A cast of 46 actors and actresses from Sun City, Texas will be performing “Guys and Dolls” starting March 16th!
“Guys and Dolls has been called the almost perfect musical,” Jan Noyes, Director of the Sun City production of Guys and Dolls, told Hello Georgetown. “It is funny. It is very cleverly written. There are songs in there that people, at least people of my age, but I think even other ages, will find quite familiar and be surprised they even know them because they’ve been covered by artists for years.”
The production has been a long time coming, Noyes said, and is the first large scale Broadway musical Sun City has ever done. Originally scheduled for May 2020, the show was postponed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States. Now, almost two years later, the show is back on track.
“Here we are still making it happen,” Noyes said. “The wonderful thing is that we have most of the people who first auditioned still in the cast, and then we were able to even add some new people that had moved in since then, so that’s been fun; and some of the ones who dropped because of illness, there was enough time that went by that they were able to get properly diagnosed and treated and they’re back with us. So it’s been kind of an interesting thing, really inspiring to work with older people, because [we] just keep going.”
Cast members range from their early 60’s to the oldest actor in the production who is 93, and Noyes said for many of those involved in the musical, this will be their first time on stage.
“It’s the first time for many of them, some of them have never been on stage before, and they’re having a blast,” Noyes said, ” [One] said, “I haven’t been in anything since 1957,’ and he said, ‘When I was in my high school show in 1957, it was just so I could get out of class and go to rehearsals.'”
The musical is sure to be a treat for audiences, Noyes added, and the cast is looking forward to bringing a smile to the faces of every attendee.
“It’s really been a united effort to try to make this happen,” Noyes said. “Some of the dancers have been practicing for two and three years, if you go back to when they first started learning the dances, and so it’s really a great, fun, community effort. I guess a lot of us feel like we’re kind of doing community service this way. It’s voluntary, and it just brings a lot of happiness to the people who sit [in the audience], and the people who are in it. It’s a great morale booster.”
Even though the show will be performed by Sun City residents, Noyes emphasized attendees of all ages are welcome to come.
“It should be really fun,” Noyes said. “It’s worth it just for the dances and the costumes, but it is kind of fun to see old people doing this, I have to say.”
Guys and Dolls will show eight times starting March 16th through the 24th at the Sun City Ballroom located at 2 Texas Drive. Tickets are $15.00 each and available online by clicking here.
You can read bios for Director Jan Noyes, Choreographer Judy Thompson Price, and Music Director and Arranger Neal Gibson below (click to expand):
Jan Noyes, Director is a veteran of professional, semi-professional, and community theater. She has starred in summer stock in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and at Robert Redford’s Sundance Theater. She performed in entertainment tours to VietNam, Thailand, the Northeast Command, and across the United States and Canada. Jan has appeared in film, television, commercials, print, voice-overs, and audio dramatizations. She, with her husband, David, are former members of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. Favorite roles include “Golda” in Fiddler on the Roof”, “Mrs. Paroo” in The Music Man, “The Mother Abbess” in The Sound of Music, and “the Mother” (Mrs. Ethel Banks) in Barefoot In the Park. She also inaugurated the role of “Elisabeth” in the professional production Savior of the World. Her last role before moving to Sun City was the “General” in Guys and Dolls for the Brussels Civic Light Opera Company. In Sun City. she has been a featured soloist and narrator for The Sun City Singers. Jan also wrote and directed the 2017 Follies, European Escapade, appeared as “Lettice” in Lettice and Lovage, and “Maria” in Lend Me a Tenor for the Sun City Actors and Theatre Arts Guild.
Judy Thompson Price, Choreographer has been dancing for 70 years! She has choreographed 23 musicals at the Zilker Summer Musical Theater and countless musicals and performances at Southwestern University. Judy has choreographed for two Follies and has taught numerous dance classes at Sun City. She is a choreographer for the Georgetown Palace Theater and will be choreographing their upcoming production of Something Rotten. Judy is a gifted teacher and dancer. She has performed at The Hemisphere, Six Flags Over Texas and was a featured dancer with the Austin Ballet Theater.
Neal Gibson, Music Director and Arranger has been performing in the Austin area for almost 40 years and has been honored with numerous B. Iden Payne awards and nominations as an actor, music director, and choreographer. He won awards for Is There Life After High School and Godspell (Featured Actor) Hair and Simply Sondheim: The Musical Story (Music Director), The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, (Featured Comedy Actor). Neal has also been featured in several Georgetown Palace Theater Productions including Anything Goes, The Addams Family and Sister Act. He will next appear at The Palace in a starring role in Something Rotten and has been selected as the Music Director for their upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz.
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