What is the overall theme of Guys and Dolls?
No, it’s not very dramatic nowadays, but it was a different matter when “Guys and Dolls” premiered in 1951. If you had to surmise the theme in a single sentence, it would be that saints and sinners aren’t all that different. Professional gambler Sky Masterson knows his Bible better than Save-a-Soul missionary Sarah Brown. Sarah is not above going to Havana with him if it means he can help her save her cash-strapped mission. Sky, meanwhile, knows that he could take advantage of her, having spiked her milkshake, but doesn’t. He has unexpectedly fallen in love with her. Meanwhile, our other “sinner” couple, Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide are having ups and downs of their own. Having been “engaged’ for 14 years (and with Adelaide’s mother convinced that thay have long been married and have several children), Adelaide is impatient to have her gambler “make an honest woman of her”. Love conquers all, of course, but in the end, the saints and the sinners are just regular people.
