Rockin' the Boat with the CM Players—by Michael Flaherty '08

I thought last night's play, "Guys and Dolls," was awesome. I went with the lacrosse team to support our lacrosse teammate Christ Stathopoulos who was in the show. The play started off on a high note with Brother Phelps's joke about the history of cell phones. The first musical number by the Madden brothers (Graham '08 and Ethan '11) started the actual play off with the right kind of chemistry. The Maddens' voices were remarkable, accompanied by another accomplished singer, Sam McGee '10.

Guys and Dolls is about a mid-20th century New York City gambling circuit and the people who are directly affected by the "sinners." The main characters Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson, played by Pat Simas '10 and Dan Masterson '08 respectively, make fairly odd bets to get a game of craps off the ground. In the middle of the first act and near the end of the second, they sing the title song "Guys and Dolls" to explain that every guy needs a girl who will always be behind him. In Nathan's case, it's Adelaide, and in Sky's case, Sarah Brown. For these roles, director Craig Spaner recruited professional actresses Johanna Parri and Diana Doyle. Doyle's falsetto was almost unearthly in its glass-piercing tone but the sound was euphonious.

There was a wide variety of classes represented onstage, from freshmen Madden, Kevin Beazley, Cuinn Hanscom, Matty Kim, and Chris Stathopoulos to sophomores McGee, Simas, Connor Lynch, and Alex Lee to juniors Greg Sabina to seniors Madden, Masterson, Brian Hickox, Giddens Rateau, and Dan Ruggles. Other faculty guest stars included Mr. Ryan as Lieutenant Branigan, Mrs. Eberly as General Cartright, and Mr. Spaner as Big Jule. In the pit were professional musicians Mario Cruz and Peter Evans, joined by Andrew Fanikos '10, Sung-Eun Park '10, and John Clinton '08. Mr. Murray was also in the pit on trombone.

In the audience with me were Dan Conlin '08 and Joe Murphy '08. Both of them were flabbergasted by the talent of their peers onstage. Dan's favorite character was the "Big Jule" played by music teacher Mr. Spaner. "I just liked his stupidity!" Conlin said. Joe's favorite performance was Graham Madden's. "I'm biased towards Graham because he's one of my good friends," Joe joked. A lot of the students in the crowd also liked Johanna Parri's staged Brooklyn accent.

Aside from a little disruption in the audio and microphones during the show, overall, the entire CM community in attendance raved about the performance.