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Maurice Hines brings some quick-stepping, sexy nuances to his role as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls.
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 17, 2002
Every 25 years or so, Maurice Hines plays Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. Back in the '70s, he was in the national tour of an all-black company of the quintessential American musical comedy.
Now Hines is in another tour of the Frank Loesser show, this time with a multiracial cast.
"It's very diverse, which I really wanted since it's supposed to celebrate New York," said Hines, a New Yorker. "I like the idea that we're showing New York as it was. My uncles were gamblers, and they had African-American friends, Italian friends, Jewish friends. A lot of different cultures were involved in gambling. These colorful characters would come to my grandmother's house and have dinner. I like this version because it's true to life."
The production is different from many road shows in that it originated not on Broadway but at a regional theater, the Arena Stage in Washington. A cast album on the DRG label came out in November. There are five shows this weekend at Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg.
Hines took a different approach to playing Nathan the second time around.
"First of all, I'm the first dancing Nathan," he said. "I didn't dance 25 years ago in the part. I do more dancing because I wanted to feel more movement in the character, to reinvent it."
Jo Sullivan Loesser, widow of the composer, gave her stamp of approval to Hines' portrayal of the proprietor of the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York, played by Frank Sinatra in the 1955 movie.
"When she saw it, she said I did something that no other Nathan did. 'You made him sexy,' she said. 'No one ever made him sexy.' "
At Arena Stage, Guys and Dolls was performed in the round, with minimal scenery. Director Charles Randolph-Wright adapted his staging for the proscenium theaters on the road.
"I think that's why they wanted me to dance," Hines said. "I do larger-than-life things as far as movement is concerned. It was a very easy transition. It's getting the same reaction it did at Arena Stage."
Hines takes an improvisational approach to his performance. Inspiration came from two of his uncles, his father and jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.
"The way I deliver the dialogue is very much the way Dizzy would have played a solo," Hines said. "I didn't want to stick to a specific rhythm. I figured I'd take some risks. The other cast members were very open to it. I pattern my look after Dizzy, so I have a goatee as opposed to a beard or just a mustache."
Though Hines dances in Guys and Dolls, it's not the tap dancing that he and his younger brother, Gregory, used to do as kids as part of the act Hines, Hines and Dad, with their father, a drummer, in the 1950s.
Hines, 58, gave up tap dancing three years ago, when he couldn't shake a groin injury while doing a nightclub act in Las Vegas.
"I just decided to stop," he said. "I never wanted people to say, 'Hey, Maurice is a great dancer, but you should have seen him when.' I spoke to my brother Gregory, I spoke to my mother before she passed away. I gave my mother my white tap shoes, and that was it. I just decided I'll leave it up to the youngsters like Savion Glover."
In 25 years as a duo, Maurice and Gregory performed with many of the biggest stars, including Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland and Sinatra. One of Maurice's favorites was Ella Fitzgerald. After Guys and Dolls finishes its tour in June, he hopes to turn his attention to a biographical show he's writing about the great singer.
"I got to be very close with her, because I don't leave the theater in between shows, and neither did she," he said. "So I used to go to her dressing room, and we'd have Fresca and little chocolate candies. She would tell me a lot of stories about herself. The one thing you learn from those great people is humility. Because they all have it. All the people we worked with -- Lena Horne, Sammy Davis Jr., all these great artists -- they were very humble about their talent. Which I don't find today. I find that people are very full of themselves."
Guys and Dolls opens Friday and runs through Sunday at Mahaffey Theater. Tickets: $24-$49. (727) 892-5767.