ANOTHER ROLL OF THE DICE Extends At North Coast Rep

North Coast Repertory Theatre has extended through August 11th its highly successful World Premiere of ANOTHER ROLL OF THE DICE, a rollicking musical with book by Mark Saltzman, reuniting the talents of songwriter Frank Loesser and author Damon Runyon, creators of the legendary Guys and Dolls. In Dice, three classic Runyon stories are intertwined with hits from the Loesser songbook, including "Heart and Soul," "I Hear Music," "Two Sleepy People," and "Let's Get Lost," performed by iconic Damon Runyon gangland characters.

Audiences who may be familiar with Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide from "Guys and Dolls" are delighting in meeting some of their colleagues-in-crime from Runyonland: Joey Uptown, Baseball Hattie, Tobias the Terrible, nightclub song bird Georgia St George and the much-in-demand safecracker, Touch Feely.

Larry Sousa directs Lance Carter,* Sarah Errington,* Eliot Lazar, Jason Maddy,* Allison Spratt Pearce,* and Darrick Penny* in ANOTHER ROLL OF THE DICE. The design team includes Marty Burnett (Scenic Design), Matthew Novotny (Lighting), Aaron Rumley (Sound Design/Projections), Elisa Benzoni (Costumes), and Phillip Korth (Props). Cindy Rumley* is the stage manager. (*The actor or stage manager appears through the courtesy of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States).

ANOTHER ROLL OF THE DICE opened July 10th. There will be a special talkback on Friday, July 19, with the cast and artistic director. It will play Wednesdays at 7pm, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm with Sundays at 7pm and a Wednesday matinee on July 31 at 2pm. Extended through August 11, 2019 (See Schedule below).

North Coast Repertory Theatre is located at 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach, CA 92075. Tickets: Week Nights - $52; Sat. Eve. & Sun. Mat. $56; Sat. Mat. & Sun Night - $49. By popular demand, a Wednesday Matinee has been added on July 31 at 2pm - $52. Seniors, Students, Military & Educators - $3 off admission. There is also a $20 rush for tickets 15 minutes before performance if available. Call 858-481-1055, or visit www.northcoastrep.org to purchase tickets.

ANOTHER ROLL OF THE DICE, a new musical conceived by Mark Saltzman, is based on the stories of Damon Runyon and the songs of Frank Loesser, who penned some of the best-loved songs in the American Songbook. The show takes audiences back to the colorful locale of "Runyonland" first introduced onstage in Loesser's legendary Broadway musical Guys and Dolls.

Runyon was best known for his short stories which celebrated the fast-moving, glitzy, neon-lit paradise of 1930s New York City - jammed with gangsters, gamblers and showgirls; the actual "Guys and Dolls" of Broadway lore. In ANOTHER ROLL OF THE DICE, Mark Saltzman introduces a new set of characters from Runyon's madcap world, illuminated by the iconic songs of Frank Loesser, who took Broadway by storm with his score for Guys and Dolls in 1950.

As a pre-teen, Saltzman saw the film of Guys and Dolls on TV and the household had the cast album. He figured from "based on a story and characters by Damon Runyon" that there must be other stories, and yes, they were on the shelf of the Yonkers Public Library. Runyonland was an entire world - a bit like the social circle of Mark's Bronx-raised parents, whose friends included "The Hawk," an ex-prize-fighter, an unemployable violinist called, with withering NY irony, "Mendelssohn;" three freckled possibly bootlegging McKinney Sisters, and "Uncle" Simmy, a subway conductor who ran a bookie business for his regular riders.

Here was a fictional world he recognized in the likes of Runyon's Hot Horse Herbie, Izzy Cheesecake, Madame la Gimp and Baseball Hattie. Saltzman said, "Imagine the shiver, deep into my writer's soul, when I was introduced to a representative of the Runyon estate and I learned that many of these stories I loved were available for adaptation."

"Could there be a musical? Sure, but what songwriter could ever equal Frank Loesser's perfect pairing with the Runyon spirit in Guys and Dolls? Wait. What about ... Frank Loesser? There are so many of his song hits that never appeared in a book musical. The Loesser family was agreeable, and the result is, what I see as a companion piece, an accomplice to Guys and Dolls; the wedge of cheesecake after a hearty deli meal (at Mindy's, of course)."

Eventually Saltzman auditioned the show and had it blessed by Jo Sullivan Loesser, Frank Loesser's widow, who passed away April 29, 2019; she had met Loesser during the production of The Most Happy Fella, in which she starred.

Saltzman co-wrote the off-Broadway A, My Name is Alice, collaborated with Jerry Herman on the television musical Mrs. Santa Claus starring Angela Lansbury, and has written the musicals The Tin Pan Alley Rag, Romeo and Bernadette, and Falling for Make Believe, and the play Mr. Shaw Goes to Hollywood - that have received regional theatre productions. But his most enduring writing was during the eighties and nineties for Sesame Street including the characters Bert and Ernie (basing some sketches on himself and his late partner Arnold Glassman), Snufflupagus, the Sublime Miss M, and the song "Caribbean Amphibian," earning him seven Emmy Awards.

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