Premiering on Broadway in 1950, Guys and Dolls is a musical for the ages. It is one of Broadway's longest running shows, originally running for 1,200 performances, and is a perennial favourite among lovers of musical theatre. In 1951 it won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and has won dozens of awards since. Gangsters, card sharks, night club headliners and the Salvation Army fall in and out, and back in love again, in this high octane tale. Loaded with show-stopping tunes like "Luck Be A Lady", "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat", and "Take Back Your Mink", you'll find yourself laughing and singing right along with the unforgettable characters Sky Masterson, Sarah Brown and Miss Adelaide.

Although Guys and Dolls was the fifth longest running Broadway musical of the fifties, it was a long and difficult road getting it to the stage at all. The producers originally envisioned the show as a serious romantic story along the lines of South Pacific. After hiring composer and lyricist Frank Loesser, they eventually went through 11 librettists before finally deciding to make the project a comedy and settling on Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, a radio and television writer with no theatrical experience.

Based on Damon Runyon's short story "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown", Guys and Dolls revolves around Nathan Detroit, the organizer of the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York, who bets fellow gambler Sky Masterson that he can't make the next girl he sees fall in love with him. The next girl he sees happens to be Miss Sarah Brown, a pure-at-heart Salvation Army-type reformer, and the stage is set for a hilarious evening of complications.

This eccentric romantic comedy - considered by many to be the perfect musical comedy - soars with the spirit of Broadway as it introduces us to a cast of vivid characters who have become legends in the canon: Sarah Brown, the uptight but upright 'mission doll', out to reform the evildoers of Times Square. Sky Masterson, the slick, high-rolling gambler who woos her on a bet and ends up falling in love; Adelaide, the chronically ill nightclub performer whose condition is brought on by the fact that she's been engaged to the same man for 14 years; and Nathan Detroit, her devoted fiancé, desperate as always to find a spot for his infamous floating crap game.

The original Broadway production premiered at the 46th Street Theatre in New York City and was directed by George S. Kaufman. It starred Robert Alda, Sam Levene, Isabel Bigley, and Vivian Blaine. During a 50th anniversary retrospective on the making of the original Guys and Dolls, Viviane Blaine explained how the role of Miss Adelaide was created specifically to fit her into the musical after Frank Loesser decided she was ill suited to play the buttoned-up Sarah Brown. Blaine fit the role of Adelaide so perfectly that she also portrayed the same character in the film adaptation of Guys and Dolls. Isabel Bigley has lamented on the frustrations and accomplishments during the creation of the original Broadway production. Among other things, she claimed that Frank Loesser physically assaulted her for not singing his songs the way he believed she should. The incident, which became a Broadway insiders' legend, was confirmed in Loesser's biography writer by his daughter Susan. "During a tantrum, he (Frank Loesser) actually slapped Isabel Bigley in the face when she failed to sing his way, but his attack on Isabel was over in a flash."

It's extremely successful Broadway run spurred a film version in 1955, starring popular actors, Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine. Guys and Dolls premiered in London at the London Coliseum in 1953 and since its Broadway debut has seen numerous revivals all over the world starring such actors as, Walter Matthau, Nathan Lane, Ewan McGregor, Jane Krakowski and Peter Gallagher.

Known as "A musical fable of Broadway", Guys and Dolls is based on a story and characters created by Damon Runyon, with a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, and music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. Loesser was born in New York City on June 29, 1910. In 1936 he signed with Universal Pictures and moved to Hollywood. Loesser stayed in Hollywood until World War II, when he joined the Army Air Force. During his time in the army, Loesser still found time to write and compose music.

He has won Tony Awards for music and lyrics for both Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, for which he also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. As well he wrote the hit musicals Where's Charley? and The Most Happy Fella. He has also been recognized with an Academy Award (1950 Best Original Song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside") and a Grammy Award (1961 Best Original Cast Album for How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying).