Guys and Dolls

On the 28th of April, 2022, the extraordinary musical Guys and Dolls had its opening night at Lafayette High School.

Guys and Dolls is a musical romantic comedy involving the unlikeliest of Manhattan pairings: a high-rolling gambler and a missionary, a showgirl dreaming of the straight-and-narrow and a crap game manager who is anything but what she wants him to be. After many months of hard work this musical was truly a masterpiece and everyone who was in it was incredible.

Suzan McCorrey, the positively radiant theater teacher/director here at Lafayette, blew everyone’s breath away after the school year she had at Lafayette. After leading her group of wonderful theatrical students to States last year and winning 1st place, there was a lot to live up to, and Miss McCorrey delivered. This year alone, she has led her group of amazing students to win 1st place at many forensics competitions, 1st at VHSL Regionals, 2nd for Forensics at States, and lastly, Miss McCorrey and her students have won the state Championship for the second year in a row! With all of this under her belt Miss McCorrey produced an amazing musical this year that was truly the icing on the cake of a fantastic year!

Eliza Doretha Moore, a sophomore here at Lafayette High School, was give one of the lead roles in Guys and Dolls. Eliza blew everyone’s breath away in the crowd because of her amazing talents of singing, dancing, and acting. Eliza gave the viewers of this musical nothing short of a spectacular performance. She played the role of Sarah Brown very well and she worked hard to make everything perfect. Eliza has had many years of experience under her belt to prepare for a moment just like this! She has been a part of theater since elementary school, landing one of the lead roles as Anna in Frozen Junior, and winning second place for Humorous Dramatic Interpretation at VHSL State Forensics. That experience helped shape her into the amazing actress she is today! Zoe Long, LHS sophomore says Eliza is one of the best actresses she’s ever seen. “Eliza blew my breath away and I have never seen anyone play a role as well as Eliza did. She stopped at nothing to let us all see a beautiful performance and I can’t wait to see her preform again and I could not be prouder of my friend,” she said.

Madison McRae Walk, who is also a sophomore here at Lafayette, was one of the lead dancers in Guys and Dolls. She truly grabbed the audience’s attention right away by alluring them to her amazing dance skills and her incredible ability to act. Sydney King, LHS senior with a well-informed opinion on how Madi preformed in Guys and Dolls. “Madi is one of the best performers I have ever seen. She has grown so much since I saw her in her very first play in 7th grade. She truly blew my breath away and I can’t believe how amazing of an actress she has become. She really will go far because she is one of the most exhilarating performers I have ever seen on stage,” she stated. Acting is not new for Madison after having quite the middle school career when she landed the role of Jasmin in 7th grade in Aladdin Junior and the role of Wednesday Adams in 8th grade in The Adams Family Junior. Those roles helped give her the guidance she needed to be the extraordinary actor she is today. Madison works so hard for everything she does and without a doubt will make it very far in her acting/dancing career. Even with the long hours needed to prepare for this musical, Madison didn’t give us anything short of a spectacular performance.

After many years of not being able to see live theater, Guys and Dolls was the perfect show to bring the Lafayette community together. The show was marvelous and every student in it gave everything they had to make this one of the best shows in Lafayette history. Guys and Dolls had a wonderful group of students apart of the cast this year and they couldn’t have made their friends and family prouder.