Meet the Cast of Guys and Dolls: Grant Bowman

Introduce yourself! What role do you play within the cast, where have audiences seen you recently, and where can they find you next?
Hi! My name is Grant Bowman, and I’m playing Big Jule, Rusty Charlie/Ensemble, and understudying Sky Masterson. At Vintage, you may have seen me as Cliff Bradshaw in Cabaret or Barfée in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Most recently, I was down in Colorado Springs playing 7 roles (including a horse!) in Sense and Sensibility at Theatreworks. The day after this show closes, I’ll jump back into rehearsals for the Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Tour at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

What is your favorite aspect of your role?
Here’s a non-exhaustive list:
-Singing “Fugue for Tinhorns” with David and Cooper
-Learning how to play street craps
-Causing trouble at the crap game as Big Jule
-Doing some Latin dancing and serving drinks in Havana
-Getting back into music by The Rat Pack, John Coltrane, and Buena Vista Social Club for my show playlist
-Listening to any of Sarah and Sky’s songs (just wait till you hear Nicole and Justin!)
-Just being in the same room as this fun, uplifting, talented group of artists :)

What is your first memory of experiencing Guys and Dolls, and how has your perspective on the show evolved since working on this production?
When I was in 8th grade I saw my sister in her high school production of Guys and Dolls, and it had a huge impact on me. It quickly became one of my favorite musicals and inspired me to be an actor! I’ve been wanting to do this show for over a decade, so it’s a treat to finally be a part of it.

Which song, scene, or moment in our production do you find most meaningful, and what makes it special to you?
I’m a night owl, so “My Time of Day” is probably my favorite song in the show. It’s short—not even 32 bars long—yet has a lasting, profound effect. It’s an evocative ode to a peaceful, late-night moment on the streets of Manhattan. Sky tenderly lets us into a part of his world that makes him truly happy, then realizes something beautiful—that for the first time, he wants to share it with someone else.

I like what Peter Gallagher (Sky in the ’92 Broadway revival) said to Seymour “Red” Press in the studio after hearing his saxophone solo: “I was kind of lulled into a state of higher consciousness. Thank you, Red. The view is beautiful from up there.”

What's something unexpected you've discovered about your character/role/work during the rehearsal process?
Dramaturgy time!

Guys and Dolls is mainly based on two short stories by Damon Runyon, both published in the 1930s: “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown” and “Blood Pressure”. Many of the show’s lines, phrases, and characters come directly from Runyon’s Broadway stories. Through learning more about Runyon and his works, I’ve found some interesting connections with Colorado.

Runyon was born in Kansas in 1880 but grew up in Pueblo, Colorado. Aside from a stint in the military he stayed in Colorado through his 20s, writing for various newspapers. He moved to New York City in 1910, entering a lively world of city slickers on both sides of the law that inspired his short stories. Runyon still has a legacy in Colorado, namely Littleton (Damon Runyon Elementary School) and Pueblo (Runyon Lake, plus the now-closed Damon Runyon Repertory Theatre).

Sky Masterson is “originally out of a little town in southern Colorado”, too! In “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown”, the narrator chronicles Sky’s independent lifestyle and outlandish bets, leading to a Sunday evening on 49th and Broadway where he sees Sarah for the first time, “tootling on a cornet” along with other mission workers. Later on, as Sky is rolling Brandy Bottle Bates at Nathan Detroit’s crap game, Sarah suddenly enters and bets Sky a $2 bill against his soul. She rolls an 11 on the come-out roll, wins his soul, and they get married—no matter that the dice she rolled were loaded, as Sky was well aware of.

Runyon wrote New York stories, stories about people on the street—gamblers, gangsters, showgirls, bums. Some might dismiss them as “lowlifes”, but Runyon imagines them with wit, whimsy, and dignity. Most of his stories are told by a nameless narrator, likely a stand-in for Runyon himself. His writing style, “Runyonese”, has a unique and captivating sound: it combines formal language with street slang, rarely uses contractions, mostly stays in the present tense, and often makes use of long sentences. Through Runyonese, gangsters become poets and we experience the story through a more humorous lens. Some examples:

Suspecting that a gangster has committed murder in “Blood Pressure”:
Of course, I do not know that Rusty Charley is the party who guzzles Gloomy Gus Smallwood, but Rusty Charley is in Philly when Gus is guzzled, and I can put two and two together as well as anybody.

Sky and Sarah’s first encounter in “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown”:
And after a couple of ganders at this young doll, The Sky is a goner, for this is one of the most beautiful young dolls anybody ever sees on Broadway, and especially as a mission worker. Her name is Miss Sarah Brown.

She is tall, and thin, and has a first-class shape, and her hair is a light brown, going on blonde, and her eyes are like I do not know what, except that they are one-hundred-per-cent eyes in every respect. Furthermore, she is not a bad cornet player, if you like cornet players…

Seeing a naive, gullible-looking man at a horse race in “Pick the Winner”:
He is such a guy as looks as if he does not know what time it is, and furthermore he does not look as if he has a quarter, but I can see by the way Hot Horse Herbie is warming his ear that Herbie figures him to have a few potatoes.

Runyon’s stories are easily accessible online and in print. Along with the ones quoted above, I recommend “The Hottest Guy in the World” (with Big Jule and a gorilla named Bongo), “Romance in the Roaring Forties” (with Dave the Dude, Waldo Winchester, and Miss Billy Perry), and “A Very Honourable Guy” (with Feet Samuels and Hortense Hathaway).

It’s a treat to continue Damon Runyon’s legacy here in Colorado, and I’m grateful for his characters and language that are so fun to perform!

Quick! You are tasked with renaming a race horse--what name do you pick and why?
Mindful Mikey—I wanted alliteration, and Mikey’s a fun name (shoutout to Mikey and Nicky and Mikey Madison.)

How has collaboration with other members of the company influenced your approach to your work on this show?
This company is wonderful to work with! I feel comfortable and confident in the rehearsal room because everyone’s so supportive and kind to each other. I’m lucky to have lots of friends/former collaborators in the cast and creative team too, and with this familiarity comes a trust and ease that makes the process even more enjoyable. Preparation and flexibility are key: come in with ideas, having done your homework, and also be flexible to changes in the moment and unafraid to speak up if you’d like to try something differently.

How does this production of Guys and Dolls differ from other productions you've worked on or seen?
I’ve only ever seen high school productions of Guys and Dolls, so on a basic level it’s refreshing to see adults doing this show. One unique thing I like about our production is the versatility of our ensemble. Normally the ensemble is split based on traditional male/female roles (e.g. women wouldn’t be crapshooters, and men wouldn’t be in the Hot Box except as patrons), but we don’t stick to that here. Ever hear a soprano sing the tenor 1 part in “Luck Be a Lady”? Ever see a young dude dance in “Take Back Your Mink”? It’s fantastic!

What's one thing you hope audiences take away from our production?
I hope that audiences find joy in the comedy and romance. This show (like others of its time) might not have aged perfectly, but I believe it has a lot of heart and wit at its core that still makes it rewarding to put on today. Come for a New York love story put on by fantastic local artists!