident woman who is miffed that she is being strung along by the noncommittal Nathan Detroit.

Matthew Schatz makes a smarmy, charming, and handsome Nathan Detroit. He is a likable straight man to Adelaide’s heightened theatricality. Their “Sue Me” duet makes for delightful, stylized comedy.

Lindsay Roberts Greene’s lovely operatic soprano enhances her portrayal as innocent mission doll Sarah Brown. She plays hard to get when Sky Masterson comes calling but melts pretty easily after a few rum cocktails in a Havana bar. Greene is at her comedic best when cutting loose and dancing in the Cuban restaurant and dueting with Papacostas on “Marry the Man Today.”

Sam Harvey (Sky Masterson) shines when he’s turning on the charm to convince Sarah to fly to Cuba with him for dinner. It’s palpable attraction when he leans in and tells Sarah “chemistry” is how he will know a woman is right for him. His bright baritenor is on full display when he sings a memorable “Luck be a Lady.”

There were two show-stopping moments in Wednesday’s performance that were met with thunderous applause.

Tamar Greene brought down the house with his rousing performance of “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” as did the ensemble executing Lindsay Joy Lancaster’s fierce choreography in the “Crapshooters Ballet.”

Greene is the 2025 St. Louis Theater Circle award winner as lead actor in a musical for his performance as Coalhouse Walker, Jr. in Ragtime at Stages St. Louis. He is the longest running George Washington in Hamilton on Broadway. Greene is a bona fide musical theater star.

His turn as Nicely-Nicely Johnson in this production is sheer magnificence. The man is a comedic force. Audiences will long remember Greene’s take on Nicely-Nicely Johnson. His work will become one of the unforgettable legendary St. Louis theater performances.

This is the second show Lancaster has choreographed for Stages St. Louis. She was a 2025 St Louis Theater Circle Award nominee for her work on Stages’ production of Disney’s Newsies.

She put the audience on notice early that they were in for an unforgettable night of dance. Her pulsing salsa inspired “Havana” was a kinetic and comedic tease for what was to come. The Crapshooters Ballet was high-octane kinetic art. Lancaster’s take on classic choreography blended with her expressive individuality wows. She’s proven for a second time at Stages that she is an artist who can choreograph full-scale big musicals.

Several local actors in the cast turned in some fine comedic performances too. Cara Palombo’s (Agatha) reactions and mugging were hilarious. Steve Isom (Lt. Brannigan) was always one step behind the shooters in his failed attempts to stop the traveling craps game. Stages regulars Patrick Blindauer, John Flack, and Pamela Reckamp all turned in memorable performances. Zoe Vonder Haar loomed large throwing her blank dice as the cutthroat crapshooter Big Jule.

Every aspect of this production was enhanced by the work of a skilled design team. Spontaneous applause greeted Ann Beyersdorfer’s opening scenic design. As is always the case, her functional set pieces boost the storytelling opportunities for the director and create collaborative opportunities for lighting designer Sean M. Savoie. Their combined work gave Iglehart an ideal, well-lit palette for narrative construction.

Tim Kent’s theatrically extravagant costume designs were bold, flashy, and wonderfully flamboyant. Miss Adelaide and The Hot Box Girls were appropriately gaudy and campy. Kent’s costumes for “Take Back Your Mink” were perfectly ostentatious and playful. Nathan Detroit’s navy suit with red windowpane plaid, his red fedora, and matching two tone wingtips were befitting the proprietor of an illegal craps game. He and the other gamblers looked like high rollers with the “sharp lapels of their checkered coats.”

Music Director Delores Duran-Cefalu led the 12-piece band supporting the casts outstanding vocal performance. Breanna Fais expert sound design carried every syllable, spoken and sung, to the back of the house. Credit stage managers E. Sara Barnes and Gus Kickham for calling a perfect show and not missing cue.

Often theater educators opine that young aspiring artists wince and cringe when classic works are suggested by their teachers. They’ll say “the kids just don’t want to do the old shows.” Stages Guys & Dolls is an ideal opportunity to expose young aspiring thespians to a wonderful production of one of the best musicals ever written.

Stages success with Guys & Dolls is proof that medium and small-size companies can, and should, include classic musicals in their seasons. You simply cannot miss when you have the right talent and are staging one of the best stories and scores that musical theater has to offer.

Director James Monroe Iglehart and the entire company have built a show that is musical theater perfection. This production of Guys & Dolls could not be better. Just ask Sarah Brown at the Save-a-Soul Mission, it would be a sin to miss this heavenly production of Guys & Dolls.

Stages St. Louis production of Guys & Dolls continues at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center through August 23, 2026. Visit stagesstlouis.org for tickets and more information.

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