'Guys & Dolls' proves need for art in schools

I should like to piggyback on a recent Daily Bee letter by reader Foster Cline lauding the varied big town cultural joys of small-town Sandpoint.

Reading, writing and arithmetic have anchored public education since that proverbial dog, Heck, was a pup. However, long after calculus and chemistry have taken wing, Sandpoint High cast members and their families and friends will rejoice over their association with last month’s rollicking “Guys & Dolls” musical. To perform in such a legendary production is to inspire joy, exuberance, self confidence and lifelong friendships that will stick with student hoofers and thespians for decades.

The exultation of belting out “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ The Boat”, as Stubby Kaye (Nicely Nicely Johnson) did for years in 1950’s New York, and as young Ellis Gaddie and the Guys did last month in Sandpoint, is singular. To dish out “Take Back Your Mink”, as Vivian Blaine’s Miss Adelaide did in the original Broadway hit and the enchanting Danielle Capelli and her Hot Box Dolls did here, is to bring happiness, excitement and gratitude — for their talent and for simply being part of us — to their lucky local audience.

The SHS cast might have to rehearse a tad more to equal the historic original Broadway performance (which I saw in NYC in 1951 as a 20-year-old USAF fledging). But our spirited high schoolers, in my view, topped Hollywood’s film version for vibrancy and heart. (The movie cast Marlon Brando, who could not sing, in the principal vocal role instead of co-star Frank Sinatra, who could. Moreover, off screen they disliked one another, and it showed).

On a recent visit to a local eatery, granddaughter Adeline, 8, who saw the Sandpoint performance twice, recognized a waitress, Aria Horowitz, as one of the Hotbox dancer/singers. Adeline was thrilled. Inspired by such big girl talent, she can’t wait to be in a high school musical some day. What a great goal.

In a playbill plea for financial support, Jeannie Hunter, the show’s apparent impresario, lamented the shrinking funds to produce future musicals. In a state whose governor urges gun and ammo makers to move here, while slashing public education funds, it’s an uphill battle to keep the music coming. But keep it we must.

TIM H. HENNEY

Sandpoint