“Guys & Dolls" at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre -- June 11 through 21.
Thursday, June 11, through Sunday, June 21
Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, 311 Riverview Drive, Clinton IA
One of the greatest and most beloved musicals in the history of American theatre opens the 2026 summer season at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, with Guys & Dolls running from June 11 through 21, and treating audiences to a nine-time Tony Award winner that the New York Times called “the show that defines Broadway dazzle.”
Based on the legendary stories of Damon Runyon, Guys & Dolls tells the tale of 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. That “next girl” turns out to be Miss Sarah Brown, a pure-at-heart Salvation Army-type reformer. Meanwhile, Nathan is having trouble with his own girlfriend Adelaide, who ,after 14 years of dating, is more than ready for marriage. Guys & Dolls is a cornerstone of the musical-comedy stage that continues to delight audiences more than 75 years after its Broadway premiere. And with the score's unforgettable songs including “Luck be a Lady,” “I'll Know,” “Fugue for Tinhorns,” “Marry the Man Today,” “Adelaide's Lament,” and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” this stage extravaganza is the perfect balance of story, dance, music, and romance.
Boasting music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, Guys & Dolls is adapted from "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure," two famed short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories, such as "Pick the Winner.” The show premiered on Broadway on November 24, 1950, where it ran for 1,200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as Best Actor, Featured Actress, Direction, and Choreography. Guys & Dolls has had several revivals on both Broadway and the West End, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, and Vivian Blaine, who reprised her role of Adelaide from Broadway. In 1998, Vivian Blaine, Sam Levene, Robert Alda, and Isabel Bigley, along with the original Broadway cast of the 1950 Decca cast album, were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Guys & Dolls runs at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre June 11 through 21, with performances at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, 2 p.m. on Sundays and Wednesday, and both 2 and 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Admission is $27-32, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)242-6760 and visiting ClintonShowboat.com.
