by Daniel Hathaway
Titles like Guys & Dolls and The Sound of Music may have been novelties in American lyric theater when they opened on Broadway in 1950 and 1959. But by now, at the age of 74 and 65, respectively, both shows have achieved classic status as successors to the European operetta tradition and no longer seem like interlopers in the repertoire of companies like Ohio Light Opera.
Marking its 45th season as a company and its 40th in Freedlander Theater at the College of Wooster, OLO delivered handsome productions of these venerable shows by the creative teams of Frank Loesser (music and lyrics) and Jo Swerling & Abe Burrows (book) in the case of Guys and Dolls, and Richard Rodgers (music), Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), and Howard Lindsay & Russell Crouse (book) for The Sound of Music.